James McAvoy revealed that two authors suggested he was miscast for their on-screen projects.
This comes after the X-Men actor opened up about the racist abuse his cast-mates faced in Glasgow while touring Cyrano de Bergerac in Glasgow. The Scots star admitted he was 'scunnered' by the abuse, and was relieved to leave Scotland when the tour took them to Brooklyn.
The Glasgow-born actor has starred in a variety of book to film adaptations by Stephen King, Zadie Smith, Ian McEwan, Philip Pullman, and more. James, 43, is promoting the fourth season of the BBC's adaptation of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman where he plays Asriel.
Speaking ahead of the new seasons release, McAvoy told The Guardian that he's not met the series author out of worry he wouldn't approve of his casting. McAvoy continued: “I’ve had that with a writer, and it’s just not nice. I’ve had that with two writers, actually.”
When asked for the names of the two authors who weren't best pleased with his casting, McAvoy clarified that it wasn't Irvine Welsh or Stephen King. McAvoy starred in the adaptation of Welsh’s 1998 novel Filth (2013), and the sequel to the film adaptation of King’s 1986 horror novel It (2019).
“Nah, Irvine loved that,” speaking of Filth. He added: “Stephen was really nice and I didn’t know what to expect from him. I love his books and I think he’s f***ing amazing.”
When asked if it was Ian McEwan, as McAvoy starred in Joe Wright’s 2007 adaptation of Atonement alongside Keira Knightley.
“He wasn’t disparaging,” recalled McAvoy. “He just gave me… nothing. And I was a bit devastated. Then he said I was a bit small – because my character Robbie, was meant to be this 6ft tanned Adonis, and I was a 25-year-old pasty Glaswegian who’s 5ft-nothing.”
He added that another writer to criticise his casting in their work was novelist Zadie Smith, after McAvoy starred opposite Naomie Harris and Om Puri in a TV adaptation of her book White Teeth.
“She didn’t say I was bad at playing the part,” explained McAvoy. “She told me I was the wrong casting because I was too little – the character should have been more overweight.”
“I was like: ‘Oh, you could have said: ‘Nice job, thought you did great, I never saw him as a skinnier guy.’ It was just: ‘You’re not overweight enough,’” he recalled. “Ah, great, OK, no worries…”
