James was home-schooled, until the age of ten.[4] She started taking dance lessons when she was just two years old. As a youth she studied ballet, but describes deciding she would seek out a career as a regular actor, like her heroines Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, because the intense physical requirements dancers put on their bodies meant they had short careers. James attended the Guildford School of Acting in Surrey, England.[5]
Career
Her first major role was a Civil Warbelle who becomes a volunteer nurse, in the mini-series Mercy Street—set in Virginia.[6][4] The character James plays, Emma Green, was based on a historical figure. As in the miniseries, she was a daughter of the owners of the hotel that the Union seizes to use as a hospital, the Mansion House Hospital. Many Virginian newspapers celebrated that the role of Virginian belle was played by a Virginian.[3][4][7][8]Women's Wear Daily, noting that the series would be broadcast in the same time slot as the very popular costume drama Downton Abbey, suggested James was poised to be the next "Lady Mary," the beautiful and glamorous character central to much of the drama of the earlier series.[9] James's costumes required her to wear a corset, and she described how she almost fainted on one particularly long day on set.[10]
On November 12, 2016, producers announced that she had been cast in a single episode role (3.4) for the third season of Outlander.[11][12]
^ ab"Madison-born actress stars in new PBS Civil War drama, 'Mercy Street'". Culpepper Star Exponent. 2015-05-22. Retrieved 2016-01-19. "That's one of the most wonderful parts about this role is that it's so close to home and is so tied in with my childhood and my upbringing and the history that surrounds us here," she said during a recent visit to her family's circa 1830 homestead.
^ abcd
Marc Tarnanini (2016-01-16). "BWW Interview: Hannah James on Creating an Authentic Southern Belle on PBS's MERCY STREET". Broadway World. Retrieved 2017-01-18. James grew up in Madison County, Va., just an hour and a half from where MERCY STREET filmed in Richmond and Petersburg. She was home-schooled and grew up on a farm, so she came to the project with a tremendous amount of first-hand knowledge of the area and her character.
^
Monique Calello (2015-10-28). "Virginia native brings past to life in 'Mercy Street'". News Leader. Retrieved 2016-01-19. The story in the PBS series picks up when Green is upset at the treatment of the wounded Confederate soldiers. She decides to volunteer as a nurse at the Mansion House Hospital, formerly her family's hotel. She also was in a relationship with Frank Stringfellow, a confederate spy.
^
Nordstrom (2016-01-17). "Meet Hannah James, the New Lady Mary". Women's Wear Daily. Retrieved 2017-01-17. Poised to be the show's Lady Mary is Hannah James, the 23-year-old Virginia native who booked "Mercy Street" fresh out of drama school.
^
Jaleesa M. Jones (2016-01-14). "Yikes! This 'Mercy Street' star almost set herself on fire on set". USA Today. Retrieved 2017-01-18. There was one day where I had to be on set at 4 in the morning and I think I was in my corset from about 4 in the morning until 6 at night," she said. "I remember taking it off and it had been so tight that when I took it off, I took a huge breath in and got so much oxygen that I felt really dizzy and almost passed out because I was just sort of shallowly breathing the whole time.
