James McAvoy is at his most persuasive when charm starts to become pressure: a lowered voice, a smile held too long. We rate his control of a scene more highly than some of the films built around it.
Fi1m perspective
In Speak No Evil (2024), James McAvoy’s Paddy smiles for longer than the joke requires, then lowers his voice when he wants compliance. An apology gives the other person another reason to stay at the table, when leaving would be sensible. We squirmed because we recognised the moment when politeness becomes agreement to something we do not want. McAvoy understands how someone can bully a guest without forfeiting his claim to be a generous host. It is precise, unpleasantly familiar acting, and the strongest reason to see a film that becomes less frightening as its horror grows more conventional.
State of Play (2003) offers a useful contrast: McAvoy plays Dan Foster in Paul Abbott’s six-part conspiracy thriller, where the ensemble is the attraction. We rate the programme highly for making a newsroom convincing and a complicated story worth following, even if keeping track sometimes becomes work. Our enthusiasm for the series does not rest on him alone. The move through The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Atonement (2007) established him in period drama. As Robbie Turner in the latter, he had room for emotional and romantic weight before Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class (2011) took him into franchise work.
The less reassuring roles become prominent in Filth (2013) and Split (2016). Bruce Robertson in the former is deliberately unsympathetic; the latter gives McAvoy several characters to distinguish through posture, voice and mannerisms. The technical control matters, but so does knowing when a small adjustment will do. Director James Watkins gets that from him in Speak No Evil, where Paddy’s friendliness becomes threatening through the smallest changes in his delivery. Paddy’s observations about the Daltons can be accurate, and McAvoy makes that another reason to resent him.
Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis give him Ben and Louise Dalton to push against, a couple too hesitant to object to Paddy’s behaviour. The scenes need their reluctance as much as his aggression: without someone struggling to say no, his charm would have far less to work on. Watkins’s later shift into more ordinary horror is a real loss, because those exchanges have already supplied the unease. Start with State of Play for the stronger programme; choose Speak No Evil to see just how much trouble he can cause over dinner.
Biography
James McAvoy is a Scottish actor. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 2000, and began his career with television roles including appearances in State of Play (2003) and Shameless (2004–2005).
His feature film work includes Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), a lead role in The Last King of Scotland (2006) and Atonement (2007), and Wesley Gibson in Wanted (2008). He is known for portraying Charles Xavier in the X-Men films from X-Men: First Class (2011) onwards, and for his performance as Kevin Wendell Crumb in Split (2017) and Glass (2019). In 2024 he played Paddy in Speak No Evil.
McAvoy received the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2006 and has earned multiple BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations. He has also worked in voice roles for animated films such as Gnomeo & Juliet (2011) and Arthur Christmas (2011).
