James McAvoy Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters

Actually, it wasn't even on camera.

It was before I came on camera,

but there was like a soft padded bit of this door.

The rest of the door was metal,

and I missed the padded bit and I broke my hand.

And I carried on in the scene white as a ghost.

[upbeat music]

Wanted.

[dramatic music]

Wesley was a lot of fun to play.

Getting to play a real sort of normal Joe, a normal guy,

whatever normal means.

And then you put upon him an extraordinary situation

and people like Angelina Jolie

teaching you how to bend bullets around dead cadavers

of grannies,

and Morgan Freeman like just being amazing

and getting to share the screen with him.

It was incredible.

I helped develop that move

and we were trying to figure out what would it be like,

and I was like, Well maybe it's like tennis

when you're doing like a kinda..

I dunno what that move, I don't play tennis,

but you know that move in tennis.

I mean I also learned in gun training

that I am the worst shot in the world.

[dramatic music]

I nearly passed out on that job just to do the scene

where my veins were popping up my head

where they were gonna augment it with CGI veins anyway.

Work well with others? That's as a fucking joke.

What is this bullshit? Who's this prick?

Some loser gets his head blown off at the Metropolitan.

Shut the fuck up!

The studio didn't outright reject me for that

as I seem to remember.

And studio, please forgive me

if I'm remembering this differently

or if I have different information.

I wasn't outright rejected.

It just took a lot of worrying them in camera testing

'cause I think Timur, our director who was fantastic

and a lovely guy, he wanted me

and he was convinced I was the right guy.

But the studio just needed a little bit of help

to convince them that I was the right guy.

I ended up camera testing a scene

that ended up not being in the movie

where the point where Fox, played by Angelina Jolie,

meets me for the first time.

Basically, does they Come with me if you want live moment

and you know rocks my whole world

and transforms me into a super assassin.

That moment in the movie as it is,

I'm standing there, I think, looking at medication

in the the medication aisle.

In the camera test, we went different

and I'm actually trying to commit suicide

and I was like swallowing hundreds of pills in the aisle

as she goes like Hey, your Wesley Gibson.

Come with me if you wanna live.

And I'm like Huh?

And so I had like 200 TicTacs in my mouth

for the camera test.

How you doing?

I'm good.

[James] There was a great piece of improvisation

from Common and Angelina.

I was like standing trying to figure out

if the dummy that I'm shooting,

I start to realize, I think that it's...

This isn't a dummy, this could be a real person.

I think it's a dead person hanging there

that I'm meant to be shooting.

Oh my god.

As the camera sort of like focused in on me

and they kinda shared that focus,

it was, I think they were asked

to sort of improvise a little bit

of the just background mumble

I don't know if it's in the film,

but she bluntly just went, Hey have you seen Alan

or whatever lately?

And he was like, Nah, think he broke his leg.

Jumped off a building or something.

And it was just so mundane and real

for what these like super assassins must be doing,

for what these super assassins must go through

in their daily lives.

The trials and tribulations of being a super assassin.

And it was so real and so just like office chat

that it made me lose my shit

and we had to cancel the take.

X-Men.

One day the government is gonna realize

how lucky they were to have Professor X on their side.

I suppose I'm a real professor now, aren't I?

Next thing you know I'll be going bald.

We're still on the government's side, Moira.

Still G-Men just without the G.

No. You're your own team now.

It's better.

You're...X-men.

Yeah. I like the sound of that.

So back in 2010,

I'd been off work for about a year

'cause my first boy had been born

and just decided to stay at home.

Anyway, X-Men came in with First Class,

and they were filming in Pinewood,

40 minutes from my front door,

and it was potential to be a, like a franchise.

And I loved X-Men from a young age, loved the cartoon.

And also loved Patrick Stewart, primarily from Star Trek,

from Dune where he played Gurney Halleck I think,

and then, laterally, from X-Men itself.

So that was a massive draw for me too.

Then also knowing the work of the director,

I thought it was gonna be a very different direction

from what they'd done before.

As much as I'd been a fan of the X-Men franchise,

I was also ready for something different

and he took us in a very different direction.

Heterochromia.

A gentleman would at least offer to buy me a drink first.

Norman, a pint of beer for me

and a brandy for the lady, please.

How did you know that?

Lucky guess. My name's Xavier, Charles Xavier.

How do you do?

So I went and read the script.

I had to sit in a restaurant.

It was, I think it was a Vapiano on Portland Street maybe.

And I ran out of time.

I didn't even get it finished to be honest with you

'cause they gave me like a two-hour slot

and I'm so slow at reading scripts

'cause I'm always sitting there taking notes

while I'm reading them.

And I didn't even get it completely finished,

but I knew I wanted to do it.

I knew there was tons of possibilities,

loads of fun, potential fun for me to have with a character,

and to take him not in a different direction

because, ultimately, you'd want to take him

in the same direction as Patrick.

