James McAvoy is a jack of all trades. He has wooed Keira Knightley ('Atonement') and Anne Hathaway ('Being Jane'), and had the stuffing knocked out of him by the most badass starlet of them all, Angelina Jolie, in 'Wanted.' He'll soon come to Robin Wright's defense in Robert Redford's historical drama 'The Conspirator,' and is hard at work filming the hotly anticipated 'X-Men: First Class,' in which he plays a young Professor Charles Xavier, opposite Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones and Nicholas Hoult.
The Scottish actor, who has a seriously adorable accent, is also voicing the titular garden gnome in Disney's 'Gnomeo & Juliet.' The 31-year-old actor talked to PopEater about whether he wears a kilt in the proper Scottish style (that's commando), the "slightly naughty, kinky-looking" garden gnomes he grew up with and why "if you're going to have the s**t kicked out of you by someone, it might as well be Angelina Jolie."
When you first heard 'Gnomeo & Juliet' was based on 'Romeo and Juliet,' did you think that the gnomes would kill themselves at the end?
Yeah, kind of. I thought, "But it's a tragedy," so how can you make it not a tragedy? Although Tybalt does die, which is kind of really harsh. I know he comes back at the end, so he can get super-glued back together, but for all intents and purposes at the beginning of the film he dies. I was very shocked. In a kid's film one of the characters dies!
Did you grow up with garden gnomes?
I did actually. I think we had three in our garden. We had one little frog, and we had two others that were slightly naughty, kinky-looking gnomes.
What do you mean? Did they have their trousers down?
One of them did have his trousers down.
Was he showing any naughty bits?
No, just his bum and the other one looked very abashed.
Did you notice your character has rather thick eyebrows?
I didn't notice that. I hope it doesn't take away from the performance.
You're the father of a baby boy. It must be exciting to think he will be able to hear your voice in a Disney cartoon movie.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think that's one of the things, in general, actors like to do. Something to show their family and their kids. I think it's a big attraction for a lot of people to do these films. You want to tell stories that people appreciate, and if you can capture children, there's something fantastic about that.
You worked with Angelina Jolie.
Aye.
She's so tough. Did you feel emasculated?
Well, she did spend half the film kicking the s**t out of me, so yeah, it was kind of hard to not feel emasculated. But that was kind of part of it really, and it was fun. If you're going to have the s**t kicked out of you by someone, then it might as well be Angelina Jolie. She's very good at it, and she does get a kick out of it, I think, doing those fight scenes.
Ever wear a kilt?
When I'm at home [in Scotland], I never wear a kilt. I'd probably get mugged; I'd probably get absolutely torn to pieces. Every now and then, if Scotland's football team is playing an international match, I'll put my kilt on. I have worn my kilt once walking around my home in London, and I went through a period of about two days where I went, "Yeah, I'm Scottish, I can wear my kilt wherever I like." I asked a friend of mine, "What do you think?" and he said, "Well you look like a dick." So I stopped wearing my kilt.
Did you wear it properly, commando-style?
At all times.
Elton John produced this movie ['Gnomeo'] and did the music. That must have been fantastic working with him?
I'm meeting him today. That will be the first time I meet my boss and musical collaborator for this film. Shame we're not doing this interview in two hours, I could give you first impressions.
First impressions, what are you going to say? He's an arsehole? You're going to say he's great.
I'm always honest.
So, call me later and tell me what you really thought of him.
Will do!
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