[1][2] James grew up on a rural farm in Madison County, Virginia, which the Culpeper Star Exponent called an "1830 homestead".
As a youth she studied ballet, but describes deciding she would seek out a career as a regular actor, like her heroines Maggie Smith and Judi Dench, because the intense physical requirements dancers put on their bodies meant they had short careers.
[5] Her first major role was a Civil War belle who becomes a volunteer nurse, in the mini-series Mercy Street—set in Virginia.
[3][4][7][8] Women's Wear Daily, noting that the series would be broadcast in the same time slot as the very popular costume drama Downton Abbey, suggested James was poised to be the next "Lady Mary," the beautiful and glamorous character central to much of the drama of the earlier series.
[9] James's costumes required her to wear a corset, and she described how she almost fainted on one particularly long day on set.