If there’s one thing that Riverdale taught its young actors to do, it’s how to commit to the bit. That fervent dedication to insane acting direction can clearly be heard in the trailer for the upcoming film Jimmy, starring KJ Apa as actor and war hero Jimmy Stewart. The film follows Stewart in the time after he wins his Oscar for The Philadelphia Story, as WWII dawns. As anyone who has seen a Bette Davis movie can attest, that is an era of fun voices — a fact that Apa is all too ready to lean into.
The trailer opens on Stewart as a Hollywood star, realizing he wants to enlist. But nobody wants him to do it, since he’s such a big star. “Don’t I have the right to serve my country just like anyone else does?” Apa’s Stewart asks, speaking in a cross between a mid-Atlantic and his native New Zealand accent. It’s hard to focus on what he’s saying when how he’s saying it is so distracting. It sounds like he’s skimming over the top of the words, rather than saying them. There’s a muffled quality to the voice, and all his vowels seem to bend in the middle.
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Admittedly, Stewart had a distinctive voice, but listen to him in a scene from The Philadelphia Story and you’ll find an actor who is almost purring his words. Apa, if anything, sounds like he’s doing an impression of Stewart’s co-star Katharine Hepburn. Or maybe an impression of Australian Cate Blanchett’s impression of Hepburn. Even in It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey still sounds like a recognizable person. This is all made more confusing by the fact that everybody else in the film seems to be doing regular, normal voice work. Rob Riggle as Colonel Terrill, for example, uses the voice of Rob Riggle in 2025. “America can’t afford to lose Jimmy Stewart,” he says, sounding completely normal.
The film is based on a true story — although Stewart was originally rejected from the army for being underweight, not because he was an actor, per the Eisenhower Foundation. Aaron Burns, who produced the film via his company Burns & Co., is also directing it. The movie will come out in theaters on November 6, 2026. Hopefully, it’s a wonderful film.
