JamesMcAvoy
The Unlikely Heartthrob from an unlikely fan Jennifer Too
James McAvoy’s face has almost perfect features but he is as chameleon as you can get,
which makes acting a profession that suits him more than well. He has been the leading man in a vast array of movies – different genres, different characters, and oh yes, different accents, which he does very well – each time making his female fans fall in
love with him a little bit more. His onscreen characters are far from perfect, but that’s what’s so endearing and engaging about him – he is totally believable.
This summer he takes on the role of Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, the young academician mutant who eventually becomes Professor X in the X-Men franchise. In this, he proves you can develop a character as deeply and as movingly in a Marvel
comic series movie as you can in more solemn, serious material such as his previous works in Atonement and The Last King of Scotland.
heartthrob. Says James, “I wasn’t born to play superheroes and I worry about what I see in the mirror – a pale Scottish guy with a scruffy ginger beard who needs to go to the gym.” But onscreen, it is his seeming
P
“ordinariness” that creeps into people’s heart, as his rising star seems to be proving. As Charles Xavier, he exudes
just the right
mix of compassion and empathy, which with his cheeky boyishness balances superbly the persona of his co-star, Michael Fassbender who portrays Erik Lensherr, the holocaust refugee boy who becomes Magneto, Professor X’s arch enemy. Together, the McAvoy and Fassbender duo are a casting triumph that breathes new life into a flagging franchise, drawing in new fans to the X-Men series, with the movie raking in $56million in
18 FENGSHUIWORLD | JULY/AUGUST 2011
ale skinned and a mere 5ft 7inches in height, James himself admits he is not anyone’s idea of a typical lead actor; most certainly not a
the US alone on opening weekend. But it is James McAvoy who steals the thunder. Born in Scotland in 1979, he is an Earth Sheep which makes him a strongly Earth-element person. While immensely creative and outgoing, the Sheep-born is characteristically also guarded and secretive, although never coming across this way at all. James is frank about how he deals with fame; he says it has never been a problem for him, because unlike some of his co-stars (all BIG name superstars) such as Angelina Jolie, Anne Hathaway and Keira Knightley, “since I’ve been “put on the map”, I’ve been recognized in the street about all of 10 times!” He keeps his personal life private and has a pact with his wife Anne-Marie Duff (his co-star in Shameless) never to talk about their relationship in public. Together they have a 1-year old son Brendan, and when not filming, live a quiet life in London. James was raised by grandparents
following the divorce of his parents when he was 7, although his mother lived in the house across the road.
When asked about his childhood, on what it was like being brought up the way he was as opposed to being part of a “normal” family, James says, “My grandparents and my mother were great with me. I know it may sound as if things were quite difficult, unstable or whatever, but in fact they weren’t at all. I was very happy as a child.” He radiates an air of confidence that makes him attractive, and to many new fans, irresistible; and he hasn’t an iota of self pity in him. He didn’t come from a rich family, but says that made him get sensitive to the world around him at an earlier age, which “helped as an actor.” On working with famous co-stars
Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley and Anne Hathaway, he says, “It was daunting. They’re considered the most beautiful people in the world, and I’m clearly not.” But that doesn’t mean he thinks he’s ugly. No. “I’m a fairly decent looking guy but I’m not exactly a matinee idol.” He’s clearly down-to-earth, and his wife helps him a lot dealing with
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