2 Huge Reasons Why James McAvoy Agreed to Do ‘X-Men: First Class’ Even Without Reading a Finished Script Shows Actor Has Truly Seen Some Rough Times
- In the Happy Sad Confused podcast, James McAvoy opened up about the conditions that led to him accepting the role without even reading the entire script.
- Nonetheless, the actor loved the story and couldn’t pass on a chance to play a character he had loved since he was a child.
- With psychological thrillers like Split, Glass, and now Speak No Evil, the Scottish actor has revealed that he loves playing bad guys on the big screen.
Charles Xavier is quite honestly one of the greatest comic book characters ever written. He’s smart, witty, resourceful, and the best possible person to lead the ragtag team of mutants who went on to become the X-Men. To bring the character alive on screen, both James McAvoy and Patrick Stewart did a tremendous job.
McAvoy played the younger version of the actor while Stewart portrayed the older version. Both of them brought a unique aspect to the table with their performance. Moreover, the role of Xavier in the X-Men franchise boosted McAvoy’s Hollywood career as the industry finally saw his potential.
James McAvoy says doing X-Men: First Class was a no-brainer
Like almost every other actor in the industry, James McAvoy’s first few years in Hollywood were tough. The actor struggled to book roles and life became harder without any money. Moreover, when he and his then-wife Anne-Marie Duff welcomed their first child together, they were down on their luck with no significant sum to their name.
In the Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor opened up about the conditions that led to him accepting the role without even reading the entire script. As a new father, he wanted to stay close to his kid while making some extra cash to support his family. He further shared,
Neither myself nor my wife at the time worked for about 6 months to a year. We just stayed at home and looked after him and we weren’t penniless we didn’t have any debt but we had pretty much nothing in the bank. At that point, I needed to work but I wanted to work from home in London so that I didn’t just disappear from the kid. X-Men came in I went where’s it filming they went to Pinewood it’s 40 minutes from my front door I was like awesome. I was also like X-Men great I loved the cartoon when I was a kid that’s brilliant.
When McAvoy went to meet with the team, only 60 pages of the script were written. Nonetheless, the actor loved the story and couldn’t pass on a chance to play a character he had loved since he was a child.
With a newborn kid at home, McAvoy wanted work that suited his career as well as his child’s future. He proved to be a dotting dad as he managed both aspects of his life to the best of his abilities. He further called the movies a genius work of art and expressed how the choice was a complete no-brainer for him.
James McAvoy enjoys playing negative roles
With psychological thrillers like Split, Glass, and now Speak No Evil, the Scottish actor has revealed that he loves playing bad guys on the big screen. Even though his filmography is a good mix of both good and bad characters, the actor tends to lean towards morally gray characters that force him to explore his moral compass as well. He told People,
One of the joys of playing a part like this is you are putting the audience in an uncomfortable position where they know you’re going to do some bad stuff. You’re playing with the audience’s moral center and they’re enjoying you doing that to them and with them.
Akin to what happens in The Shining, Speak No Evil follows an American couple and their child on an idyllic vacation where things go horribly wrong. From awkward to straight-up dangerous, things take a darker turn as the story moves further. And as McAvoy rightly puts it, the horror flick is more about making people squirm than giving them jumpscares.
Speak No Evil is playing in theatres worldwide.
