Speaking on the ‘Happy Sad Confused’ podcast about his latest film, ‘Speak No Evil,’ James McAvoy discussed his time working on M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller, ‘Split.’
When asked if it was strange to replace Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, the actor replied, “No, definitely not. I’m confident enough to think that I will do it better anyway. I’m joking. I just like saying the wrong thing.”
McAvoy took on 23 different personalities on screen for his performance as a criminal with dissociative identity disorder. He later reprised the role in 2019’s ‘Glass’ but didn’t have much time to get ready the first time around.
“Are you kidding? He’s an amazing actor,” the actor shared. “He’d give a very different performance than the one I did but an incredible one. Sometimes coming in last minute is the best way. I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last minute. I had a couple of weeks [to prep]. Two weeks.”
“The script was well put together so a lot of it was clear what I wanted to do straight away. A couple characters took a little longer to find. Patricia came quick. Hedwig took a while.”
McAvoy’s words followed recent news about Phoenix stepping away from a new film by Todd Haynes just five days before the scheduled start of shooting. A source suggested that the actor got ‘cold feet’ about appearing in the gay romance that would also star Danny Ramirez.
“If I do [comment], I’d just be sharing my opinion from my perspective and the other creatives aren’t here to say their piece, and so I don’t think that would be helpful,” Phoenix said of his last-minute decision at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
Sets were fully built in Guadalajara, Mexico, for the now shelved film before Phoenix’s departure.
