The acting advice Stephen King wasn’t qualified to give: “I was high as a kite when I wrote that”
We’ve all heard the name Stephen King.
More so than any other writer today, he has been subsumed into mainstream culture, perhaps because so many of his books barge past the literary stop sign and lend themselves so perfectly to the world of film.
In 2025 alone, three King films hit the big screen. First was the horrifying The Monkey, a horror-comedy featuring Theo James and a cursed toy monkey. Second came the delightfully cast The Long Walk, which followed, Hunger Games style, a group of boys who had to walk, walk, walk, and walk until there was only one survivor.
The final one on the list was The Running Man, a high-energy thriller based on King’s 1982 book of the same name. He actually put it out under the name Richard Bachman, just to avoid bombarding his publishers with too many titles in one go. The 2025 version is an all-out spectacle from Edgar Wright, with Glen Powell and Lee Pace in the lead. Back in 1987, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger taking the reins.
As such, King is an icon for fans of both literature and cinema. One actor who is a self-proclaimed huge fan of the writer is James McAvoy; the star practically geeked out when he met the author in the run-up to his involvement in the movie, It: Chapter Two. The Speak No Evil actor turned to King for some of the wisdom so evident in his thrilling writing style, but didn’t quite manage to get as much insight as he’d hoped.
Speaking to Yahoo, McAvoy explained what it was like to meet his literary hero. He shared, “It was pretty awesome, as a fan of his and a fan of many of his books. And a lot of his books actually cross-pollinate as well, with characters and themes showing up, and realms, worlds, realities kind of blending into different series.”
He went on, “It was really fun to kind of quiz him about some of that. But his answer was generally, ‘Well, you know, James, the thing you have to remember is that I was high as a kite when I wrote that, and I don’t remember.'” It seems King decided to copy some of the literary greats, like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, and enter the drug realm to fuel his supernatural stories. It makes sense when you think about it.
It’s a topic he’s opened up about before. King has previously shared that he has no recollection of writing the majority of his novel, Cujo, because of his struggle with addiction at the time. He’s also deemed The Tommyknockers the last “awful” book he wrote while taking substances.
Mind you, King might’ve been just as star-struck to meet the Scottish actor. With King’s affiliation with horror and the uncomfortable, it must be noted that McAvoy has pulled off one of the most impressive performances in the same genre. In 2016’s Split, McAvoy plays Kevin, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has 23 alter egos. What follows is a triumphant masterclass from an undeniably formidable presence.
