By Christina Radish

James McAvoy at the Los Angeles Film Festival premiere of "Wanted" held at the Mann Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. on June 19, 2008.

In bringing Wanted from comic book to big screen, Russian director Timur Bekmambetov knew that Scottish actor James McAvoy was the perfect choice to play this different kind of hero. McAvoy spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about the Universal Pictures action thriller, and what it was like making such a stunts-laden film.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Initially, Wesley is a loser, but even within your facial expressions throughout the film, there’s an amazing transformation that you make. What was the process that you went through, as an actor, in order to do that?

James McAvoy> One of the things that really attracted me to the film was that it was a big, silly piece of entertainment, of course, but that the basis of the journey, and the basis from which we create this action hero, or anti-hero, is that he’s this clinically depressed person. He’s a real sufferer of post-modern depression, apathy and angst, and I thought that was a quite true and sad place to begin. It was important for me that it wasn’t all done just with costume, which is easy to do. Although, we did do it with costume as well because, as soon as he goes to the Fraternity, he wears new clothes. So, it was important for me that the journey still had a long way to go, and that’s done physically, like just walking taller when you’re further on in the film, and how you wear your shoulders, and facially. Wesley is so dis-empowered, it’s very difficult for him to take control of his face. He’s so dis-empowered, it’s very difficult for him to mobilize his face. He gets more expressive as the film goes on, which hopefully signifies more self-worth and willingness to communicate because you feel powerful in your space, and all of that. So, I didn’t prepare for it too much, but those were the things that I thought about, when I was thinking about how to plot the journey. He starts in a very interesting, depressed place, and he ends in a very interesting, psychopathic place, but the most interesting thing is how he gets from A to B.                                                            

MediaBlvd> The end of the film isn’t exactly a victory lap for Wesley. He’s not a great guy, is he?

James> No. He’s done some questionable things. He’s murdered a lot of people. I don’t think he walks into the sunset, going, “Ah, I can get on with my life now.” I think he’s probably really screwed up, and possibly quite a bad person, at the end of the film. I’m not certain that he goes off and becomes a good person.

MediaBlvd> Is it difficult to go from doing a movie like Rory O’Shea Was Here, where you’re basically immobile for the whole film, to doing Wanted, where you never stop running and doing stunts?

James> I don’t know. It was very different. But, that’s the joy of it. You want to do stuff that’s really different and really challenging, in many ways, not just artistically, mentally or psychologically, but physically as well. So, it was different and totally challenging.        

MediaBlvd> What was it like, transitioning from drama films, like Atonement and The Last King of Scotland, to a big-budget, CGI, action-oriented film, like Wanted?

James> I had a little glimpse of it with TV, when I did a thing called Children of Dune. And, I probably had a more movie-type glimpse of it on Narnia, but I wasn’t in a lot of Narnia. It is totally different, but making any movie is the most chaotic thing you can imagine. There’s never enough time and there’s never enough money, no matter how big your budget, or how small your budget, or your schedule. Weirdly, there’s a lot of similarities. The thing that I didn’t know was that there are more people on set, concerned with money, than on a small film. The producer and director sometimes get really uptight about money, but other people are gettin’ on with their job, artistically. On this kind of job, even the stuntmen are concerned about the fact that we’re about to blow $500,000 on a stunt that will take three seconds to go wrong, if it’s going to work at all. And, you might have a big, epic acting scene in the middle of it all, but nobody really gives a shit ‘cause they’ve all got their own financial thing to worry about, and that’s quite interesting. That was new. That leaves you in a place of isolation, but also in a place of great freedom. You go, “Nobody’s watching, I can do what I like,” and that’ good. I like that.

MediaBlvd> When you did press for Starter for 10 last year, you were about to start shooting Wanted and you said you were excited to work with Timur Bekmambetov because he’s an evil genius. How did he stack up to your expectations?

