James McAvoy: Acting, X-Men & Directing His First Film

How did James McAvoy become one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood?

Actor and director James McAvoy joins Romesh Ranganathan for a very special episode talking about acting, accents and the difference from Hollywood to home.

James talks about accidentally getting into acting, why his philosophy is always “story first” and how he approaches building characters. Plus his skill at mastering accents, training as a pastry chef, bad reviews and being a part of the X‑Men family.

We also discuss James' new film and his directorial debut, California Schemin'.

And as always, a question from Shanthi.

A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform.

00:00 Intro
00:20 James joke and the stereotype of podcasts
04:15 James and Rom discuss Jordan Peterson
07:32 A gift for James
09:07 A moment for some Monster Munch
10:22 Early beginnings and getting into acting
18:20 Training as a pastry chef & Bake Off
20:12 Accents, agents and acting
29:28 Crying and vomiting on request
31:20 James and his agent Ruth
32:56 Romesh’s dad’s brutal honesty
34:24 The X-Men Films
38:18 James and Romesh on bad reviews
45:30 Future work and legacy
48:01 A question from Shanthi
49:72 California Scheming
01:03:19 Misquoted
01:10:28 On getting older
01:13:22 Meantime and Frankie Boyle
01:14:24 Outro

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