But there was an opportunity to show a very different side

of Professor X and Charles Xavier

before he become the professor to make it interesting,

to show he was a different person to begin with, you know.

Charles Xavier.

Do you have a minute?

For pretty little being with the mutated MCR-1 gene,

I have five.

I say MCR-1, you would say auburn hair.

It's a mutation. It's very groovy mutation.

Mutation, right, took us single-celled organisms

to the dominant form of- You know what?

This routine may go over great with the co-eds,

but I'm here on business. What?

In preparation for X-Men: Days of Future Past,

I thought, Well I better shave my hair this time

'cause this is it now.

In prep for that, I got it buzz cut

and kind of just very close to sides and got a jarhead.

I thought, I'll shave it further when I get there.

When I got to set they were like, No, no, no, no, no, no.

And I was like, All right.

I get the script and it's also set in the seventies

and I was like Right, we're doing hair extensions

and I'll get...I'll get real seventies hair.

'Cause they were like Oh, we can make this work.

And I was like No, you really can't make this work.

[Charles] Hank!

What's going on here?

Professor?

Please don't call me that.

Why? You know this guy?

Yeah you look slightly familiar.

Get off the bloody chandelier, Hank.

You can walk.

You're a perceptive one.

I thought Eric...

Which makes it slightly perplexing that you managed

to miss our sign on the way in.

This is private property my friend.

I'm gonna have to ask him to ask you to leave.

When I found out that Patrick was gonna be in the movie

and look how Patrick does as playing Professor X

I wanted to go, I want to have long hair

and I wanted to look like I smoke a lot of weed

and maybe do a little bit of something stronger

in the seventies and set in my purple haze.

Just to show how far that journey is gonna have to be

to make him into Patrick Stewart.

So I said to the main hair guy, I was like,

Do you think it's possible that we can get somebody in

like tonight who can do hair extensions on me?

And I had so little hair at this point.

So we found somebody

and we did an 18-hour hair extension session in one sitting.

Actually, I think they came back for about five hours

the next day and I just sat there for 18 hours

going outta my mind.

But by the end of it, I looked like Professor X

in Days of Future Past.

[Raven] Being on the cover of magazines,

getting a medal from the president.

You like it don't you?

As opposed to being hunted and despised.

Well, you know, actually I do.

It's all just a means to an end, Raven.

What end is that?

Keeping us safe.

You should understand better than anyone

that we're only ever one bad day away

from them starting to see us as the enemy, again.

So what we wear matching costumes and smile in pictures

to make everyone feel safe- That's a small price

to pay for keeping the peace.

By risking our people to save theirs?

Yes! Yes.

I did want to inject a massive ego into Charles

because I think one of the defining aspects

of what Patrick did and who Charles ultimately becomes

is his selflessness.

But we'd seen that in four movies,

and now more with Logan as well

in the ones that Patrick did.

So I was like, What do we wanna do?

We wanna just do that again?

We've got the opportunity to go back in time

and show that he had to grow into that person.

So ego was a massive thing

because his selflessness was so strong in the other movies.

His selfishness or his self-centered nature

and it's probably what happens to Dark Phoenix

If it was my arc and it was gonna carry on and on and on,

it's what happened to Jean Gray

that makes him turn the corner

and become the Professor X that you saw portrayed

in the movie back in 2000.

[Old Charles] It's the greatest gift we have,

to bear their pain without breaking,

and it's born from the most human power.

Hope.

[cinematic music]

Please. Charles, we need you to hope again.

First Class is probably my favorite movie.

But in terms of what I got to do as an actor,

I'd say Days of Future Past

was probably the most challenging,

the most interesting experience I had as an actor

on the X-Men movies.

But yeah, that was a great bunch of people.

We're still relatively in contact

and hanging out a little bit maybe on Thursday,

which is really nice even though those movies

are behind us now.

Split.

Glass.

I met M. Night Shyamalan in 2015 at ComicCon at a party.

and we were all there with the X-Men crew.

We all got on very well

and we all knew how to have a good time.

So we were probably partying quite large.

And at that moment,

we had been playing this really ridiculous game

which involved hitting each other.

I won't tell you how

because I don't want to have it repeated

then be blamed for it.

Anyway, one of us got knocked out.

And it was just after that that he went,

Hey, you ever thought about working with me?

He then called up 'cause I think they had somebody pull out

at the last minute and was like,

Listen. I'm gonna send you the script.

I don't wanna tell you anything about it.

Your agent isn't allowed to read it

and you need to sign an NDA and all that kind of stuff.

And I was like, Okay.

And within like five pages,

I was very excited

and just praying that it didn't get bad.

'Cause you know like when you get a good script

and it takes you through page to page to page,

and then maybe around like page six just falls apart.

Just like Please sustain. Please sustain.

Next page is great. Please sustain. Please sustain.

