James was interviewed by Melena Ryzik at The New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekendback in January, and now, finally, the audio interview is online. It's a really great interview so if you want to listen just head on over to The New York Times website.
There's also a new interview James did with Time Out Sydney (via JMMB) to promote The Last Station which opens on April 1 in Australia. Below is an excerpt from the interview.
Your wife [Anne-Marie Duff] is in the film too. You must be excited to have a baby on the way. Very excited! All the usual nerves, but we're very excited.
You've just completed The Conspirator. How was it being directed by Robert Redford? The weirdest thing about Robert is that he forces you to call him ‘Bob'. It's a bit like calling Prince Charles ‘Chuck'.
Rumours are rife on the internet that you've been cast in The Hobbit. Are you Bilbo Baggins? No, I'm not. I can tell you that for a fact. [Nick Dent]
McAvoy had been keen on the role for years, sticking with the project even as his own profile was raised significantly through not only The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Wanted (2008) but also Atonement (2007) and Becoming Jane (2007).
''It was one of those things that when the film finally came back and they said they had an opportunity to get it off the ground again, a lot of people expected me to say, 'No thanks, I've moved on in my career and I'm doing better now,''' McAvoy recalls. ''But there was no reason not to do it - it was a brilliant script and you shouldn't turn your back on good work.''
The work, adapted from a novel by Jay Parini, relies on the diaries kept by those who orbited Tolstoy.
''A lot of people might think that the high-strung portrayal of that household might be over the top or even made up but it really was like that,'' McAvoy says. ''It might not have been as funny as we portray it sometimes but it all went down like that. My character kept multiple diaries, so you could find an entry that reflected how your character felt in relation to a scene in the film.
''You knew that he wrote that down that very evening, just hours after the event.'' [SMH]
James has dropped out of the formerly titled I'm With Cancer after shooting started last month in Vancouver. Summit Entertainment has confirmed that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will step into the role. Shooting has been halted temporarily and will start up again in the week of March 8. Co-star Seth Rogen gave a statement to MTV:
Rogen said, "It’s incredibly unfortunate that circumstances outside of everyone’s control have taken James away from the project, but, with James’s blessing, we were able to have Joseph step in to take on the [lead] role of Adam. We all look forward to working with James in the future."
...For what it's worth, we've been hearing rumors from readers about a death in McAvoy's family, which would be a more than reasonable explanation for his departure. Since we're not in the business of gossip I'm not planning to investigate further, but I wish McAvoy all the best in whatever took him away from I'm With Cancer, and anxiously await what Gordon-Levitt will have to offer in the role. [Cinema Blend]
There is also a little Wanted 2 news today. Last week Angelina Joliereportedly dropped out of Wanted 2 and Universal quickly scrapped the project. Apparently those reports hadn't been confirmed by anyone at Universal. Now comes word that Wanted co-creator Mark Millar says the film could still get made because Universal may not have come to a final decision.
You can also watch an exclusive interview (via JMMB) with James and Best Actress nominee Helen Mirren discussing The Last Station over at Making Of. I would embed it, but the video comes with autoplay.
James did an interview with The Scotsman to promote The Last Station which opens on Friday, February 19 in the UK. An excerpt (via JMMB) is below:
...McAvoy is not the sort of actor you'll find regularly beaming from the pages of Hello!. Neither is he the sort person prone to pouring his heart out in an interview. Which is aptly demonstrated when I ask how he feels about impending fatherhood.
Excited, nervous? "Yeah, the usual emotions, I suppose," he says, his soft Glasgow accent striking a note of caution. "The usual healthy emotions. Excited and all that." Then again, as a 30-year-old male, he probably doesn't really know what to think about the prospect of changing nappies and sleepless nights.
...On the day we meet, the Oscar nominations have just been announced. McAvoy's veteran co-stars Christopher Plummer, who plays Tolstoy, and Helen Mirren, who stars as his unhinged and unhappy wife Sofya, are both up for awards.
"We're dead, dead chuffed," he says, presumably referring to himself and Duff, who plays Tolstoy's daughter Sasha in the film. "We will totally be crowded round the telly, cheering them on."
He's also pleased for the film, which has been written and directed by Michael Hoffman. "It needs it. It's a small film – and there are loads of small films out there, doing well.
...Rarely given the chance to use his own accent on screen, most people are surprised to discover he's Scottish. "Even now, in America, people will go, 'Hey, I didn't know you were Irish.' You go, 'I'm not.' They go, 'What? Where are you from? Australia?' What?"