James> He lived up to them. He was very evil, and very genius. He applies this technique that’s sort of like a principle of inversion, where he’ll get you to do the scene the way it’s written, and then he’ll have you do the opposite. Very quickly, you start to get something quite interesting. It doesn’t always work. Sometimes, you’re like, “This doesn’t work at all.” But, sometimes it really does work and, for some reason, you never see it when you read it. You’re just scared of getting it wrong. You want to get it right, and that stops you from exploring things in a radical fashion. Sometimes, in trying to get it wrong on purpose, or purposefully trying to fuck it up, the actor is so thrown out of their preconceived notion of the way the scene should be, that you find something new. And, it might not totally work, but maybe you get something small. That was such a good thing, and one that I hope to use in the future as well, if it doesn’t piss the directors off too much.

MediaBlvd> So, he’s good at getting you out of your head?

James> Yeah, really good. And, good at managing the chaos. Action movies can be particularly chaotic, and he’s really good at managing that chaos.

MediaBlvd> Did you read the graphic novel beforehand, and did it have any effect on how you saw the material, since it’s quite different from the film?

James> I read the graphic novel after I read the script, but before I did my screen test for the film. And, I was a little bit freaked out because the character is so clearly, visually based on Eminem, and Angelina’s character is so clearly, visually based on Halle Berry. I thought, “This is fucking weird!” But, I really liked it. It’s totally different, though. The first half-hour of the film rides along the same path -- its genesis is the same -- and then, it really goes off on wild tangents. It was strange that I hadn’t read it because the guy who wrote it is from Glasgow, where I’m from. There’s quite a lot of Scottish graphic novelists and comic book writers, which is kind of strange.

MediaBlvd> What was tougher to get a grip on, firearms or an American accent?

James> I’ve got to say firearms, to be honest with you. They just freak me out. I’m still a bit scared of them, so I’m not sure that I ever became totally comfortable with them. Hopefully, it’s not too evident in the film. And, with the American accent, I was just winging it. There were lots of Americans around the set, so I just copied whatever they were saying. I usually use a voice coach, when I do an American accent. There was a woman on Band of Brothers, who oversaw everyone, and she was great. So, when I did Penelope, I sought her out. She’s just brilliant. She’s the best voice coach around. But, she wasn’t available, so I thought, “Well, I’m wingin’ it. I’m just going to see how it goes.”

MediaBlvd> You and Angelina Jolie had incredible chemistry, but you also had great chemistry, as an ensemble. What was it like working with both Angelina and Morgan Freeman?

James> When Morgan got cast, I was beside myself, and quite nervous as well. Being on set with him is brilliant. I don’t know what it is about Morgan, but even when I was in high school, he resonates with kids, even with things like The Shawshank Redemption, which was one of those films that every kid had seen, when I was at school. He just leaps out at you. So, getting to work with him was incredible. It was such a privilege. He’s just a brilliant actor, and full of great stories as well. And, Angelina, first and foremost, is a fantastic actress, but also just a chilled out lady and quite a normal person, quite contrary to all the things that you’re led to believe, or that you imagine, with all the hype. I’m an actor and I should know better, but you still fall prey to it, a little bit. She was really cool and really nice, and we got on well. She was totally capable of having a good laugh, at her own expense, at everyone else’s expense, at the job, at the script, at the scene, at the director. It was good fun.

MediaBlvd> You have a scene in the film with Thomas Kretschmann, where you’re having this big, emotional moment while you’re dangling between two cars of a train that’s hanging half-way off a bridge. Do you find having that kind of physical location, and those elements to juggle, makes it harder to do the drama in the scene, or does it focus you?

James> It didn’t make harder, simply because we were in a train carriage that was about 50 feet in the air, and that plate of glass that we were on was supported. When I shoot the gun and it drops, it really did drop about 30 feet. I wasn’t secured, so it was fucking terrifying. Thomas was secured on. He was tied on with a belt. So, when the train dropped, my knees came off of it, a little bit. There was half a second of free-fall. It was quite scary. That was quite a scary set, even though it was green screen and fabricated. It wasn’t one of those things, where you’re in a cardboard green space and you have to imagine everything. The threat was real, but just a different one, from the one in the film. I loved that bit. That was really cool.

