David Letterman did it. Twice.
And then Sylvester Stallone opted to double down, too.
What else was actor Theo James to do on March 12 when confronted with the prospect of drinking raw eggs in front of a studio audience and, later having it broadcast to millions at home, on Late Show With David Letterman?
The Divergent star tipped back the glass and slid one egg down his throat and then watched as Letterman cracked a second egg. He bravely drained the glass again, as the band played Gonna Fly Now from Rocky, which had inspired the eggy exercise.
For a chaser, Letterman shared the symptoms of salmonella infection associated with consuming raw eggs. You don't want to read them at breakfast - or any time, for that matter.
The next day, James was back on the publicity pony and feeling fine, he said in a phone call from Philadelphia.
"I had to have a couple of stiff vodkas afterward to sterilise my stomach," the 29-year-old Brit quipped, adding you have to be game for that sort of thing.
He does, after all, play a (nearly) fearless character nicknamed Four opposite Shailene Woodley's Beatrice "Tris" Prior in the film based on the Veronica Roth novel.
The story is set in a futuristic Chicago when people are divided into distinct factions based on virtues: Abnegation, which values selflessness; Candor, which prizes honesty; Erudite, knowledge; Amity, peace; and Dauntless, bravery. To be Divergent means you don't fit neatly into one of those categories and you're different - and dangerous.
Teenagers go through an aptitude test and then a public "choosing ceremony" where they decide on a faction that will determine the rest of their lives and whether they stay with their families or abandon them.
"It definitely raised questions of social hierarchy, identity. There's this element of choice which I found interesting," James said of the narrative.
"(Tris) makes this big choice at the beginning of the story and that kind of sets it up and it's that whole idea of determinism - whether one choice affects her destiny, whether she can shape her future with decisions she makes or whether everything is predetermined."
He also liked the story's exploration of fear in a faction where people are supposed to be fearless or act as if they are.
"I think the concept in the film is interesting. It's not about being fearless - because that's obviously just part of our human psyche, it's impossible to avoid - but it's just about how you get over that fear and how you respond in the face of fear."
Divergent is positioned as the next big young adult franchise that could follow in the footsteps of The Hunger Games and Twilight if all goes well. Roth wrote two more best-sellers in the series, Insurgent and Allegiant.
James is pacing himself, though.
Asked how he's preparing for the craziness to come, he said: "I'm almost too much of a realist, and I'm obsessed with not counting any chickens before they've been hatched. So, until that kind of knocks on the door and I have to deal with it directly, then I'm not really thinking about it."
Days earlier, he had seen the movie and thought it smart and with its own integrity.
"So I hope it's successful," he said, "because I think it warrants it. In terms of any kind of massive, life-changing stuff, I can't even really go there."
He is the youngest of five children, though, and they find some of the Hollywood hoopla "hilarious."
Kate Winslet, who plays the head of Erudite in Divergent, knows a little something about projects that spawn slavish devotion. Titanic is still the second most popular movie of modern times.
"She said to help each other out as much as possible and to be a unit when you're in something like this, it's really important," James said.
He spent six months on the production with Woodley, but he has gotten to know her even more as they have shared planes, dinners, press tours and, no doubt, red carpets.
"She does have a really strong sense of self. She's only 22, but she has strong beliefs and she sticks to them."
Neither of the "Divergent" stars is a show-business newbie, though.
James starred in the well-reviewed but short-lived CBS cop drama Golden Boy with Chi McBride. He was a hunky young vampire opposite Kate Beckinsale in 2012's Underworld: Awakening, played Kemal Pamuk (who famously died in Lady Mary's bed) on Downton Abbey and has two more movies awaiting release.
The crime mystery London Fields stars Amber Heard and Billy Bob Thornton, and he appears alongside Dakota Fanning and Richard Gere in the indie Franny. Neither has a release date yet.
* Divergent is released in Australian cinemas on April 10
Share
