E-mail a friendJames McAvoy
airdate February 8, 2007
Actor James McAvoy is a fast-rising star, who originally wanted to become a missionary. Instead, the Glasgow native graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and hasn't looked back. His credits include HBO's critically acclaimed miniseries The Band of Brothers, the Sci-Fi Channel series Children of Dune and the films The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last King of Scotland, Atonement and, his latest, Wanted. The multi-talented McAvoy also plays guitar and is a class 4 fencer and a gymnast.
James McAvoy
Tavis: James McAvoy is a talented actor who won wide acclaim for his role opposite Forest Whitaker in the brilliant film “The Last King of Scotland.” More on that in a moment. His latest project is the new movie, “Starter for 10.” The film hits theaters on February twenty-third. Here now, a scene from “Starter for 10.”
[Clip]
Tavis: James McAvoy, nice to meet you.
James McAvoy: You too, sir.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. We’ll come back to “Starter for 10,” a Tom Hanks production, no less.
McAvoy: It is, yes.
Tavis: We’ll come back to that in just a second. Let me start, though, by, since you're in Hollywood here, and all the buzz is on one Forest Whitaker.
McAvoy: I know, I know.
Tavis: What do you make of, yeah.
McAvoy: Well, I think it’s an incredible thing, to make a film that’s any good. Then to make a film that’s any good, and people go and see. And then to make a film that’s any good that people are going to see, and the award people seem to validate it as well. And to have somebody like Forest, who, he’s been around for years, and he’s been regarded as a great actor for years, but never necessarily recognized by the award (unintelligible), finally get this kind of recognition is incredible. I'm very, very pleased for him.
Tavis: Well, you are very central to his getting nominated, and I take nothing away from Forest. But this movie revolves around the relationship between the two of you. Tell me about filming this, and what you made of the storyline, and tell me about your work with Forest.
McAvoy: Well, Forest had a very intense kind of method acting approach to this character. And so it was quite important that while we were very engaged in creating a relationship with each other as actors and characters, it was really important that I didn’t really infringe upon his process as a method actor. Didn’t really want to start asking him about how’s the wife and kids when he’s trying to imagine himself as a despotic…
Tavis: As Idi Amin, yeah.
McAvoy: …Idi Amin. And so, it was strange. It was stressful, but very fruitful and I don't know, I've really, really cherished that time that we had together.
Tavis: Tell me about what it was like filming on location in Africa.
McAvoy: In Uganda, particularly, it was incredible. Wonderful people. Very, very open and giving. We had a tiny crew of, like, I don't know, 25 people from Britain, America, and some from Germany, as well. And the rest of the crew, about another hundred people were made up of Ugandans who were skilled professionals, but never had any experience in the film industry.
And they took to it like ducks to water. So industrious, so willing to learn. And I don't know, we couldn’t have made the film anywhere else. And also, the thing that we couldn’t have had, at one point, they were gonna film the film in South Africa, and it would have been a tragedy, because what we had around us, and the crew, were everybody’s individual stories of Idi Amin.
Anybody over the age of 30 lived under his regime. And a lot of people had met him. A lot of people had lost parents, brothers, loved ones. And a lot of people had good stories to tell about him, as well as bad ones. So, that’s the kind of resource you can’t buy, and I'm very grateful to them for that.
Tavis: One more question on this before I move on to “Starter for 10.” What do you personally take away from working on a project like that? I assume that like most actors, these experiences are things that you take with you. (Unintelligible) take away from this particular project.
McAvoy: (Unintelligible) I suppose where I stand in the kind of global social ladder. And I come from a working class background, and as much as I have a nice job and I have (unintelligible) bit of money now, and all that kind of thing, I suppose I still had a bit of a chip on my shoulder with people who are born into money. And when I got there, that chip went, because I realized that compared to the people in Uganda – and Uganda’s a country that’s doing relatively, speaking not too badly, compared to some of the countries around it.
But when I got there, I saw such a level of poverty, and it made me realize that no matter how working class a family I’d been born into in the west, I'm upper-super-duper elite class, and I have more opportunities than anybody in my vision at any given point in my day in Uganda. And it really made me get rid of any kind of working class chip.
And like I say, it redefined where it is that you stand in the global scheme of things. Makes you realize that you’ve got huge responsibility, and I don't want to preach, and you get a lot of actors coming back from third world countries where they’ve filmed, going oh my God, it changed my life. But it does a bit, do you know what I mean?
'Cause you watch it on the news, and you see poverty on the news, and you think you understand it. But you don't, really. And it gives you an impression of what it looks like. But it doesn’t let make you understand any of it. It doesn’t let you smell it and taste it and (unintelligible) it, and empathize with it, and feel common humanity. You just switch it off. And I know that’s a cliché, and people have said that before, but it’s really true.