MediaBlvd> Was that the scariest stunt that you had to do?

James> No. The scariest stunt I had to do was probably the bit where I had to jump over a bridge. A lot of it was CGI, but the bridge was real and the train was real, and they were actually moving the bridge towards us, as well as the train towards the bridge, to get extra speed. And, I had to jump through a fence. The fence was wooden, but it was balsa wood. It had been sewn through to break easily, but it was fucking painful. And, every time I went through it, I’d go through with my head first, and that was pretty hard core. And then, there’s a bit with a car going about 30 mph, coming along the road, and I’m chasing after Thomas and he’s getting really far ahead of me. I think, “Well, I’ll jump on here and pop a ride,” and then the thing stops and I go flying off the top, and something smashes into the side. That was all real. There were no wires. There was no fancy editing. We had lots of different shots, obviously, but there were no wires.

MediaBlvd> So, you had to jump onto a moving car?

James> Yeah. And so, we’d do it at like 5 mph, and then we’d do it again at 6 mph. We built it up 1 mph each time, until we were up to 30 mph. So, I felt really comfortable with all the action, but there’s still a voice in the back of your head, going, “Stop this now, you fuckin’ idiot!”

MediaBlvd> Your character goes on a journey, where he starts out as a loser, but becomes empowered. Do you find that he could be an inspiration to the average person?

James> I hope he’s not an inspiration, but I hope he’s a provider of fantasy. It is an adult male and female fantasy, of the person with angst, just going, “Fuck it all!,” and rebelling against it, starting with the lambasting of your boss, which I think is something we can all identify with. It’s quite empowering, just to think of that even. So, hopefully, it’s a little bit of wish fulfillment, but not an inspiration. I don’t want anybody going out and killing anyone.

MediaBlvd> At the end of the film, you find yourself rooting for the bad guy and you’re happy that he’s pulled off whatever bad thing he’s done. Do you think that will make the audience feel invigorated?

James> I hope so. I like the ending. I thought it was camp as knickers, but I quite like it. I suppose it’s kind of a guilty pleasure, at the end, because it’s questionable. Wesley’s entire journey is really questionable. It’s quite artistically aggressive and violent, really, but I quite like that, so it’s good fun.

MediaBlvd> Were you tempted to keep Wesley’s sad blue windbreaker?

James> That thing had its own micro-climate. You didn’t breathe, whatsoever. And, I had to do so many scenes of action in that thing. I was like a walking wet room. It was like a wet sauna inside there. It was so steamy, it was unbelievable. And, the sweat would just catch inside it and be really salty.

MediaBlvd> Hypothetically, if Wanted makes a lot of money, would you be interested in following Wesley on his journey?

James> Yeah, definitely! Not if they wrote a terrible script, but I’m sure they wouldn’t. I’m sure they’d write something good. I have no idea where he goes, though. I have no idea what happens to him. But, yeah, it would definitely be interesting.

MediaBlvd> After you wrapped this big action film, did you find it really empowering and want to do it again, or did you just want to go for a pint and find another Jane Austen adaptation to do?

James> I think I had a reaction somewhere in between. I was very pleased to finish the film. I was absolutely shattered, physically. I was just spent. And, I spent a long time away from home, and was really looking forward to going back, so a pint was high on my list of priorities. Although, making the film in the Czech Republic means that you have access to fantastic beer. But, no, I don’t think I wanted to run back to a Jane Austen adaptation. Although, the next film that I did, The Last Station, is set in 1910, but it’s not Jane Austen. I just wanted to do something different again. I wanted to get away from action, but I also wanted to do something I hadn’t done before. So, hopefully, the next thing I do will not be action based, but likewise won’t be Jane Austen-y and won’t be Atonement-y and won’t be Last King-y, and won’t be anything that I’ve done before. I just want to keep trying to do new things.