My keen admiration for actor James McAvoy goes up a notch when he comes onto our Zoom call using the screen name “Mr Fantastico”. It looks like he’s in a hotel room. “Naw, I’m at home. We just painted our ceiling to look like a hotel,” says the 43-year-old in his still-broad Glaswegian accent.
After we speak, McAvoy is flying to Rome for a four-day stint playing Pontius Pilate on Jeymes Samuels’ film The Book of Clarence. This commitment meant he had to miss Sunday’s 66th Evening Standard Theatre Awards in association with Garrard at the Ivy, where he was named Best Actor for his stunning lead performance in Jamie Lloyd’s production of Cyrano de Bergerac. “I’m gutted not to be there,” he says.
