James McAvoy has done his fair share of sci-fi roles, between playing a young Charles Xavier in multiple X-Men films and portraying Leto Atreides II in the 2003 Children of Dune TV miniseries. However, as he sees it, science-fiction presents a different challenge than simple good writing.
McAvoy talked about just that during his recent interview with /Film. With Denis Villeneuve's Dune movie on the horizon, the outlet asked McAvoy if he had any advice for star Timothée Chalamet, based on his own experiencing playing in Frank Herbert's sci-fi universe. "I was in an adaptation of the second and third books. He is in the first book," McAvoy noted. "And he's playing a character who ultimately becomes my father, in terms of the character dialogue. 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," he continued. "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?"
The actor has continued to work in the sci-fi genre since wrapping his run as Professor X with 2019's Dark Phoenix, playing Lord Asriel in HBO's TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials novels. McAvoy also recently lent his voice to Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, for the acclaimed audio drama adaptation of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic books.
Marvel Studios is preparing to bring mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe after introducing the multiverse in Phase 4, leading fans to speculate that McAvoy will reprise his role as the X-Men's leader in the MCU proper at some point. Whether that happens or not, the actor has said he's okay with leaving his days as Charles Xavier behind him.
"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," he clarified last month. "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."
Source: /Film
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