X-men’s James McAvoy has declared himself “Glasgow’s answer to Stormzy” after he learned to rap for his new stage show.
The Scots actor will from this week star in a revival of French classic Cyrano De Bergerac in London’s West End.
The new version is a radical shift from the traditional story, with playright Martin Crimp setting it in a modern context and putting rapping at its heart.
Asked about how difficult it is to rap in the new play, Glaswegian McAvoy, from Drumchapel, joked: “I’m clearly Glasgow’s answer to Stormzy.”
He said on the Graham Norton Show : “I’ve spent 20-odd years wrestling with the rythmn and rhyme of Shakespeare and poetry and all sorts of stuff.
“So when Martin Crimp writes it, it’s easier and better and you don’t even need to try, it just comes out of you.”
McAvoy, 42, also told how he had to climb up a tree to avoid being injured by a speeding car during filming of his latest film, My Son, which is set in Lochaber.
He said scenes were improvised but the director sent a car down a country lane after him without telling him, then asked him to climb the tree again because he wasn’t happy with it.
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