Who is James Payton?
Oliver Guy-Watkins’ documentary tracks its eponymous hero as he attends various cinema conventions where everybody apparently knows who he is.
You might be forgiven for answering the eponymous title by saying that you’ve never heard of him, so who is James Payton? Is he anybody, somebody or nobody? Well, the object of the film goes some way to explaining his identity. Director Oliver Guy-Watkins and his roaming cameraman John Schofield followed James Payton for a year to the many film conventions in Manchester, Taunton, Dallas, Crickhowel, Watford and London in an effort to place him in a position where he appears to be well-known – and not a nobody at all.
James Payton may not have a name to conjure with or even remember, but he has appeared in many films that have had a wide audience. He played a reporter in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, was Frank Longbottom in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, gave a caricature of Hitler in both George Clooney’s The Monuments Men and Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger, was a lawyer in Glass Onion, and took off Tony Blair in Nick Moran’s Creation Stories. You may not have spotted, or even remembered him, but he was there in those roles in those films and many others besides. He has also worked previously with Oliver Guy-Watkins on Always in the Present, but it seems that nobody can recall that one.
If he has played only small parts, Payton is fairly philosophical about his choice of career, as he says “such as it is.” He does, however, connect with all the fans who queue up at the film conventions to get a glimpse of the man or listen to him talking or buy his autographed stills at £10 a pop. It seems like another world as Guy-Watkins follows Payton in a fly-on-the-wall style of filming. There is a certain surreal quality to the convention gatherings as characters from Star Wars or Batman or Harry Potter wander by as if they were real people out on the loose and not just inventions for entertainment’s sake. And it’s not just anonymous faces we see, because famous visitors who pop up include Nick Moran, Tony Slattery and Chris Rankin.
However, the film is not without its own particular charm, while James Payton himself turns out to be rather endearing in his acceptance of the importance of this sub-culture of cinema conventions. Many out-of-work actors might well wish they were in his shoes. Who is James Payton? Well, as far as one can see now, he really isn’t a nobody or just anybody, but a real somebody.
MICHAEL DARVELL
Featuring James Payton, Nick Moran, Chris Rankin, Georgina Leonidas, Walles Hammoud, Kaye Freeman, Tony Slattery, Greg Draven and Andrew Patrick.
Dir Oliver Guy-Watkins, Pro Orly Nurany, Ph John Schofield, Ed Orly Nurany, Music Daan Hofman.
Hyde Hill Productions/OGW Production-Guerilla Films.
78 mins. UK. 2020. Rel: 4 January 2024. Cert. TBC.