Since growing up in rural Raymond Terrace, James Collins always dreamed of playing the hero in his own stories. It was only after seeing Doctor Who for the first time as a child and being utterly transfixed by the possibilities that came with undertaking a role as mercurial and fantastic as the show’s title character that he realised his ideal future lay in a pursuit of acting. After getting his first taste of the limelight portraying Puck in a high school production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and then taking part in local productions of The Laramie Project and The Pillowman, James left his small-town life and moved to Sydney, where he sought to refine his craft and make his seemingly impossible dreams a potential reality here at Actors Centre Australia.
During his time at ACA, James has played Romeo in Romeo & Juliet, Biff in Death of a Salesman, Gerry Evans in Dancing at Lughnasa, Danceny in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, multiple roles in Everybody, Lane/Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest, Mike in A View from the Bridge and Wesley in Simmer, to name a few.
James’ love of performance is only matched by his undying love for cinema, with the films of Ingmar Bergman, Martin Scorsese and the Coen Brothers being particular influences on his acting style.
