The scathing exchange that shattered James McAvoy’s self-confidence: “That was a kick in the nuts!”
James McAvoy is an underrated actor who seems to be taken for granted, even though he tends to steal any film that he is in and has managed to have a good attitude when dealing with rude co-stars in the process.
Even though he has the charisma and confidence that one would expect from a leading man, he makes the type of interesting choices that are the sign of a great character actor, and while it’s not the path that everyone in his position might have taken, it’s made his filmography far more diverse.
McAvoy began his career with two acclaimed roles in prestige awards contenders, romancing Kiera Knightley in the deeply moving World War II epic Atonement, and co-starring in The Last King of Scotland with Forest Whitaker, who won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’ for his performance, and while he already had a taste of what it would be like to appear in a major franchise when he played Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, he earned even more attention when he took on the role of Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men prequel series.
Patrick Stewart had given such an amazing performance as Professor X in the original trilogy of X-Men films that finding an actor who could have the same gravity was always going to be a significant challenge, but McAvoy was able to show a softer, more vulnerable side to Xavier, reintroduced as a brilliant, quick-witted womaniser, who eventually develops into a civil rights activist and teacher.
Even though the quality of the X-Men prequel series began to decline over time, there was never a bad word to be said about McAvoy and his chemistry with Michael Fassbender, who co-starred as Magneto. While McAvoy’s professionalism has been praised by his co-stars, he had his confidence attacked early on in his career when the actor playing his love interest made demeaning comments about his appearance.
“Sometimes you’re made to feel like you’re not good-looking enough to get a role,” he said, “I was told once by an actress that it was an interesting choice, my casting, because nobody would usually believe that I would be with somebody like her. That was a kick in the nuts!”
Proving that he’s always gracious, McAvoy added how he navigated the situation, saying, “I was like, ‘All right, now I’ve got to pretend that I really like you for eight more weeks. This is going to be really tough, because you’re so far up yourself’. It got really interesting, that relationship.”
While body shaming is often talked about as an issue in the industry when it comes to women, male actors are often forced to meet unrealistic expectations, so it is admirable that McAvoy has spoken out about it, and he also went on to explain how he has also faced challenges because of his height, where roles are not always offered to him because taller actors are preferred.
It may be why he has gravitated towards tragic characters, with one of his most praised performances to date being the titular role of a stage production of Cyrano, and ironically, one of his most acclaimed onscreen turns to date was in M Night Shyamalan’s Split, in which he underwent a complete physical transformation to play a character with multiple personalities that has not only become an endearing character, but is distinguished as one that only McAvoy could have played.
