James McAvoy’s known for taking on some meaty roles in heavy films like Atonement and The Last King of Scotland, so he was just as surprised as the rest of us to find out he landed the lead role in Timur Bekmambetov’s graphic novel adaptation of Wanted.
McAvoy’s character Wesley Gibson starts off as a down-on-his-luck slacker working a dead end job, but it doesn’t end there. While standing in line at the pharmacy he learns that his father, who left when he was a baby, was involved in a fraternity of assassins and now they want him to join them.
Hollywood.com received a ring from the Scottish actor to chat about the film that has him kissing Angelina Jolie, doing his own stunts and more.
Hollywood.com: Every time your character Googles himself he comes up empty. What is the funniest thing you’ve ever found searching your own name?
James McAvoy: Oh god, it wasn’t funny it was terrible. I Googled myself about four years ago, it was the last time I did it and I got a terrible review for a film I had been in and a character I played, basically slagging off my performance. That was the last time I ever Googled myself. I was a terrible victim of my own narcissism.
HW: Could you relate to this character working a mundane office job?
JM: I didn’t work any office jobs, but I worked in a bakery for two years between the ages of 16 and 18 and that was the most horrible daily grind job I ever had. I worked as a milkman for a couple of months at one point. I worked in bars as a bus boy and things like that…that was kinda tough. I think that was it for daily grind jobs, but they were bad enough.
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HW: You are one of the few who can boast kissing Angelina Jolie onscreen. What was it like shooting that scene?
JM: Same as always, it was awkward and angst ridden…with loads of people watching you so it is never comfortable, never sexy or as intimate as it seems on camera.
HW: She has a lot of action movie experience. Was she able to give you any advice?
JM: The best advice she gave me was to not take it too seriously. Her point was that when you are making these films they aren’t going to change people’s lives so if the people making them can’t have fun we don’t really deserve to be doing them.
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HW: Yeah, but how fun was the physical preparation and work outs?
JM: I did start working out six weeks before we even started the film and then while making the film for four and a half months and then five days a week during that time just in the gym an hour to 90 minutes a night. We were doing 12 hour days, but half your day was filled with doing stunts anyway so it was like a work out. Pretty intense, pretty intense.
HW: Is it true you hate going to the gym?
JM: It is not really my natural environment, it is not really where I belong spiritually, emotionally or physically and I find it kinda difficult to rationalize why I’m there. Unless it is for a sport, but just trying to get fit for the sake of being fit and not for a sporting outcome is weird for me you know? I’m not great at it, but it was good for a change to be forced to do it and to have a personal trainer, which I would never pay for myself. It is just a luxury I can’t rationalize paying for but to have somebody there being a drill sergeant and making you do things was really, really a good experience.
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HW: What was your proudest moment when it came to doing your own stunts?
JM: Jumping onto a car that was moving 30 miles per hour whilst I jumped on it without the aid of wires or pads or mats. Actually I was wearing a lot of padding, I was wearing a lot of knee padding and shoulders and all that kind of stuff and elbows and hands, but jumping onto a moving car was pretty, pretty cool.
HW: Were you scared?
JM: Yeah, I was really scared actually, but we built it up really slowly so we started at like five miles per hour and then put it up to 10 and then 12, then 14 and then 16, 18, 20 all the way up to 30 miles per hour. It was really, really cool.
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HW: What was it like creating this transformation onscreen without the benefit of a super hero costume?
JM: You get to rely on your physicality more and little things like you know your walk is less confident to begin with and your back is more arched to begin with. It is only tiny things not anything that anyone would notice, but you start to walk taller, you start to walk with more purpose. You start to un-arch your back and open up your shoulders and become more open to the world and less afraid of the world. Things like that are really, really good fun. It is acting really, its good fun.
HW: I love the idea that what you perceive to be your greatest weakness might actually be your greatest strength. How does that concept resonate with you?
JM: I suppose as an actor if you are a little bit over sensitive, as an actor sensitivity is really important, we need to be sensitive to show that we are feeling something. Then to communicate with people properly, it is all about sensitivity isn’t it.
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HW: You’ve had such an incredible run of movies including this one. What is your secret? Is it the scripts, directors, cast attached?
JM: Just the scripts really and also, I just did a film called Last Station after Wanted and that’s the first film I’ve gotten from a straight offer. So even Wanted and Atonement and Last King of Scotland I had to audition to get all those roles. So it wasn’t really about choosing those jobs, because if they hadn’t given me the parts after the auditions my plan and my strategy would have been out the window [laughs].
HW: Was this a part you’d normally go out for? How did you get involved?
JM: I read [the script] and thought this is ridiculous. There is no way I should be doing this. This isn’t the kind of stuff that I do and this isn’t really the kind of thing that people accept me doing so it was weird, it was very strange…I met the director and saw some of his previous works and started to get really excited about it and excited about the idea of them casting against type. And also about them making a movie that wasn’t a typical action movie that is for kids and adults alike, it is just for adults…with such a strong sense of cynical and ironic humor. I thought all these things combined to make it something new.
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HW: Wanted was the opening night premiere at the L.A. Film Festival. What was it like to be included?
JM: It is fantastic. It is an honor. I like the fact that you wouldn’t imagine a film like Wanted would be the opening of a film festival or anything like that, but I think it is quite good fun that it is opening with something like that and it is closing with Hellboy II…it makes a difference from other film festivals which are much more. – in Toronto actually the public goes to see the films, but other than that it is all business heads and critics and media people who really populate the audiences and the rich and well to do, but hopefully films like this opening and closing the L.A. Film Festival it means that the public will get more of a look in you know. I don’t know how true that is but I hope so.
