James McAvoy is waiting for a coffee (black and “posh”) and is talking about religious faith and his lack of it. In his childhood and early teens, the actor was a regular church-goer. He didn’t believe. “I think I just did it. And whenever I was in a pickle or a bind, suddenly faith came into it: ‘Please, God, I promise I’ll make my bed if you make this teeth-pulling thing not hurt!’”
McAvoy was born in Glasgow and raised by working-class, Catholic grandparents in the wake of his parents’ split, when he was seven. (He has a sister, Joy, who is also an actor.) I ask if his grandparents were devout. “No,” McAvoy says. “In fact, my granda’ was a Protestant and my granny was a Catholic. But my granda’ went to Catholic church. They were a weird mix – very good, church-going Catholics. And then, round about when I turned 16, they just stopped making me go.”
