New action star to become most wanted actor in Hollywood

He's only been part of the American movie industry for three years – following a breakthrough in 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but thanks to his latest role alongside Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman, James McAvoy looks set to become a hot household name.

Loosely based on the comic book mini-series of the same name, Wanted, out now in the UAE, sees McAvoy play Wesley Gibson, a 25-year-old office employee. He is then offered the chance to avenge the death of his assassin father and is trained by his father's partner, Sloan (Freeman), and by Sloan's second-in-command, Fox (Jolie). Here, the 29-year-old Scot talks about the film, and how he feels about becoming the next Matt Damon.

With reports of a sequel, do you see Wanted as a platform for a franchise, something that could follow in the footsteps of the Bourne movies?

Goodness. I don't know actually. It'd be nice if it had a life after this, but it has to make some money for that to be the case.

What about creating a character that you can buy into?

Certainly, if he has somewhere to go. Half the fun of this film is watching him change, really. So if you do another film, he's already there, he's already changed. By the end of the film, as much as he's gotten revenge and might be victorious and all that, it's not a "yeah!" kind of moment. He's quite unhealthy psychologically at that point. So maybe there's something there, some darker place. I don't know though.

How did you learn to become an assassin in the film?

There was a lot of physical training that went into it. There was a lot of fight training with the fight team. My stunt double was the three-time world kickboxing champion, and we had kickboxing sessions every morning. On top of that, we had the gun training, which I was completely new to. That was probably the hardest thing for me because I found it very hard not to blink while I was shooting and all of that stuff.

As an actor, what satisfaction do you get from something like this?

The satisfaction I get watching it is different because I find watching something like Atonement very difficult, probably because I'm very emotionally connected to that character still and what happens to him is so awful. But something like this, it's hilarious watching myself do those things and be made to look much cooler than I could ever possibly be.

What about experience on the set? Do you take the same joy out of this character as some of the others?

There is a lot more action in the film and that was actually quite satisfying to do because I've never done it before and so I felt like I was learning new things.

How do you do the American accent so well?

My country only has five million people in it and we don't produce very much TV or film anymore. So we watch a lot of American film and TV, and that makes it really, really easy. That's why we can do the American accent, but Americans find the Scottish accent harder.

You got to kiss Angelina Jolie...

Yeah. I was acting, totally. She's a married woman. Well, she kind of is, and I'm a married guy, so you kind of just get on with it and do your job. She's a nice lady. And for all the hype that follows her around, I'm an actor and I should know better, but you still can't help being informed by the media, by people you've never met.

Tell us about the cyber-scan technology. Did they do one of you?

We did do a cyber-scan, yeah.

That gives the director the power to change your performance a little, make a smile last a bit longer or your eyes a little different – they can do that. How do you feel about that?

I'm disgusted by it. In this film, my character goes into assassin mode several times where his heart beats really fast. For that, I just raised my blood pressure – you know, so you make yourself go faint, and make your face red. So I did all that and the veins popped out of my head. Then they augmented it by putting an extra vein in my head and making it throb. I was like, "Come on, I was doing it anyway and you had to go over-egg the pudding".

How did you get into the business?

It was luck. I didn't want to be an actor when I got my first job, but someone offered me an audition and I thought, 'Why not? They'll have to pay me if I get the job'. I was 16 and that gave me the idea to maybe do something. I then went to drama school for three years. So it was luck really. I would've never arrived at it on my own. I was never in drama class.

Finally, your next movie is The Last Station, which you're filming in Germany. What's that about?

It's based on the collected memoirs of various members of Tolstoy's sort of inner circle in the last year of his life. So it's multiple points of view: from the diaries of his wife, who is played by Dame Helen Mirren, from the view of his closest confidant and colleague, played by Paul Giamatti, and from the point of view of my character, Valentin Bulgakov, who was his secretary for the final year of his life.

It's about them all trying to wrangle the control of his philosophical and political works. It is very serious, but it's all about love. It's also funny. It's going to be good fun as well as very heavy.



PROFILE: James McAvoy, Actor

Born in 1979, James Andrew McAvoy is a Scottish actor who initially found fame in the United Kingdom thanks to his role as Steve McBride in British comedy Shameless.

He made it internationally following his big-league debut as Mr Tunmus in the 2005 blockbuster The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

However, he is better known for his starring roles in the Academy Award-winning The Last King of Scotland, with Forest Whitaker and Atonement, opposite Keira Knightley. McAvoy has been nominated for two BAFTAs, two European Film and two Golden Globe awards.

The actor married Shameless co-star Anne-Marie Duff, 38, in 2006. The couple live in London.

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