And it was great all the way through.

So fantastic.

And I saw what a great acting opportunity

and challenge it was for me.

And that's kind of what I'm always looking for

with a character beyond the greater narrative of the story.

What is the internal conflict?

What is the internal challenge or challenges or conflicts?

And, certainly, Kevin and the rest of the people

that share his body,

they were massively challenged and incredibly conflicted.

And curves and..hey, you see that one.

It's kind of like a Chanel sweater dress.

Who are you?

Barry.

I don't think you are.

Probably my favorite character to portray

was who we thought Barry was.

Barry was actually Dennis the whole time.

It was Dennis pretending to be Barry.

So that was like many levels of complexity

that made it quite interesting to play.

So you were playing a version of a...

young, flamboyant designer of fashion whose homosexual

as this British big lout would think he would behave.

Hedwig was not quite in control of his body.

So there was a lot more loose movements

and things like that.

I mean I'm not even quite sure I'm doing the Hedwig right

just now 'cause I can't really remember

what I did specifically.

But it was more erratic and it was more frightening almost

because it was coming outta nowhere.

[erratic music]

[erratic music stops]

[exhales]

Wow.

The dance that we had to do for Hedwig

was one of my favorite things

that I've ever had to do on film

which was we kinda workshopped it a little bit,

Night and I, and then we also improvised some bits.

But it was real fun.

There's a whole bit in it where I get shot

and I'm like pretending there's blood coming out of me

and stuff.

If you wonder what that dance move is.

Don't worry.

I'll talk to him.

He listens to me.

[James] Well Patricia was somebody

who I think had big breasts,

but she felt quite modest about it.

So she was always trying to put her shoulders forward

and have her her head slightly down.

And I can't remember with the rest of them.

I mean in the trequel, I guess,

I'd do like 20 characters

and I definitely can't remember all of those.

But those are the main ones that I remember

more than anything.

[gentle music]

Getting to work with Bruce,

who I had been watching since I was a really little kid

in Moonlighting, that was amazing.

What a nice guy. What a good guy.

I'm really sad to hear that he's had to retire,

and I hope he's well and healthy

and hope his family are all good.

Anya, from day one, it was really clear

she has incredible screen presence

and she's just got an amazing ability

to be open to the camera and to the audience,

which I think is one of the most important things

you need as a performer.

Getting to work with Sam.

Man, the guy is a legend.

The man who can say motherfucker

and make it sound like poetry.

He was somebody who...

He went out of his way to support what I was doing

and that was a massive pat in the back for me

as a younger performer who admires him very, very much.

He didn't need to do that and he was stunning.

And also his performance is just excellent.

So when somebody's that good, it brings you up as well.

Night is incredibly specific with his direction.

And for that reason, the film that is in his mind

is exactly the film he shoots on the day.

When it's a different writer,

you then meet the director and who knows?

The director might have a different vision

from what is on the page.

But when the director has written it,

you kind of know what's in his heart and what's in his soul

and what's in his mind

and the kind of art he wants to create.

And the film he made is exactly the film he had in his mind.

[ominous music]

[Casey] Kevin Wendell Crumb.

Kevin Wendell Crumb.

Kevin Wendell Crumb!

On Split, I broke my hand.

I was meant to punch this door.

I was... Actually, it wasn't even on camera.

It was before I came on camera.

But there was like a soft padded bit of this door

and I took to like just punching it a couple times

before I went in the scene

'cause I was meant to come in like full of, full of beans,

and full of adrenaline.

And it was a metal, the rest of the door was metal

and I messed the pad a bit and I broke my hand.

And I carried on in the scene white as a ghost

and in kinda shock.

And Night came up to me like after that take

and he was like, You okay? That scene was weird.

That take was weird.

And I was like, Yeah, let's just go again.

I don't think I told him I broke my hand at that point.

I didn't realize that I had broken my hand, I don't think.

But it became quite clear within a few hours

when my hand was like the size of a boxing glove.

And it's actually a bit in the film

where Dennis puts on his glasses and it's a profile shot

and you can see my hand is swollen up and it was apparent.

I've not seen this but I've been told by Night,

that there was people sort of commenting online going like

Oh this is, he's turning into the beast.

He's turning into the beast.

It was just me with my big, gamy punched up hand.

But yeah, I kept going and I just thought,

It's fine. It will probably heal itself.

And then on my last day in Philadelphia, before I flew home

I thought, I better go to the doctor.

So I went to an urgent care and they x-ray-ed it

and they're like, Oh yeah, you've broken two knuckles.

And I was like, Oh God.

I had to phone up the director of my next film and say,

Listen, would it be okay

if my character was wearing a plaster cast for the film?

And luckily it works for the character

and I wore a plaster cast in the next movie

because of that.

Thank you very much for watching me talk about my characters

that they said were iconic.

Thank you. Take care.