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Home / Interviews & Articles / James McAvoy Plays Down Wanted Smooch with Angelina Jolie |
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This page was last updated on 24th August 2008. Page launched on 24th August 2008. Site launched on 8th February 2004.
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INTERVIEWS & ARTICLES
James McAvoy Plays Down Wanted Smooch with Angelina Jolie by Peta Hellard The Courier-Mail, Brisbane, Australia, 31st July 2008
DON'T ask James McAvoy about That Kiss. The Scottish actor groans with disdain when asked for what could well be the zillionth time what it was like to pucker up with Hollywood's most pneumatically-lipped leading lady, Angelina Jolie, in their new action film Wanted.
"It was awkward, sweaty and not very nice," he says earnestly, in his thick Glaswegian brogue.
"There was angst involved in that, as always.
"It was just another day and the same old stuff as usual.
"I was just thinking, 'Oh God, I hope she doesn't think I'm getting off on this' – and she's doing the same. It's always weird, always strange, never nice."
In the high-octane movie, McAvoy plays Wesley, a miserable panic-attack-prone office worker who is recruited to a secret fraternity by mysterious bombshell assassin Fox, played by Jolie.
As much as the A-list actress dominates the marketing campaign – all seductive pouts and leather-clad assassin cool – make no mistake, this is McAvoy's movie.
The slightly built, snaggle-toothed, boyishly-cute actor – who has made his name playing invariably likeable, fish-out-of-water characters in the dramas Atonement and The Last King of Scotland and the romantic comedy Starter For Ten – smiles when tentatively told he is not the average Hollywood action star.
"Yes, I'm not used to seeing someone like myself in these (action) roles," he says earnestly.
"As a movie lover, I do complain frequently that I'm fed up with seeing 6 foot 5 inch alpha males in these roles.
"I'm glad they cast someone like me, not in terms of what I can bring to the role as an actor, but more because I'm not an obvious choice."
The film required McAvoy to undergo a physical transformation turning his character from couch potato to sleek, sinewy killer in record time, with the exercise-shunning actor putting on 12kg of muscle in a two-month period through rigorous training up to 14 hours a day.
"I'd rather eat dog poo than go to the gym," McAvoy says grimacing.
"The training was a big change for me – sometimes my trainer pushed me so hard that I was on my knees wanting to be physically sick and he made me eat really, really horrible food at bad times of the day.
"It wasn't my idea of a good time but it seemed to do the trick – it gave Wes the body he needed."
Shooting stars
The role also saw the 29-year-old having to become adept at handling a range of firearms – something he said was a big challenge.
"They're dangerous things. They really freak me out," he says.
"It's interesting working with Angelina because she's really cool with them. She loves guns, she really enjoys guns.
"But no, I was just a bit freaked out, really."
With his messy hair and mish-mash of faded brown cords, black T-shirt, dark green leather jacket and scuffed boots, there is nothing Hollywood about the actor, who looks as if he passed on the stylist to instead spend the extra time in bed before this interview at a swanky Beverly Hills hotel.
Living quietly
McAvoy says he has no intention to move to Los Angeles from London, where he lives with his wife Anne-Marie Duff, a British actor who is eight years his senior.
The couple, who married in 2006 after meeting on the set of British television comedy series Shameless two years earlier, enjoy a quiet life and he says they are rarely bothered by the paparazzi.
"I'm not anti-Hollywood. I'm not anti-celebrity either – just the shit that goes with it," he says.
"I don't judge anyone else for the way they live their life and Angelina doesn't live her life in a celebrity fashion. She gets treated like a celebrity, but she just lives her life.
"She doesn't go to a lot of parties and do drugs and take free this and that. She doesn't look for her picture to be taken. And even if she did, even other young actors and actresses that look for it, I don't judge them for it. It's not the way I want to live my life."
Atonement
Interest in McAvoy has skyrocketed since his role as Robbie Turner, a man tragically convicted of a crime he did not commit, in the World War II drama Atonement, which received seven Oscar nominations.
While many young actors would enjoy having the world's best filmmakers clamouring to work with them, the experience made McAvoy uneasy.
"One of the things that disturbed me after Atonement was that I was able to plan the next five years of my life and have movies backing up over two years and three years," he says.
"Things were getting just a little bit out of my control and lots of options were being thrown at me.
"The best part of my job is, when I finish a job, I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. And that disappeared all of a sudden, because I had offers that would wait for me for a year, for two years.
"That's the way my career's been for nine years and then you suddenly go, 'This is what I'm doing for the next two years'. That's really depressing."
McAvoy says after he made a conscious decision to slow down, he has worked on only two projects: Wanted and The Last Station, a historical drama about Russian writer Leo Tolstoy which also stars his wife, about whom he refuses to talk.
"I thought, 'I'll take some time out, before I make any mistakes and any bad moves'," he says. "I've always really enjoyed the fact that no matter what I'm doing, no matter how bad it is, it doesn't matter because it's going to be finished in two months. There's going to be something new.
"I just enjoy the adventure. So hopefully, I'll take some time off and get some uncertainty back in my life."
Sharing with Jesse
McAvoy seems wistful when he thinks back to his challenging early days as a struggling actor.
He speaks fondly of sharing a small flat in London with Australian actor Jesse Spencer, who lived in the UK between finding fame on the Australian television soap Neighbours and landing a role on the US television series House.
The pair, who planned to reunite for a low-key get-together in LA the night after the interview, met in London in 2000 when both landed small roles on the British historical romance Lorna Doone.
"Jesse played chief side-kick for the main baddie, and I played chief side-kick for the main goodie," McAvoy says.
"They were small roles but, even though we didn't have many lines, we were both there a lot and we became good friends.
"He needed somewhere to live, and I was going away to do a movie in Prague and I said, 'You can have my room'.
"And when I came back, he still had my room. So he went on to the couch and I went back to my room and then we ended up moving house to a bigger place."
With his next role yet to be determined, McAvoy is busy planning some camping trips and a visit to Glasgow to see his family and childhood friends, who, he says, are far from dazzled by his film career.
"I think they're very proud. Some of my friends find it incredibly funny, what I do," he says. "My mate Mark gives me a hard time, in a good way. He's constantly ribbing me.
"He's probably my harshest critic because he doesn't believe me in anything that I'm in, whether it's an arty piece or an action piece.
"I can't wait until he sees this one (Wanted) because he'll think it's a complete joke that I'm an action hero getting to kiss Angelina."
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