While he may have won the Bafta Rising Star award, he still gets mistaken for other actors. "People hear your accent and go, 'Are you Ewan McGregor?'" he says, with mock horror on his face. "I look nothing like him." He gets stopped in the street "hardly at all". And when people do recognise him, it's usually followed by, "You're the guy from Wanted." [James Mottram]
Here are some photos of James, Anne-Marie Duff, Helen Mirren, and director Michael Hoffman at The Last Station German premiere in Berlin earlier today.
James and Anne-Marie's spokesman, Rupert Fowler announced that they are expecting their first child. James, Helen Mirren, and director Michael Hoffman talked about the news at the London premiere of The Last Station:
"It's excellent, it feels really great. I'm totally looking forward to being a dad. She looks fantastic. It's a Mc-Duff adventure," he said...
Co-star Mirren, who wowed in a purple LindkaCierach dress, told of her excitement for the couple.
"I'm pleased, it's fantastic. It's wonderful news and it couldn't happen to a greater couple," she said.
"I've known Anne-Marie for a long time, long before I knew James. They're a great, great couple, both unbelievably talented, both extremely nice and hard-working and professional, so it's going to be a great baby."
The film's director Michael Hoffman joined in with the congratulations.
"I'm ecstatic - I've known about this for a while and I've been sworn to secrecy," he said. [Yahoo! News]
There are some photos of James, Anne-Marie, and Helen Mirren on the red carpet at The Last Station's London premiere earlier today:
Below is an interview from TV Guide with James and Helen Mirren:
Greg Ellwood from HitFix interviews James McAvoy and Helen Mirren:
James also did an interview with Now Magazine's Norman Wilner, and you can read an excerpt below, and be sure to listen to the audio clips at the source:
Are you planning to shift back and forth between big studio pictures like Narnia and Wanted and smaller films like this?
I did Narnia because it was a good opportunity and all that, but really? I wanted to play Mr. Tumnus because he’s my favourite children’s character. That was awesome. And after that, it’s just the same with every single job. “Is this is a good script? Is this a good character? Would I have fun doing it? Let’s go and give it a bash.” With Wanted, it was slightly different – “Yes, it’s a good character, I do think I’ll have fun playing it.” But also, there’s a 14-year-old boy inside me who gets to do the action shit. And I can’t deny the 14-year-old boy. He gets very excited about it.
The Internet claims that a Wanted sequel is in the works, but given the way that movie wraps up, it seems awfully unlikely. Is it happening?
They want it to happen. I don’t know if it is. I’m still working to get a script. But definitely, Wanted 2 is wanted by Universal.
I’d love to run down this list of casting rumors you’ve spent the last week refuting, but I’d rather know your reaction to them. Does all this speculation ever frustrate you?
Well, it’s nice to think your name carries enough weight to benefit them if they use it while fabricating stuff. You know what I mean? But they’re all balls. They’re all nonsense. None of it’s true. I’m With Cancer — I am doing that one. That one’s true. But the Ian Fleming thing? I read it, I really liked it, never spoke to a producer about it, never attached myself to it. Then somebody said I did, which is a little bit naughty, I think. Then the Hobbit thing? Not true. It’s weird to be perceived as something other than that which you are. The weird thing is that if you read something that says, “James McAvoy likes coffee instead of tea”? It’s not a big deal. It doesn’t really matter. But it’s not bloody true. It’s weird that not only do people have an image of you that’s not what you are, they put it out there as though what they say is true, without any way to prove it.
And it only gets worse as the news cycle accelerates. Does it make you cynical, or turn you off to the process? I got absolutely battered by a newspaper back home about a week ago, and it was completely made up. Just a little bit in the newspaper saying that I’d behaved really badly and acted with little grace in a situation where I was just fairly fucking easy-come-easy-go. But that’s the only time I’ve really been upset. And it’s such a tiny thing. But it’s really bad; you shouldn’t be able to do that. But again — not a big deal. It’s tomorrow’s chip paper. You’ve gotta let it go, but there is a little part of you that says, “Don’t misrepresent people.” We don’t have enough news (of course we do have enough news) of mind-numbing interest to fill our pages with, so we have to make up shit about somebody?
