Apa portrays ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ star Jimmy Stewart during his World War II service in the 1940s in the movie ‘Jimmy,’ in theaters Nov. 6

NEED TO KNOW

• Jimmy Stewart’s daughter Kelly Stewart-Harcourt said in a new interview that actor KJ Apa “channels” her father in the upcoming biopic Jimmy
• Apa, 29, costars with Kara Killmer, Neal McDonough, Max Casella, Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Sarah Drew, Rob Riggle, Julian Works and Jen Lilley in the upcoming movie
• Jimmy, which follows Stewart in the 1940s, is in theaters Nov. 6

KJ Apa’s performance as Jimmy Stewart in an upcoming biopic about the legendary actor’s life in the 1940s is getting an important endorsement from one of the actor’s children.

In a recent interview about Apa’s upcoming movie Jimmy with Entertainment Weekly, Stewart’s daughter Kelly Stewart-Harcourt described meeting Apa, 29, in character as her father on the movie’s Ireland set as “eerie.”

Kelly is one of four children whom Stewart, who died in 1997 at 89, shared with his wife Gloria Hatrick Stewart, who died at 75 in 1994.

“But I was thrilled because the problem with somebody playing Dad…was that you don’t want to sit there and listen to a Jimmy Stewart impersonation for two hours, and Dad has such a distinctive way of speaking,” Kelly, now 75 herself, shared with the outlet.

“It’s hard not to do an impersonation, but KJ channels him and brings him to life without doing a Jimmy Stewart impersonation,” she said. “So I don’t see how they could have found anybody better.”

Apa, who is best known for his performance in the television series Riverdale, was first connected to the Jimmy biopic in August 2025.

An official synopsis for the movie says that Jimmy “focuses on the most transformative season in Jimmy Stewart’s life — from winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in The Philadelphia Story to enlisting and becoming a combat pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps at the beginning of World War II,” and leads up to his era-defining performance in the 1946 movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

Kelly, who is an executive producer on the movie, previously told Variety in December 2025 that she “long thought that it would be hard to find an actor who could bring my father to life without doing an extended Jimmy Stewart impersonation,” and credited Apa with going beyond that.

“I was privileged enough to visit the set in Ireland this last September, and there, I felt a magic,” she said at the time. “I know this will be conveyed in the film, and I can’t wait to see it.”

Apa, who is from New Zealand, told PEOPLE in a May interview that prior to making the movie, he “wasn’t that familiar” with the Golden Age of Hollywood that Stewart found himself in during the prime of his career.

“The thing I’m most proud of was getting to learn about who James Stewart was. He had such an incredible story, and I think that everyone will find it inspiring,” he shared at the time.

In addition to Stewart’s win at the Academy Awards for 1940’s The Philadelphia Story, he was nominated for 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, 1946’s It’s a Wonderful Life, 1950’s Harvey and 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder.

During Stewart’s lifetime, he received prestigious honors including the American Film Institute (AFI)’s Life Achievement Award, the Kennedy Center Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The actor is also listed as the third-best American male actor ever on the AFI’s list of the greatest American big screen stars of the last 100 years.

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Jimmy is in theaters Nov. 6. The movie also stars Kara Killmer, Neal McDonough, Max Casella, Jason Alexander, Christopher McDonald, Sarah Drew, Rob Riggle, Julian Works and Jen Lilley.

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