Blockbuster's Marshall Julius chats with Scottish twentysomething James McAvoy about his kick ass action movie debut in Wanted.
Wanted was an incredible change of pace and style for me," says McAvoy. "That was really why I did it. When I look for something to do, I ask myself, 'Is it different? Is it challenging? Does it make me employ a new acting style?'
Wanted satisfied all those things. But still I wasn't certain that it would be anything other than just another action movie that went straight to DVD, until I looked at Timur's previous work and realised that it was definitely going to be different. I was very, very excited."
Based on a blistering comicbook miniseries by master of the art Mark Millar,
Wanted stars McAvoy as a lowly office worker who discovers he's the son of the world's greatest assassin, and that he's inherited his dad's superhuman killing skills. "This guy is almost suicidal with apathy and depression," notes McAvoy, "and then he becomes, not a superhero but an anti-hero, a psychopathic killer. It's in his DNA to kill people, which is kind of disturbing."
Far from the cerebral fare he was used to,
Wanted required McAvoy to submit to weeks of relentless physical preparation. "I didn't know what I was letting myself in for! I'd never really spent any time in a gym before, but to have a reason to do it was quite exciting, and to have someone force me to do it was advantageous. So, for six weeks before we made the film I did it and I loved it.
"Four weeks in to the shoot itself, I was still feeling great, but by the fifth week in, I was doing stunts for 12 hours a day, and then going to the gym for 90 minutes every night, and I was like, 'You know what, you can stick this!' But my trainer, Glen Chapman, who's brilliant and kicked seven tonnes of poo out of me on a daily basis, really forced me to keep going every day for the next three months. I'm glad he did because I wouldn't have been able to get through this film if I hadn't been fit."
As a seasoned assassin who teaches McAvoy the ropes, action movie veteran
Angelina Jolie helped her young co-star get his head around his violent new role. "She was great," enthuses McAvoy. She's such a cool, chilled-out person, and good for a laugh too. The thing I appreciated from her more than anything else - because she had lots of tips and advice - was that you shouldn't take yourself too seriously.
"I remember one time we were on top of a train and I had to jump over a bridge. I was on a big wire and had to crash through a fence, and I kept saying, 'Actually, this is really painful.' And her best piece of advice was, 'Just shut up and enjoy it!' Action films are not about changing the world. They're about entertainment and having a good time. If the people who make them can't enjoy the process, we should give the job to somebody who does. Because it's a privilege and a really good time."
McAvoy even managed to enjoy himself during sequences in which Jolie beats him to a bloody pulp. "In fight scenes you do two things: you swing punches and you take punches. Swinging punches is fine, but for some reason the best part about doing a fight scene is taking a hit and making it look good. I got a lot of satisfaction out of that, so even though being beaten up by Angelina totally undermined me as a man, I was happy!"
Available now from Blockbuster, Wanted's incredible success during its theatrical run appears to have guaranteed that it'll be back, with McAvoy, in sequel form. "With
Wanted I got to satisfy the yearnings of the 16 year-old boy inside of me, by breaking things, jumping up and down, and beating people up. If I'm offered the chance to do it again, that's what I'll do!"