But I shouldn’t complain, and I’m not complaining. Some people get it in the fucking neck. It’s just weird, because I should know better. I read something in a horrible magazine and think, “Oh, so and so’s doing that… all right…” I should know, but there’s a part of you on some very basic, fundamental level that goes, “It’s in print, though!” Even though a part of me goes, “Bollocks,” there’s a part of me that remembers it because it’s in print. It’s kind of powerful.
James McAvoy, who co-stars as Valentin Bulgakov - a devoted supporter of Leo Tolstoy's and the Tolstoyan movement - agreed the real Sofya often acted hysterically. "I think we play a fine line because sometimes we go, 'Is she or has she totally got a point?' There's more evidence to suggest that she totally had a point that we didn’t put in this film," explained McAvoy. "It was one of the guys, the kid who looked most like Tolstoy was not hers. [He] belongs to the woman who milked the cows that he had an affair with for years, and it drove her mental. I mean the guy had kids coming out of his ears that didn't belong to her, and this thing that she was hysterical and all of that...I don't know, I think she totally had a point."
McAvoy added, "From Valentin’s point of view, he's in love with the idea of Tolstoy and he slowly has to realize that this most tactile of creatures, this amazing sort of ball of energy that seems to be completely at odds with every thing Tolstoy and everything he believes in and loves about the world, he has to accept that our place in this world is deserved. He has to accept who she is and ultimately love her for who she is. I suppose that genuinely was, part of coming to that place was really integral to Valentin’s journey."
"And yes, you're absolutely right, that was the danger, because she is such a drama queen, you could alienate the audience really fast and that was the challenge in playing it was not to play the drama full-on emotionally all the way there but not to become arch or self-conscious or theatrical with it, never to feel that she was acting it," said Mirren. "You know, you had to feel that this is just how she felt. This was real for her, whatever it was, all those things were absolutely real, of the moment."
While doing a Last Station press interview with Collider James McAvoy shot down rumors that he'll be playing Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit and Ian Fleming in an upcoming biopic. Collider will put up the full interview very soon:
James was interviewed by Melena Ryzik at The New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend last night at the Times Center in New York. Here are some photos by Matthew Arnold.
Be sure to head on over to the Sony Pictures Classics official site for showtimes for The Last Station across the US.
James McAvoy got to the US safely after the weather delayed hundreds of flights in London. He did an interview on KTLA Morning News earlier today. Thanks to McScot82 and toxicosmos82 for sharing.
James McAvoy has been replaced with another guest for his previously scheduled Friday, January 8 appearance. It looks like the snow has been delaying flights at Gatwick Airport for the past few days. I'll keep you posted if the appearance is rescheduled or if any of James' other appearances are canceled.
Now for a some good news. An exclusive UK poster for The Last Station has hit the web. The Last Station opens on February 19 in the UK.
Today the British Academy Film Awards unveiled its 2010 Long List: "The result of Round One voting by members of the Academy which had 220 films entered this year, the first round of voting reduces the films down to 15 in each category. Round Two voting, which opens today, will reduce these down to 5 nominations in each category. Over 6000 members of the Academy vote in the three rounds, with final awards given out at the Royal Opera House on February 21st:"
Both Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer are on the Long List in the lead and supporting categories for their roles in The Last Station.
There will be Q&A with James McAvoy, Michael Hoffman, and Helen Mirren after the January 6 screening of The Last Station at The Lankmark in West Los Angeles. Thanks to the people over at IMDb for pointing this out.
WHEN: Wednesday, January 6, 7:30 pm WHERE: The Landmark - West Los Angeles PRICE: Free for Film Independent members and one guest. RESERVATIONS: Not required-first come, first served. Wait passes will be distributed on site beginning at 5:30pm.
The Last Station's official website has updated its photo gallery and you can head on over to check out tons of new photos of James McAvoy and the rest of the cast.
James McAvoy is set to attend the opening night screening of The Last Station at the 21st annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. Director Michael Hoffman is also scheduled to appear at the screening and Helen Mirren will be honored with the Career Achievement Award at the Festival's Awards Gala on January 5. A reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum will follow the screening. The festival kicks off on Thursday, January 7 and ends on Sunday, January 17 in Palm Springs, California.
There will also be a special presentation of I Love You Phillip Morris starring Ewan McGregor.
Festival passes and ticket packages are now available. Individual ticket sales go on sale December 24 for Palm Springs International Film Society Members only, and December 26 for the general public.
James was interviewed by Melena Ryzik at The New York Times Arts and Leisure Weekend back in January, and now, finally, the audio interview is online. It's a really great interview so if you want to listen just head on over to The New York Times website. 
