James McAvoy seemed to be everywhere in 2007, appearing in a batch of films and making People magazine’s Sexiest Man of the Year list (he placed 5th behind Matt Damon, Patrick Dempsey, Ryan Reynolds, and Brad Pitt). And 2008 doesn’t look like it’ll be any less hectic for the Scottish actor who earned overwhelmingly positive reviews for his starring turn in the period drama Atonement.
McAvoy had just completed work on the action-heavy thriller Wanted when he sat down with the media for the Atonement press junket in Los Angeles. McAvoy stars as a 25-year-old slacker named Wes who everyone - his boss, coworkers and his girlfriend - believes will not amount to anything. But that all changes when his father’s murdered and he’s recruited into a secret society by a gorgeous lady named Fox (Angelina Jolie).
Originally announced as a March release, Universal Pictures recently bumped the date back to June. That move made Wanted into one of 2008’s big summer releases. The importance of the release date bump hadn’t really sunk in yet when McAvoy was out doing press for Atonement. “Bloody hell - is that what that means? I didn’t know the significance of moving it,” admitted McAvoy. “When people say June, ‘We’re going to June. We’re really excited we’re going June,’ you know, it’s like, ‘Great, that’s great for you.’ And then people explain the significance of it. So fantastic. If they’re confident in it, it’s brilliant. I haven’t seen the film yet so I don’t know.”
McAvoy doesn’t think the studio would move Wanted into the busy summer season based solely on the fact it stars Angelina Jolie. “Not if it’s terrible,” said McAvoy. “But I don’t think there’s a bad time to release a movie anymore, you know? So if they’re moving up to a more high-class date or a more aggressive time then great. It just means they’re confident. But, no, I think a big studio like that with hundreds of millions of dollars, they’d gladly chuck it on the shelf if it were s--t.”
McAvoy’s popularity didn’t guarantee him consideration for a role in Wanted. He still had to audition for the part. “I screen tested. They flew me over here and I had to do a couple of auditions. Then they didn’t give me the part for quite a long time, for like 6 months. Then they came back and said, ‘Do you want to do it?’ And I was like, ‘What’s changed?’ They said, ‘Nothing. We always wanted you.’ You’re like, ‘Did you?’”
The trailer for Wanted has action movie fans salivating, but McAvoy confessed he’s not really into the genre. “To be honest with you I don’t really watch…I watch action films if they’ve got sci-fi in them or fantasy in them or you know something like that. I don’t really watch the John Woo-type action film where it’s just action. I like it when it’s tinged with concept or tinged with philosophy or something like that, which this film is. And it’s also tinged with a manic, mad, weird, brilliant, genius director called Timur Bekmambetov who’s a very strange guy. When he makes an odd decision, he doesn’t make it strategically, you know what I mean? He doesn’t go, ‘I’m going to make a really cool, odd, left field, off-beat decision here and that’s going to [make] me out as an ingenious director.’ He just makes decisions that happen to be really f--king strange. People around him inform him that they’re strange and he goes, ‘Really? That’s interesting,’ and then carries on, you know? It gives that style that he has a truth, I think, about something real.”
McAvoy’s recent co-stars have been women who generate a lot of publicity and attract huge crowds wherever they go. “I think working with Keira [Knightley] and Angelina actually - two of the world’s biggest stars - is quite an eye opener, that kind of intrusion that happens in your life’s and the scrutiny they’re under and how difficult it must be for them definitely,” said McAvoy. “I think it’s undeniable. Other than that, I didn’t get an insight to any of their lives too much. I did get an insight into how much is made up and how much is false. 99.999999% of it is seems to be bulls--t and it’s quite harming, I think, because it robs you of your identity. The world thinks you are something and you’re not that, and it’s odd.”
With his recent string of film roles, McAvoy could find himself pushed further into the spotlight and the subject of tabloid gossip columns. But he’s fairly certain that’s just not going to happen. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get to the point where people run across a freeway to take a picture of me,” laughed McAvoy. “I really don’t see it getting to that level of hysteria unless I have an affair with the Queen of Sweden or something like that. I don’t think they have a Queen in Sweden — I think they do — yeah, they do don’t they? Lovely girl…but who knows? I try to keep my life low-key and I don’t like going to parties unless they’re thrown by a friend of mine or they’re to do with a project I’m in, or it’s because I’ve been nominated for an award. Then I’ll go to the parties and do all that, but I won’t go to the latest Samsung free phone exhibition, you know what I mean? You stay away from all that and hopefully it gives you the chance to stay away and opt out of it a little bit.”
As for returning to independent films after the big-budget world of Wanted, McAvoy doesn’t deliberately avoid or seek out projects based on whether or not they’re backed by one of the big studios. “I’ve never made strategic decisions and I refuse to. I’ll do what feels right and whatever comes along. I like the idea of it, I’ll do it. You know, it’s like Joe [Wright]. After he did Pride and Prejudice, people said to him, ‘You should do a small independent modern contemporary piece that isn’t based on a book.’ He didn’t and it’s worked out fine for him. I think good work is good work.”
