‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’: Why Was Theo James’ Butt So Important to the Story?
The Time Traveler’s Wife star Theo James had to bare it all over and over again in the time-traveling drama. While telling the tale of Henry De Tamble (James) and Clare Abshire’s (Rose Leslie) unusual romance in the HBO Max series, James found himself naked on camera over and over again. Why was James’ butt so important to the story?
Theo James’ character had a genetic disorder in ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’
The Time Traveler’s Wife is a romantic fantasy based on the 2003 book of the same name by Audrey Niffenegger (there’s also a movie starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams). Henry and Clare fall in love over space and time — with him first meeting her at the age of 28, and her first meeting him at the age of six.
Henry has a genetic disorder that causes him to randomly time-travel to unknown places and moments — from mostly in his lifetime — without warning. What’s more, every time Henry time travels, he arrives at his new destination completely naked.
Why was Theo James’ butt so important to the story?
In Niffenegger’s novel, Henry can not take anything with him when he time travels — including his clothes. To portray this on the HBO Max series, James often found himself naked in scenes. And viewers are treated to frequent sightings of the actor’s backside.
“There wasn’t enough nudity,” Theo James joked during an episode of Entertainment Weekly’s Screen After Reading podcast. “No, it’s a part of the DNA of the book. What I liked about it is the nudity is dangerous. He’s thrown out of time, and it expends a lot of energy. It depletes him. It’s an affliction, an illness that he has to deal with. I always felt like it’s an epileptic fit times 100, where it’s a real shock to his body.”
James continued, explaining that when Henry falls out of time, he doesn’t know where or when he is. To make matters worse, he’s always naked, which is a state that the actor notes “has its problems.”
“In a practical sense, he has nothing on him. Nothing to protect himself with. Nothing to help himself with. He has to be the ultimate survivor, and that part of it makes it dangerous and propulsive, as opposed to a fun romantic mechanism. It’s something that he has to overcome or survive over time,” James explained.
Viewers needed to understand the rules of ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’
Former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat was the creator and writer of the HBO Max adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife. Despite the book already being put on screen via the 2009 movie, Moffat thought that the story would work much better on television because the writers needed time to explain the rules of time travel from Niffenegger’s book.
“Audrey’s version of time travel, you have to understand the rules,” Moffat said. “That would take more than half a movie, by which time you’ve got almost no time to talk about what the book’s actually about: good marriage and healthy love over time. The time travel is a device, a prism through which to see that, and a way of reminding you that love is inextricably linked to loss.”
The series was a hit with audiences, scoring 85 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But the critics hated it, and HBO Max recently canceled The Time Traveler’s Wife after just one season.
