Theo James, UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador with Greek Roots, Calls on World to Remember Refugees – “My Grandfather Fled Nazi-Occupied Greece in a Rowboat”

British actor Theo James, known globally for Divergent and The White Lotus, carries a deeply Hellenic family story that has shaped his eight-year commitment to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

His grandfather, a young Greek medical student in Athens during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II, escaped certain death by commandeering a small rowing boat with 12 other young men and crossing the Aegean Sea over four perilous days to reach safety in Damascus, Syria.

“It’s a legend in our family,” James told the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul, where he was visiting the UNHCR office. “They almost drowned many times. My grandfather was literally in the same boat – both literally and metaphorically – as the refugees we see today.”

The irony became painfully clear in 2011 when hundreds of thousands of Syrians began fleeing in the opposite direction, across the same Aegean waters his grandfather had crossed seven decades earlier, many landing on Greek islands. Greece welcomed them in huge numbers; Britain, where his grandfather eventually settled after the war, was far more reluctant.

After joining UNHCR in 2016 and being appointed Global Goodwill Ambassador in 2023, James discovered even more about his grandfather’s post-war life: the quiet Greek doctor had helped liberate concentration camps and later worked in Guttenberg, Germany, vaccinating displaced persons and refugees in the chaotic aftermath of the war.

“It feels deeply cyclical and very Greek in a way,” James said. “Greece knows what it is to be occupied, to flee, and to rebuild from nothing.”

The actor has visited refugee camps in Greece, Jordan, and most recently Mauritania, with Syria next on his list. In Mauritania’s Mbera camp he met Malian physics professor and refugee Mohamed Ag Malha and planted trees in the advancing desert – a stark reminder of how climate change is now the fastest-growing driver of displacement.

“Countries like Mauritania host hundreds of thousands of refugees while contributing almost nothing to global emissions,” James said. “The desert is expanding, temperatures have risen 3–4 °C in 50 years, and rain comes later and less. Yet these are the places the world expects to keep absorbing more displaced people.”

James is blunt about rising anti-refugee sentiment worldwide, including in Europe.

“The biggest myth is that refugees want an easy life or benefits,” he said. “Almost all would rather stay home. They only leave when they have no choice, and they usually go to the nearest safe country because they want to return one day.”

With UNHCR funding falling sharply in recent years, James uses his platform to amplify the voices of those he meets – from a woman in Mauritania who watched her husband executed in front of her yet remains full of hope for her children, to young Malian refugees who formed a volunteer fire brigade with nothing but hoses, blankets and sand.

“These stories stay with you,” he said. “They remind us that resilience and humanity don’t disappear just because someone has lost everything.”

While filming in South Korea this year (his new film The Hole, directed by Kim Jee-woon, is due for release in 2026), James has been struck by Korea’s transformation from a war-torn refugee-sending nation to one of the world’s most generous humanitarian donors – including to UNHCR.

Yet he gently encourages greater openness: “Korea has built something miraculous in a short time. Combining that economic miracle with a celebration of difference would be the natural next step.”

For the grandson of a Greek refugee who rowed across the Aegean to survive, the message is simple and urgent:

“Displacement can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. My family knows that better than most. The question is whether the rest of us will remember it when it’s someone else’s turn to get in the boat.”

Source: Korea JoongAng Daily – Original interview by Michael Lee (published November 2025)
https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com