James McAvoy appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his role as the villain in the new horror film Speak No Evil, but his revelation about M. Night Shyamalan’s Split has caused a stir on social media. McAvoy said he only had about two weeks to prepare for his various roles in the thriller because he was cast at the last minute after Joaquin Phoenix reportedly dropped out a few weeks before filming began.
When asked if it was weird to take on the role of Phoenix, McAvoy replied, “No, definitely not. I’m confident enough to believe that I’ll do better anyway. That was a joke. I just like saying the wrong thing.”
“Are you kidding? He’s a great actor,” McAvoy said. “His performance was very different to what I did, but incredible. Sometimes it’s best to come in at the last minute. I think he cancelled two weeks before shooting started. It was really last minute. I had a couple of weeks (to prepare). Two weeks. The script was well put together, so a lot of what I wanted to do was immediately clear. Finding a few characters took a little longer. Patricia came quickly. Hedwig took a while.”
McAvoy played a criminal with dissociative identity disorder in “Split,” which led the actor to portray 23 different personalities. He reprised the role in 2019’s “Glass.” McAvoy said it was only during the reading test that he was able to find all of the different characters, as he had to take on the role on such short notice.
diversity has reached out to Phoenix’s representative for further comment.
Phoenix recently made headlines for dropping out of a new film by Todd Haynes five days before filming began. Phoenix’s decision forced Haynes and his team to put the project on hold indefinitely. A source close to the production said diversity that Phoenix got “cold feet.” Entire sets were built in Guadalajara, Mexico, before Phoenix made the last-minute decision to drop out of the film.
When Phoenix attended the Venice Film Festival earlier this month to celebrate the world premiere of “Joker: Folie à Deux,” he was asked about his decision to drop out of the Haynes film. He responded, “If I do that (make a comment), I would only be giving my opinion from my perspective and the other creatives are not here to give their opinion and so I don’t think that would be helpful.”
Speak No Evil is now in theaters nationwide. Watch McAvoy’s full interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast in the video below.
