And he sings too

The director Dennie Gordon had auditioned nearly every 21-year-old actor-singer-burgeoning-teen-idol in England and she still hadn’t found her man.

In London casting for the Warner Bros. film “What a Girl Wants,” Gordon was searching hard for just the right boy to play the character of Ian opposite her leading lady, the American actress Amanda Bynes (“What I Like About You,” Nickelodeon’s “The Amanda Show”).

“I was getting pretty desperate,” remembers Gordon. “I had seen about 500 kids and I was just at the end of my rope when Oliver James walked in. I nearly fainted because he was so gorgeous. I said, ‘So I hear you can sing,’ and he sang a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song a capella with a voice like an angel.”

The only thing James knew was that this audition was possibly the chance of a lifetime. “I went in and read,” he says. “And when I rode the train home, I remember thinking, ‘If I get this role I’m going to have to make a decision and it’s the kind of decision could really change some things in my life.’ ”

As it happened, Gordon found that James could not only sing, he could act as well.

“I remember thinking, ‘With a voice like that, there’s no way he can act,’ ” says Gordon, laughing, “and then we read some lines and he was so tender and so fresh and so natural and my head just flew off my shoulders. It was 4 o’clock in the morning in Los Angeles and I called everybody and woke them up and said, ‘Ian just walked in the door.’ ”

This sort of gushing praise may sound like the product of publicist manipulation, but there is something in Gordon’s voice when she talks about Oliver James that sounds sincere.

He has charmed her, that much is evident, and the film’s producers certainly hope he’ll charm a nation of giddy 13-year-olds as well.

Now a freshly minted Angeleno (he’s been an L.A. resident for a mere two weeks), the 22-year-old James seems slightly bewildered and entirely amused by it all.

“It’s all a bit silly, isn’t it?” he says, sitting at a West Hollywood cafe. “Since June of last year, my life has changed beyond all recognition. But in a good way, in the way that most young actors dream about.”

Born and raised in London, James was poised to major in English at Bristol University when his then-girlfriend (a dancer enrolled at the prestigious Guilford School for Performing Arts) managed to change his mind.

“I enrolled at the same school to be with her,” says James. “The relationship didn’t last, but I did stay on as an acting major. I learned a lot at Guilford, not too much about acting, but I certainly learned a lot about life.”

Following graduation, James found a London agent and began working immediately, making a living as an actor his first year out. Taking commercial and theatrical work, he had yet to land a feature when former Spice Girls manager Simon Fuller approached him about participating in the formation of a new boy band.

“A friend asked if I was interested in joining a band,” says James, “and I wasn’t doing anything at the time, so I said, ‘Why not?’ ” James was deep into rehearsals when he got the call from Gordon to audition for “What a Girl Wants.”

Adapted from a play (and 1958 screenplay) by William Douglas Home, “What a Girl Wants” is the story of an 18-year-old free spirit who travels to London to orchestrate a belated reunion with her uptight, upper-crust British father. It is exactly the sort of effervescent teen comedy that could transform James into a star, the kind of role that elicits Seventeen magazine spreads and the breathless adoration of adolescent girls everywhere.

In taking the role, James saved himself from a boy band fate. He quit the Fuller project and started work almost immediately on Gordon’s film, holding his own opposite Bynes, Kelly Preston and British actor Colin Firth.

“I think I made the right decision,” says James. “I just hope that I get a chance to do all sorts of films in the future.” If his performance in Gordon’s film is any indication, James should have no trouble being allowed to evolve as an actor.

He brings a certain gentleness to Ian, and an unexpected genuineness to a genre that doesn’t always necessarily demand it.

“The best thing about James is that he is such a sweet guy,” says Gordon. “Everyone would come up to me on set and say, ‘I feel it with this kid. He’s going to be a star.’ ”