By He’s cheeky, charming, handsome, and more Scottish than a deep fried Mars bar. Actor James McAvoy is also a diehard “Star Trek” fan.
In a recent lengthy interview with Happy Sad Confused to promote the horror remake “Speak No Evil,” the “X-Men: First Class” and “Wanted” actor discussed his love of Trek (he’s primarily a TNG fan) and revealed that he was almost in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” film in 2009.
Turns out he was offered a part he didn’t want and so had to turn it down:
“I came close [to a role]…. I can’t tell you who. I got offered something, [but] I didn’t want to do that; I suggested I could do something else. They wanted to camera test me, and I was like, ‘You know what? It’s alright, don’t worry about it.’ [But] not because I wouldn’t, but because I just didn’t think it was right.
What I said to J.J. about what I thought the role should be and the kind of actor that should be, they absolutely got. But the kind of person I thought, I’m not, is exactly the person who got it, so it was brilliant, and I loved the new one; I loved J.J.’s films; they’re excellent.”
He also confirmed he was nearly in the “Harry Potter” franchise back in its earliest days. The now 45-year-old McAvoy was 22 when the first film came out in 2001 and reveals he was up for playing Voldemort in his young Tom Riddle says:
“I was nearly in ‘Harry Potter,’ almost, yeah. It was the very first movie, and the [role] was – Tom Riddle, he was in the first one, right?. He’s in it for a scene, in a flashback? And they had – I seem to remember it right at the beginning of my career, I auditioned for it, and I think they wanted to put me on a retainer.
They offered me something like – it was crazy; I had hardly done any work and myself and – I think ten other actors. They wanted to put us on a retainer so they could hold us and keep us to choose later who it would be; it was a really strange thing.
And they offered quite a lot of money for me at that time – it was a ton of money, it was like 40,000 pounds or something like that, but I wouldn’t have been allowed to do any work for about seven months, I think.”
McAvoy consulted with his agent who said ‘absolutely not’ and so he passed. The actor adds he hopes to do more sci-fi and more comedy in the future, genres he hasn’t done much of over his career.
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