James McAvoy Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | Part 1

they knew they had to get somebody who was young and who was nice seemed unthreatening and I'm all those things clearly who will stand against me and we ended up with something that I'm intensely proud of intensely proud so proud and intense about it The Chronicles of Narnia [Music] I'm sorry please allow me to introduce myself my name is Thomas pleased to meet Mr Thomas I'm Lisa pevensey Mr Thomas is I think a centuries old Fawn interestingly enough as a character who would go on to kidnap a young five-year-old sexual girl they were looking at much older actors not much older but like 30s and 40s and they were like this just seems wrong it seems really creepy they knew that they had to get somebody who was young and who was nice and seemed unthreatening and I'm all those things clearly a long time ago before this Dreadful winter the winter's not all bad it's ice skating and Christmas no no we haven't had a Christmas in 100 years and so went in and auditioned I put myself on tape I think first and then I went in and I met Andrew Adamson who's a genuinely lovely man and a great director I I feel like I got the part in the room I think Andrew gave me the part in the room I'm sure the studio would have had something to say about that there was a lot of old school makeup in that film old school is not the right word just proper special effects makeup the CGI element was from the legs down but everything from I'd say the thighs up was all the incredible work of Harold Berger at kmb along with Tammy Lane and Sarah Urbano that Trio sat with me every morning at like four in the morning for three and a half four hours and hand laid three hairs at a time glued them on took some hot tongs twiddled them then hand laid some more and all that and then the nose and the head and the helmet and that I mean it was an incredible procedure Georgie was a real privilege because she was so fresh and so had never done any acting before and Andrew purposefully didn't let her see me as Mr Thomas through any of the prep or rehearsals or anything like that and it really truly was all new to her and on the day that Georgie and I or Lucy and and Mr Thomas meet for the first time that was all kind of orchestrated so that she would never see me so the first time that she sees me on set is the first time that she saw Mr tumness on sale oh [Music] foreign were you hiding from me and it was a really cool moment and I could see the sort of magic in her eyes and all that and the kind of like feeling her eyes as well which you know done up like a horny goat with green CGI knickers it's one of those pinch yourself moments where you go like I can't believe that I'm a German actor who can actually pay my bills one but two I'm getting to be in some of this stuff that I've loved and made me want to be an actor and made me love stories and made me love TV and made me watch movies I'm getting to be a part of that and that's that's one of the biggest privileges in my career is that I've been able to be a part of the cultural references that formed me informed what I enjoy in culture fails I hear voices Chrissy see things all the time the opportunity to Play Someday or portray someone's severe mental health problems but not just do it in a great realistic way to do it in a fun anarchic quite nihilistic and violent but still quite a fun entertaining and funny and surreal artistic way was really exciting to me there's also moments of just like weird comedy as well as the brutality of it and liberalization of the victim of the patient but of the people around them [Music] [Music] I felt like I had to be able to portray his not only his mental decline but the guy's falling apart physically as well it couldn't just do that with makeup or acting I had to actually sort of looked apart physically as well we did use makeup a lot I mean we tried to age me with makeup as well yeah I basically just ate too much bad foods and drank too much alcohol until my body started to cry out against it and say no at one point I I felt like the doctor was saying it sounds like you've got colitis and I was like oof so I kind of told the line and then I started just eating healthier foods but way too much of it to kind of keep the weight on but uh yeah I drank a lot of Guinness I drank a little whiskey I would have a big shot of whiskey before bed and I remember in the shoot drinking too much not while I was filming but drinking too much the night before a law and waking up every day it you know as you do for the film business you wake up at five or five thirty or six and with a horrible hangover but it kind of was okay because usually you're coming to say it and even if you're not playing the lead you're kind of expected to look your best or look okay you know nobody wants you coming with bloody eyes and bags and stinking like a like a brewery but um on that job it was actually quite helpful understand it's not like I couldn't just like vomit right now right but it doesn't take too much of a bad smell or just a little bit of me sitting there thinking about being sick to start to get a bit nauseous considering whilst playing Bruce I was pretty unhealthy and I was drinking a lot and I was eating a lot and I was eating a lot of bad stuff as well it wasn't very difficult to make myself throw up in that particular film I don't think you need to do that on every film where somebody throws up I think you can just fake it or have a cup of soup and puke that up but for that film it felt like we were definitely trying to make the audience have a visceral reaction at times some people will watch that and go yeah whatever they puke and some people watch it and go like oh my God we wanted that whatever possible the scene that I got to shoot with my sister Joy McAvoy who is a brilliant actor do I know you from somewhere no no you don't know you [ __ ] don't what have I done wrong wasting police time withholding information and possibly harboring a murder suspect but I swear to God you will be stuffing cuddly toys in cottonville prison faster than you can tie a bunch of [ __ ] daffodils I had to kind of threaten her physically and kind of with some physical violence and a little bit of sexual violence and that's my sister so that was weird but I don't know that's just another challenge to doing what you've got to do and as long as the challenge isn't a bad script or a bad direction that kind of challenge is just the kind of good challenge that you need to make you get better it didn't stop me being incredibly nasty uh to that particular actor who happened to be my sister and who I love so dear she's like