James McAvoy is a busy man. He’s playing Dream in an audiobook version of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, starring in the improvised movie My Son on Peacock, and preparing to return as Lord Asriel in the third season of His Dark Materials on HBO. And that could just be the beginning. Are there any roles he hasn’t played yet that he wishes he could?
Collider asked him that question during a recent interview, and he had his answer ready. “I mean, I’ve often talked about loving Star Trek, and jokingly, but also kind of seriously been like, if you ever want to do a young Jean-Luc Picard, I’m your man. But I’m probably getting close to being too old to do a young Jean-Luc Picard now. So there’s that.”
"I mean, I remember when they made Lord of the Rings, the first time. (You have to say the first time, because Amazon is doing it again.) I remember me and my mate, Ross, just sitting in a pub and just being like, What’s the point of becoming an actor? They’ve already made the best story ever written. And so there was that out the window. But then, now we live in the land of remakes, so there’s always a chance. There’s always a chance that you’re going to get on a show. But the only one that comes to mind is Star Trek, I think. I’ve always loved it. Always."
Jean-Luc Picard was the captain of the USS Enterprise on Star Trek: Generations, memorably played by Patrick Stewart (who’s now back in Star Trek: Picard, speaking of the land of remakes). Stewart also played Professor X in several X-Men movies, only for James McAvoy to take over the role once the films started to be set in the past. So this is a man who knows how to play Patrick Stewart.
“I’ve successfully been Patrick, actually, and balded up, although maybe again, the young Jean-Luc wouldn’t be bald,” McAvoy mused. “But yeah, no, maybe I’m overqualified for it, though. That’s the other thing. Do you know what I mean? It’s too easy, it’s too obvious a choice. So maybe that turns people off from it.”
That said, it sounds like McAvoy is done playing Professor X. “I feel like I got to explore, not everything I wanted to explore, because there’s always more, surely, but I got to explore a ton of Professor X, and I feel quite satisfied with what I got out of him as a performer,” he said. “It’s not to say that you don’t ever want to, you never want to come back, and you never want to do it again, and all that kind of stuff. You never say never, as I believe James Bond once said. But I’m not chomping at the bit. I’m not going to be gutted and desperately sad if it never happens again.”
Does James McAvoy have any advice for Dune star Timothée Chalamet?
Clearly, McAvoy has a fondness for sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes…all of it. And we haven’t even talked about one of his biggest sci-fi roles: Leto Atreides II in Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune, a miniseries that aired on the Sci-Fi Channel back in 2003. The series adapted the second and third books in Frank Herbert’s Dune series: Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. With Dune back in the news thanks to the upcoming movie starring Timothée Chalamet as Leto’s father Paul Atreides, Slashfilm wondered if McAvoy had any advice for the younger actor.
“I was in an adaptation of the second and third books. He is in the first book. And he’s playing a character who ultimately becomes my father, in terms of the character dialogue,” McAvoy said. “So, no. I’ve got no advice for him. And he doesn’t need any advice from me, he’s a cracking actor.”
"But I’ll tell you what’s one really good piece of advice that was given to me once, was by the cast of … what was the show called again? Farscape. And it was at the L.A. premiere of Children of Dune, and they said to me, that the thing with this sh*t, i.e. science fiction, is that you have to believe it more than you believe good writing. Good writing, you can just do. It’s easier. But this stuff is hard, because it’s so bonkers, you know what I mean? And I’ve really, I’ve always remembered that advice and taken it to heart. It’s so kept me going really, through a lot of science fiction and fantasy work that I’ve done. Because it was Claudia Black that said it. And I think that’s just good advice for any actor doing any kind of science fiction and/or fantasy, you know?"
With sci-fi and fantasy having such a huge moment, there are a lot of actors who could benefit from that advice. “It’s dead exciting,” McAvoy said of the upcoming movie. “Those were a bunch of books, I mean, I’ve read them all cover to cover, and I love those books. They’re crazy. As they get into their final two or three books, I mean, the level of bonkers is unparalleled. But I love them. And so I’m dead excited to see what does. He’s a brilliant filmmaker. A brilliant maker of science fiction. And I do love my science fiction, as well as fantasy. So yeah, I’m whetting my lips.”
So are we all. Dune opens in the North America on October 22.
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