Romantic leading guy James McAvoy gets action of a different kind in his latest film, Wanted, his first foray into Hollywood shoot 'em ups - albeit one directed by a mad Russian and starring the mother of the year. He talks to AMY LONGSDORF
KEY POINTS:
Just when you thought James McAvoy was the go-to guy for long, leisurely period epics, he pops up, guns blazing, in his new movie Wanted.
After sweeping Anne Hathaway, Keira Knightley and Christina Ricci off their feet in, respectively, Becoming Jane, Atonement and Penelope, the Scottish actor was ready for something a bit more sensory-assaulting.
"Doing Wanted was totally different from anything that I've ever done before," he says. "It was the most physical role I've had since playing Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia - and that was a much different kind of physical."
And no, he's not in line to make the shift from Narnia to Middle-earth as The Hobbit, despite an internet rumour groundswell saying he had the role in the bag(gins).
"I would seriously entertain any offer but you would have to read the script and see if you are right for the part. But it is just all rumour. They don't even have a script yet."
"For people to think that someone like Guillermo del Toro or Peter Jackson would at all be interested in hiring me is very, very flattering. It would be even more flattering if it were true."
He'll need some time to recover from Wanted anyway. In the frenetic film, McAvoy leaps over speeding trains, manoeuvres through crushing car chases and engages in nerve-shredding gun battles.
"I worked out endlessly, even though I don't get my top off very much in the movie," teases the actor who added 14kg of brawn to his once-scrawny frame. "I had to get muscly just to be able to do the stunts that [director] Timur Bekmambetov kept asking me to do."
McAvoy plays Wesley, a cubicle slave who longs for a little excitement in his life. Enter Fox (Angelina Jolie), an assassin who tells our hero that his long-lost and mostly forgotten dad was killed while working for the Fraternity, a secret society of hired guns that also includes Morgan Freeman and rapper Common.
Suddenly, Wesley has a big decision to make: go back to his old existence as "a doormat to the world" - or begin a new life as a gun-toting badass.
McAvoy insists he's no fan of standard-issue action fare but after falling under the sway of Bekmambetov's Night Watch and Day Watch - thrillers which broke box-office records in the director's native Russia - the actor decided he'd follow the "crazy, genius" filmmaker anywhere.
Based on a graphic novel by Mark Miller, Wanted pushed McAvoy to the outer reaches of his physical and mental fitness, leaving him with a renewed respect for the Bruce Willises and Sly Stallones of the world.
"There were times when I was exhausted from some physical scene and was then asked to go off and deliver some big acting moment," he says. "It's, like, `No way, man, I just had to run around this warehouse all day and now I want to go to bed.' Figuring out how to marshall your energy is toughest part."
Bekmambetov believes McAvoy succeeded with everything he set out to do.
"I knew James was a different kind of actor for Wesley, but I wanted a real actor," he says. "We needed someone people will identify with. Somebody who kind of looks like an everybody. Wes changes a lot, on the inside, on the outside. And James can do that - we believe his changes."
During filming, McAvoy joked to a British newspaper that one of the film's highlights was participating in an "epic snog" with Angelina. Asked to expound, he just laughs.
"It was just the usual, uncomfortable thing," says McAvoy, 29. "It was just a normal, screenkissy type deal. But I will say that Angelina is a really cool lady who deals with all of the press attention she faces every day exceptionally well. I have a lot of respect for her."
To hear McAvoy tell it, he's having the time of his life. Married to nine-years-older actress Anne-Marie Duff, he is enjoying the career boost that high-profile films like The Last King of Scotland and Atonement have given him.
"Look, I've been very lucky," he says. "A lot has happened since Narnia and I'm well-chuffed about it."
McAvoy deserves some good times. A native of Glasgow, he was raised by his mother after his roofer-father walked out on the family when he was seven.
For most of his youth, McAvoy and his mother lived with her parents in Drumchapel, one of Glasgow's roughest tenements. As a youngster, he had only the vaguest interest in acting.
Asked if his mother encouraged him to be an actor, he says, "No, she didn't. The truth is that no one encouraged me. There was no avenue for acting where I come from."
His big break arrived via Scottish actor David Hayman, who visited McAvoy's high-school for a discussion about theatre.
After Hayman was heckled by the students, McAvoy apologised to the actor who, in turn, urged the young McAvoy to audition for a small role in a TV production called The Near Room.
"That role took me on to the path," says McAvoy. "I think everyone in my family thought, `Oh, that's nice that James got a little part in a film but that doesn't mean he'll get any more work.'
"The weird thing about acting is that you can't get work unless you have work behind you. But how can you get work if you haven't done anything at all?"
McAvoy persevered, eventually landing roles in such TV series as The Bill, Band of Brothers and State of Play. His American breakthrough came playing the faun in The Chronicles of Narnia, a part for which McAvoy has lingering affection.
"It was just a small role but he was such a melancholy character," says McAvoy. "And, to me, he represents anyone conflicted. Playing conflicted people is just wonderful."
Next up, McAvoy will co-star opposite Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren in The Last Station, which is based on Jay Parini's 1990 novel about the final year in Leo Tolstoy's life.
With Wanted and its demanding action scenes behind him, McAvoy admits he'll think twice before jumping aboard another Hollywood thrill ride.
"I don't see myself doing another action movie for awhile," says McAvoy. "The 14-year-old boy in me was very excited about doing Wanted and I'm very appreciative of the opportunity but, to be bloody honest, I didn't have this much pain when I was 14."
LOWDOWN
Who: James McAvoy
Key films: Bright Young Things (2003), Wimbledon (2004), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Starter for 10 (2006), Becoming Jane (2007), Atonement (2007)
Latest: Wanted opens August 7
- FEATUREWELL
