Entertainment

June 22, 2008

James McAvoy journeys to the most wanted list

AMY LONGSDORF For The Times Leader

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 sense-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.”

In “Wanted,” McAvoy leaps over speeding trains, maneuvers 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 30 pounds of brawn to his once-scrawny frame. “I had to get muscle-y just to be able to do the (stunts) that (director) Timur Bekmambetov kept asking me to do.”

In the movie, 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 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 bad ass.

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 that 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 just exhausted from some big physical scene, and then I was 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,” the 29-year-old says. “It was just a normal, screen-kissy-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. Newly married to 9-years-older actress Anne-Marie Duff, he is enjoying the career boost that high-profile films such as “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-chaffed about it. ”

McAvoy, a Glasgow native, deserves some good times. He was raised by his mother after his roofer-father walked out on the family when he was 7.

For most of his youth, McAvoy and his mother lived with her parents in Drumchapel, one of Glasgow’s roughest tenements. As a youngster, McAvoy had only the vaguest interest in acting.

Asked if his mom 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 theater. After Hayman was heckled by the students, McAvoy apologized 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 onto the path,” McAvoy says. “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 anymore 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,” McAvoy says. “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,” based on Jay Parini’s 1990 novel about the final year in Leo Tolstoy’s life, and he’ll play the young Bilbo Baggins in “The Hobbit,” slated for 2011.

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