Jamesy Boy

why, hello there.

Continuing my posts about Glaswegian actors. Next up: James McAvoy.

He was born and lived in Glasgow until he was 20, then he moved to London.

I've seen almost all of his movies and he's definitely one of my Top 5 favourite actors of all time.
So buckle up cause this is going to be a long one.

In my opinion his first break came when he did a part in the film Wimbledon (2004). After that he had a small part in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005).
But his real big break was in The Last King of Scotland (2006) when he portrayed the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's (Forest Whitaker) physician. He got a lot of critical acclaim for that part, including a BAFTA nomination (he also won the Rising Star Award that year) and a BAFTA Scotland win.

Jamesy Boy in
Atonement

He went on to star in movies like Penelope (2006) opposite Christina Ricci (<-- love him in that movie), Starter for 10 based on David Nicholls' novel with the same title and Becoming Jane opposite Anne Hathaway, the Jane Austen biopic, where he showed us what classic fictional heroes like Mr. Darcy and Edward Ferrars were based on.

But my favourite role of his and arguably one of his best is in Atonement starring opposite Keira Knightley and directed by Joe Wright, one of my favourite directors. The film is based on the novel by Ian McEwan, and is also one of very few movies that actually managed to be properly adapted from a book, also on that list Pride & Prejudice (2005) (incidentally also directed by Wright. Coincidence? I thing not.) Just thinking about that movie makes me tear up. Such a sad and beautiful story. And even McAvoy himself said that the script for Atonement was the best he had ever read.

Clicky for more. Do it.



In 2008 he starred in the action movie Wanted with Angelina Jolie, and a sequel is currently in pre-production.
His most recent projects include The Last Station (2009) with Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, and The Conspirator (2010) directed by Robert Redford. (click on the movies for a link to the trailers)

His wife, Anne-Marie Duff whom he met on the set of the television series Shameless, was also in the film The Last Station. She's also been in films like Nowhere Boy (one of my favourite British films, about John Lennon's youth) and The Magdalene Sisters directed by Peter Mullan, the inspiration for my previous post. (I believe that is another connection...)

He is set to star in X-Men: First Class as Professor Charles Xavier with Michael Fassbender (of Jane Eyre) this summer.

Chilling.

It is rumoured that he will be in the film adaptation of the novel Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and that he might portray Kurt Cobain in his untitled biopic.

All in all he has a very promising career and I'm always excited to see any movie that he's in cause he just always delivers such strong performances and he never disappoints (it also doesn't hurt that he's very easy on the eyes).

And as a bonus here's James McAvoy in his most recent talk show appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live where he's promoting his film Gnomeo & Juliette, an animated film with Emily Blunt.