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NONE OF THIS WAS EVER A PART OF THE PLAN; RED CARPETS, AWARD nominations, Marvel fans incessantly plotting his next cameo like a band of conspiracy theorists. If you ask James McAvoy, it’s all a bit much. Nearing the 30th anniversary of his debut film — The Near Room (1995) — there certainly hasn’t been anything straightforward about McAvoy’s career trajectory. It’s not that he designed it that way. It’s more that he didn’t design anything at all.
McAvoy was 15 when he walked on set for The Near Room. He was raw, still five years away from his classical training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Years later, McAvoy would admit to Digital Spy that, at the time of filming, an acting career wasn’t yet at the forefront of his mind. Like most 15-year-olds, his focus was more
short-sighted; he’d developed a crush on a co-star on set and, when she invited him to drama class, he suddenly realized that acting might be his calling.
It’s an origin story that seems to encapsulate McAvoy’s spirit quite succinctly. Not in the literal sense, of course, but instead, as a reflection of his wandering curiosity. “I supposed I’ve always been that way,” he laughs. “There’s never been a grand plan for what I wanted a career to look like. It’s always been about entertaining, to me — entertaining not only the audience but also myself. When I first started, it was just about finding the opportunity to get on a set at all. [...] But when I think [of] why I’ve found my recent films so compelling, it’s the opportunity to strike a balance with the characters. Be likeable. Make the audience feel safe. Then, you get that turn.”
That turn has become something of a signature for McAvoy in recent years, starting with M. Night Shyamalan's blockbuster, Split (2016) and its successor, Glass (2019), where the actor plays a man balancing 23 dissociative identities. But in his latest film — James Watkins’s Speak No Evil — the turn is far more subtle. There isn’t a costume change or a sudden accent shift to signal to the audience that something has gone awry. Rather, McAvoy portrays Paddy, a hus-
band and father who charms an American family enjoying a European vacation alongside his own. When we meet Paddy, he’s boisterous, a little rough around the edges, but undeniably charming. He exudes the sort of salt-of-the-earth masculinity that makes one want to chase his validation. After a few days, he invites the family to join him with his wife and son at their countryside home.
“[Paddy] is so interesting to me because there’s always this undertone of toxicity,” explains McAvoy. “But he puts a civilized face on it. He’s self-aware about it. It’s disarming, you know? There’s a sense of humour. He accepts that he’s not perfect. It’s sort of admirable.” Of course, the Americans accept the invitation. How could they resist? Then, slowly, McAvoy begins flexing the muscle he honed so expertly in Split: the turn.
“What drew me to the film was that duality. The audience feels it, too. They feel safe, they might really fall for this guy. Then, you have to come to terms with the fact that this man you started to like is something shocking, something horrific. You’re going through the same emotions as the characters.”
What McAvoy deploys is, indeed, shocking. Not simply through the portrayal of such a dark role but more so in the fact that this isn’t the James McAvoy the audience has come to know over his decades’ worth of work. He captured the hearts of critics as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland before signing on to Atonement, a heart-wrenching romantic war drama that saw McAvoy play WW2 soldier and tragic love interest, Robbie Turner. Both were richly complex emotional roles that cemented McAvoy’s “leading man” status.
In the months following The Last King of Scotland, it was widely maintained that his performance warranted Oscar consideration. But such nominations famously require a great deal of campaigning, something McAvoy was reluctant to do. Instead, he championed his co-star, Forest Whitaker for his performance (Whitaker, in turn, ended up winning “Best Actor”).
Years ago, McAvoy would speak openly about his distaste for the song and dance often required for awards consideration. But today, he doesn’t pay it much
“I suppose the next goal will be to do well enough with my first movie that they let me direct another.”
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