Tavis: It’s a good lesson to learn, though.
McAvoy: Yeah, I think so.
Tavis: Good lesson. So you go from working with a guy who is now the favorite in town at the moment.
McAvoy: I hope so, yeah.
Tavis: We don't wanna jinx him. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for Forest. Crossed for Forest (laugh). You go from working with a guy who is on tap, perhaps, to win an Oscar, to a guy who has a shelf full of them named Tom Hanks (laugh).
McAvoy: I know.
Tavis: So tell me about “Starter for 10.”
McAvoy: Well, “Starter for 10” is a film about a young geek, essentially, who gets involved in a TV show called “University Challenge.” It’s kind of like what college (unintelligible) used to be like. And that’s where the term starter for 10 comes from, because the first question would be for 10 points, and you would have your, here’s your starter for 10 points.
And essentially, I suppose, it’s a sports movie for geeks. And it’s a romantic comedy, and it’s about growing up in the eighties, and it’s about, again, social climbing. It’s about someone being very working class suddenly going to university or college, as you have in America, and then trying to be better than he already is, or trying to socially climb the ladder, and really make a hash of it. Really screws it up quite badly a lot of the time.
Tavis: Yeah. This is, if I got my facts right, I think I do. This is Tom Hanks’ first British production. What’s your sense – and everybody has their own take, I'm fascinated by your point of view – on what you make of the fascination that so many Americans have with not just the accent, indeed with British productions on PBS, we run a lot of British stuff on PBS. Not just “BBC News,” but other programs, and Helen Mirren hasn’t had a bad year, and yeah.
McAvoy: I know, I feel like she could go and do a poo on Sunset Boulevard and people would kind of give her an Oscar for it.
Tavis: Pretty much, yeah (laugh).
McAvoy: Yeah. She’s great, she deserves it, she’s brilliant. But it’s really cool to, like Helen at the moment, isn't it?
Tavis: Yeah.
McAvoy: Dame Helen, I should say. (Laugh) I’ll get into trouble for that. What do I think? I think it’s something to do with the fact that we’re too incredibly different cultures, and yet we speak the same language, and we’re inexplicably linked. And we have so much of ourselves in America, and I think America sees a lot of themselves in Britain, as well.
And I think historically and genetically a lot of the time, we’re linked hugely. And yet, we’re different cultures. So I think there's a fascination there. We can see something of ourselves, but not quite. And I think it’s like when you meet someone from another country and you start getting in their conversation. You get fascinated.
Oh no, I don't see that. You see it like that? Oh no, I use this one. Or you use, you say "toilet?" I say "bathroom." Oh, wow. And I think there is something of that in movies, and in TV, as well. We do the same things, essentially, but we just do it with a slightly different accent, and a slightly different flavor, and a slightly different taste, and a slightly different smell. And I don't know what I'm talking about. (Laugh) But do you know what I mean?
Tavis: I got you.
McAvoy: I think it’s a fascination in seeing nearly the same culture, but actually a very different one at the same time.
Tavis: Let me ask, finally, what you think – because it’s maybe too soon to tell, maybe you already know. What you think being exposed in a film like “The Last King of Scotland,” back to the other project, does for other movies like “Starter for 10,” and other stuff that you might do in the future, or will do in the future. What does that exposure do for you, you think?
McAvoy: It does a lot. It’s really helped “Starter for 10,” for example. I probably wouldn’t be on your TV show if it wasn’t for “Last King of Scotland.” And so hopefully, it’ll help other projects get out there, as well. It’s lovely, because “Last King of Scotland” was made for the same budget as “Starter for 10” was. Made it for nothing, and it’s really taking off, and people have really, it’s captured their imaginations, and Forest’s performance has captured a lot of imaginations, as well.
And that helps things come after. But also “Narnia” did that for me, as well, a little bit. That helped bring attention to the American audience, and all that kind of thing. So, hopefully it’ll be very helpful with “Starter for 10,” and people will go and see it in the tens of thousands.
Tavis: Well, there's the plea (laugh).
McAvoy: Please go and see (unintelligible).
Tavis: Yeah (laugh). Not that you need the plea. He is in the throes of a wonderful career right about now. Brilliant in the – if you’ve not seen “Last King of Scotland,” you gotta go see it. And once you see that, I'm sure you'll be convinced to go see “Starter for 10,” 'cause James McAvoy is a huge talent. Nice to have you on the program.
McAvoy: Thank you very, very much.
Tavis: Honor to have you here.
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