one of my best panels was I aware of urban Welsh's work absolutely I think my first exposure to Irving was when I was a young kid and I'm watching Trainspotting for the first time Danny Boyle's Masterpiece that got me into him and got me reading his work filth who's a book that I hadn't read and in fact they said to me don't read it until you're finished because the book if you can believe if you've seen the film the book is even sadder darker more violent and and upsetting our amazing director John S Baird just did the most incredible adaptation of Irvin Welsh's amazing novel and we ended up with something that I'm intensely proud of intensely proud so proud and intense about it it's one of my favorite films and one of my favorite performances that I've ever given Shameless I didn't enjoy watching the US remake of Shameless but that's not because it was bad that was just because it was or work that we did and I'm sure that pretty quickly like with the the British office and the American office they deviated and went off and did their own thing but I remember watching the first episode and bits that I improvised the guy was doing and I was like whoa there's a bit where I get my ass out and that was just I just decided to do that [Music] and luckily Tony Slater Lang who was our DP he was I was like did you get that he was like you couldn't miss it me it was like the [ __ ] full moon but um it was just like I also saw what you had for breakfast and then I'm watching the US version and the guy does that and I was like whoa I guess that's the nature remake but those guys seem great and they've clearly had massive success and fair play of them they've done Their Own Thing by all accounts but I just thought it's not for me watching this how important do I think it was in terms of the way it portrayed working class the working classes are or a myriad of different things sometimes they're like the odd and Shameless and I think something that celebrates Society is important not all the time you need something that tears Society apart just like you need something that tears the political system apart you also need something that celebrates it sometimes so will it critiqued it And while it was brutal and sometimes exposed the ugliness of certain parts of working class Society in that part of the world it also celebrated it that no matter how rough it seemed or how deprived it seemed and at times depraved it seemed there was our joy and our love and aware of there you know a real passion there growing up where I grew up I grew up in a counselor State and it wasn't like Shameless it wasn't always like a total Caper and like madcap fun but it was at times and that aspect of it that they captured I think made everybody who lived in a council estate or came from a counselor State see themselves in it and that's what one of the main functions of art is to see ourselves reflected to start materials [Music] oh you don't understand imagine see him have no power anymore no more oppression no more abuse they're more Darkness I was doing a show called private Zone parade at the donmar warehouse Indra Varma was in it we were talking about Lord of the Rings I think now so you need to read a Lord of the Rings and she in return said you need to read his dark materials I was like okay I'll read them and I started reading this dark materials and blew my mind absolutely loved it when my very good friend Caroline Crawford who cast the show started talking to me about the fact that she was going to cast his dark materials I was so excited we chatted Lots we went through everything because I know the books inside out but I kind of thought there's not really a part for me in it you know we're about a month or two later she came to me it was kind of like we're split someone else let him down at the last minute she went hey how would you feel about playing Lord azio balakwa and I went when would you like me to start and she said Monday and I was like okay great I'm doing it I happen to be available and I loved it I just I knew exactly what I was going to do with the character from the minute she said do you want to do this I believe Group found evidence of these multiple worlds and he paid for it with his life his life and his body preserved in the ice off sval bar I brought back his head I believe you knew him best sub Rector big rumen who would have done this gentlemen there is a war raging between those trying to keep us in ignorance and those like grooming willing to fight for the light to fight for True academic freedom in season three you see a hell of a lot more of them we get to see him more as a soldier we get to see him more as a leader of a burgeoning society but we get to see his ego truly challenged and collapse and the sort of dismantling of his ego to allow him to actually see the truth he is doing something that is for the greater good but it's also about him he needs to be the star of the show he thinks he's the Messiah actually [Music] take me there the north is no place for a child I've got one tattoo but if I was to get another one and my tattoo is very very subdued and you wouldn't even notice that all the time you'd think it was just a mark if I was going to get any tattoo of any note it would be a quote from the book and it would be Phillips line uh tell them stories because I think that is so fundamental to human nature we need stories it's a weird thing we need food we need shower we need sex we need power we need water but we need stories it isn't just an industry it isn't just an entertainment of an evening it's part of what we need as a species we might not always need it but right now I think we still need it we survive on stories because they're there to reflect us and that's why all parts of culture all parts of society all Races Creeds colors religions and sexualities and everything needs to be represented art is there for us to look at ourselves and see ourselves represented you can criticize the viewer or you can entertain the viewer you can shock if you're you can celebrate the viewer but we all need to see ourselves up there

Channel: British GQ

Views: 1,627,433

Keywords: british gq, gq, gq iconic characters, his dark materials, iconic characters, james mcavoy, james mcavoy acting, james mcavoy filth, james mcavoy his dark materials, james mcavoy iconic characters, james mcavoy interview, james mcavoy mr tumnus, james mcavoy narnia, james mcavoy shameless, james mcavoy split, james mcavoy x men, james mcavoy x-men, lord asriel his dark materials, mr tumnus narnia, the chronicles of narnia

Id: DuKpwolfNX8

Length: 14min 6sec (846 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 07 2022