Theo James, actor and UNHCR envoy, invokes family history in call for Korean support of refugees

Actor and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Theo James, left, meets Malian physics professor and refugee Mohamed Ag Malha at the Mbera Refugee Camp in Mauritania on Oct. 8, 2024. The UNHCR estimates that there are over 262,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Mauritania, a country that has been hard hit by global warming. [UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES]

 
[EXCLUSIVE] 
 
For British actor Theo James, the issue of refugees is deeply personal, one tied up in family history.
 
His grandfather, a young medical student in Athens when Nazi forces occupied Greece during World War II, escaped by rowing across the Aegean Sea and eventually found refuge in Damascus, Syria.
 
“It’s become a kind of legend, one that’s always been part of my family history,” James said in an interview with the Korea JoongAng Daily on Thursday during his visit to the Seoul office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in his role as a global goodwill ambassador. “My grandfather and 12 other young men commandeered a little rowing boat and they made their way across the Aegean over about four days, and they almost drowned many times.”
 
The parallel between his grandfather’s experience and that of refugees today became unavoidable in 2011, when Syrians began fleeing the civil war tearing apart their country. Many crossed the same waters his grandfather had, only in reverse. While Greece received large numbers, Britain, where his grandfather ultimately settled, showed more hesitation.
 
“My grandfather was in the same literal and metaphorical boat as refugees today,” he said. “That made me understand that becoming a refugee is something that can happen to anyone at any time.”
 
That realization transformed a story he had grown up with from family lore into a personal mission.
 
James, who rose to global fame through his roles in the “Divergent” franchise (2014-2016) and the second season of “The White Lotus” (2022), began supporting the UNHCR in 2016 and was appointed a global goodwill ambassador last year.
 
Since its founding 75 years ago, the agency has provided assistance to over 50 million refugees and, in recent years, has facilitated the resettlement of some 200,000 individuals annually. The UNHCR coordinates not only resettlement but also legal protection, emergency aid, and long-term solutions for displaced populations worldwide.
 
Only after he started working with the agency did James learn that his grandfather had also participated in early refugee relief efforts.
 
“My grandfather didn’t talk about the past much, as was the case with a lot of people in that generation,” James said. “But through my work with UNHCR, I discovered that he had been part of the teams that liberated some of the concentration camps. He also worked in Guttenberg, Germany, giving vaccines to refugees in the aftermath of World War II.”
 
As such, James says the UNHCR ambassador role is “deeply cyclical and personal” for him.
 
“First and foremost, my job is really to amplify the voices of people who don’t get heard,” he said. “To listen first, and then tell their stories on a larger scale.”
 

Actor Theo James, left, shakes hands with a Syrian man at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan on July 25, 2023. James’ grandfather fled Nazi-occupied Greece and found refuge in Damascus, Syria, during World War II. [UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES]

 
His field work has taken him to refugee settlements in Mauritania, Jordan and Greece, with Syria planned next. At international forums, such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Azerbaijan last year, he said his role is often to deliver messages to leaders and policymakers.
 
“I try to serve as a harbinger of messages from refugees, because there’s something repugnant about celebrity navel-gazing,” he said. “Delivering someone else’s message — someone who’s actually going through real turmoil and trauma — feels like the strongest way to make an impact.”
 
Some encounters, he said, are difficult to forget.
 
“In Mauritania, I spoke to a woman who’d watched her husband be executed in front of her,” he said. “But even in a different place, she’s full of life because she’s determined to give her children a better life than hers.”
 
He also recalled young Malian refugees who formed a volunteer firefighting team using fixed hoses, blankets and sand.
 
“They had very limited tools,” he said. “But they would go out and quell fires before they happened. Just the fact that they had the power and energy and resilience to do that — in the face of a very uncertain future — stays with you.”
 
James worries about rising antirefugee sentiment globally.
 
“I think the biggest misconception is that refugees are looking for an easy buck, or that they want to come to live off benefits from the state,” he said. “But actually, almost all refugees don’t want to leave unless they’re forced to, and they tend to settle in states nearest to their own because they want to go back home. The ones that end up seeking asylum in completely different countries do so because that is their only option.”
 
He noted that refugees and asylum seekers alike are “incredibly hardworking,” adding that asylum seekers “tend to be the ones who add a lot of value to an economic system.”
 
Another force reshaping displacement, he said, is climate change.
 
“It’s changing the global refugee situation seismically,” he said. “There are 117 million displaced people globally, and 90 million are in areas that are highly affected by climate shocks. It’s only going to get worse.”
 
James brought up the example of Mauritania. “It’s always been partly a desert country, but the country has seen an increase of 3 to 4 degrees [Celsius, 4.5 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit] in year-round temperatures over the last 50 years. Rain falls later and less than it used to, and so the desertification of the country is increasing.”
 
James said these changes have compounded the suffering of refugees who flee to Mauritania from neighboring countries in turmoil. “The irony is that these are the kind of countries that need the most support, but these are also the people who contribute the very least to global warming.”
 
As donations to the UNHCR have fallen in recent years, an increasingly important part of his advocacy includes lobbying.
 

Actor Theo James walks amid solar panels powering the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan on July 25, 2023. The solar plant, which was funded by IKEA Foundation, provides the camp with 79 percent of its electricity needs. [UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES]

“People are contributing less to refugee causes,” he said. “Part of my job is to try and bring awareness, but also help with funding.”
 
James has spent several months filming in Korea this year, and he said the country’s trajectory from a war-torn nation to a major humanitarian donor carries symbolic weight.
 
“Korea came from nothing in a very short time,” he said. “What they’ve built is incredible, and both private donors and the state are giving some of the highest donations to the UNHCR around the world, which makes me proud to have spent time here.”
 
But future progress, he said, may require cultural as well as financial openness.
 
“Korea is historically homogenous,” he said. “But Koreans can also be very welcoming, so I would just encourage them to combine that with the ability to celebrate difference.”
 
Regarding his current project “The Hole” — which is due to be released next year — James said he was drawn by not only the script and director Kim Ji-woon, but also by Korean cinema in general.
 
“I’ve loved Korean films since I began acting. There’s a kind of poeticism in the way they portray violence that is fascinating, and they’re also great at dissecting the human condition.”
 
However, filming in Korea presented some new challenges for James.
 

Actor and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Goodwill Ambassador Theo James, right, plants a tree at the Mbera Refugee Camp in Mauritania with Ahmed Ould Ibrahim, head of SOS Desert’s office in the camp, left, and Mohamed Ag Malha, a physics professor and refugee from Mali, center, on Oct. 8. 2024. [UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES]

 
“My Korean is nonexistent,” he said, laughing. “So speaking through interpreters is tricky, because sometimes nuance can get lost. There’s also a lot of attention to detail in the filmmaking process here, which is great for the product, but the shoots do sometimes take a bit longer than I’m used to. But I’ve also discovered soju and Korean barbecue, so that’s been nice.”
 
Outside of field work and acting, James says he wants to spend as much time with his family as possible.
 
“When my kids and my wife came over last year, we stayed in Bukchon Hanok Village, and we loved it.”
 
Still, he says it’s a “tricky balancing act.”
 
“When it’s possible, my family comes out to join me wherever I might be working, but I also can’t keep taking my children away from their own friends and lives. My wife and I try not to spend more than eight days away from each other.”
 
When asked what he hopes people in Korea would take away from his work, James said, “Ultimately, celebration of difference is something we should all strive to do. It’s easy to imagine displacement happens somewhere else, to someone else, but our own lives can change very quickly.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]