Hollywood fame and success carry a price, James McAvoy warns: sacrifice
James McAvoy says success in the film industry comes with a price you don’t see on the paycheck — and he’s revealing what it really cost him.
When James McAvoy started telling people he wanted to direct, the scripts that came in suddenly had a theme. As he put it in a new interview, the offers were overwhelmingly—and oddly—Scottish, despite the Glasgow native rarely being asked to play Scottish on screen.
“Then when I said I wanted to direct, everything I got was just Scottish movies, Scottish movies, Scottish movies,”
Talking to Sharp Magazine, McAvoy said that disconnect didn’t square with his résumé: over a 32-year acting career, he’s only played Scottish characters “roughly half a dozen” times and worked on just a handful of Scottish-set productions. He called it a telling double standard, especially considering how seldom big backers actually finance local stories.
Moving behind the camera
McAvoy’s first turn in the director ’s chair is California Schemin’, a project he discussed while reflecting on what it takes to sustain a life in the arts. The actor said the climb isn’t just long hours and missed dinners—it can chip away at who you are if you’re not careful.
“Anybody trying to make it in the business, you have to sacrifice,”
He described the grind Sharp Magazine-style: early call times, days that bleed into nights, relationships strained by the schedule. The deeper cost, he added, is when the job starts to tax your peace of mind and core values—burnout and heartbreak follow when the emotional bill comes due.
The work that built him
Before stepping behind the camera, McAvoy moved easily between indies and blockbusters. A quick snapshot of the range he’s talking about:
- Filth — Irvine Welsh’s bracing character study
- The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby — a two-perspective drama opposite Jessica Chastain
- X-Men films — a younger Charles Xavier across multiple entries
- Split — M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller and its follow-up, Glass
Even with that track record, he said, the industry’s quick to slap on a label—something he ran into the minute he angled to direct. And as for what’s next in front of the camera, the Sharp profile noted McAvoy has signed on to Armando Iannucci’s new thriller.