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James Buckley was the most prolific celebrity user of Cameo in 2020, recording 10,000 videos for the personalised video messaging app over nine months, according to new figures.
Best known for his performance as Jay Cartwright in The Inbetweeners, Buckley initially charged a relatively low rate of £36 per video – now £41 via the Cameo website or £55 on its iPhone app – at a rate of 37 videos per day, per the Guardian.
Although Cameo would not confirm official earnings, it has been speculated that the actor made at least £300,000 in that time, even after taking into account the company’s 25% cut of all fees.
Happy birthday @Lewis___72 ya bus wanker @James_Buckley pic.twitter.com/QabHzUYtVU
— Ally Hunter (@alasdairhunter0) June 14, 2020
Martin Blencowe, one of the company’s co-founders, said Buckley was simply “ready to do the work,” adding: “He takes it very seriously. It is a job. To a certain degree.”
Boyd Hilton, the entertainment director of Heat magazine, said that Cameo and Buckley – who once told the BBC he was “just a bloke” and invited fans to approach him – were a solid match. “The whole thing about Cameo is, it’s the person who, if you were a fan, you’d see them in the street and think, I’ve got to get them to record a message.
“You’d almost rather get someone from The Inbetweeners than David Beckham.”
Buckley spoke to NME this month about various musical memories, including his own starstruck experience when Ian Brown offered him a bucket of fried chicken.
“I went to see The Stone Roses in 2012, before I had kids,” the actor explained. “My manager called me up and said: ‘Do you want to go and see The Stone Roses, they’re playing in Northern Ireland tonight?’. So I got the next flight with my mate. We stood on the side of the stage watching and I just couldn’t believe my luck.
“After the gig I went and said hello. We knew that Manny was an Inbetweeners fan. Ian [Brown] seemed to be into it as well.
“He said, ‘Are you hungry?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I didn’t know I was going to be here tonight, all I’ve done is travel to Northern Ireland’. He said, ‘Oh, we’ve got a spare bucket of KFC if you want it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah okay’. It’s really bizarre the situations you find yourself in.”
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