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Posts: 4304
Nov 21 11 10:02 AM
A true talent + wicked sense of humour + charming personality = James McAvoy: Undeniably, a Scottish "legend in the making".
Posts: 6806
Nov 21 11 11:43 AM
While McAvoy describes the hiring process for "Arthur Christmas" as "really dull, boring," he still says that it was somewhat unique. "They did an audition process where they took the voices of a handful of different actors and edited pieces out of other movies we'd been in and placed them onto an animation of Arthur prancing around," McAvoy said, which mirrors stories Tom Hanks used to tell about being sold on "Toy Story" after seeing his dialogue being spoken by Woody (who at that point wasn't a pull-string toy but a cloggy woody marionette puppet). "Then they decided which one worked the best, and that was me."
Sarah Smith, the director and co-writer of "Arthur Christmas," told us that she was initially worried about McAvoy because she feared his voice wasn't "young enough." We asked McAvoy what he had to do to convince her. ""I just made his voice a bit higher – she kept asking for my voice to be higher and to be sweeter," McAvoy said. He paused. " She was kind of riding my ass about that one."
Although McAvoy didn't inspire the look of his character in Arthur Christmas (he said it had been finalized well before he came onboard), he said he was really surprised when he saw the final product. "I find it really funny and I cried my ass off," he said. "I found it really moving. It was quite poignant and sad and at times quite hard, in terms of the father not being who you thought he was…I found all of that quite hard but ultimately moving in a really good way."
He does have a dream for the movie, too. "I'd love for it to go on to become one of those Christmas classics," McAvoy said, saying of his personal favorite holiday classics, "When I was growing up I loved 'Santa Claus: The Movie' with Dudley Moore and more recently 'The Polar Express.' "
But just in case "Arthur Christmas" isn't a perennial sensation, he's still got a whole host of movies coming up, including "Welcome to the Punch," which he calls, simply "a London-based crime thriller;" an adaptation of Irvine Welsh's "Filth," which starts filming in January "up in Glasgow," and, most intriguingly, the art heist thriller "Trance," a Danny Boyle project which has already been filmed but won't be completed until after Boyle finishes his commitment to next summer's London Olympic Games.
When we asked what brought him to "Trance" (in a role originally pegged for Michael Fassbender), McAvoy said "The first thing that made me so attracted to it was the director, Danny Boyle. When he asks you to do something, you don't ask too many questions, you just say yes." He went on to describe it as "really interesting," and "twisty, turny, and mind-bending." But he circled it back to its director. "But it's Danny Boyle. You just don't say no to Danny Boyle."
Less substantial are the rumors that he would play Elton John in the John-produced biography "Rocketman" (a rumor started by John himself!) "Elton asked me to do it in a room full of journalists at a press conference for 'Gnomeo & Juliet.' So that's where that comes from. If he offered to the part and the script was good, then yeah I'd consider it."
For those that are eager for more young X-Men antics after this summer's surprisingly solid "X-Men: First Class," he says things are going well so far. "I've spoken to the director [Matthew Vaughn], spoken to Michael [Fassbender]. We've all got ideas but as of yet we don't know," McAvoy said, before complimenting the wait-and-see approach the studio is taking. "I think Fox is doing the right thing, which is wait until they've got the script before they decide to green light. Which I think is responsible. It'd be easy just to green light it because it did well but then we'd be stuck with a rubbish piece of nonsense."
When we were getting off the phone with McAvoy, he wished us a cheery "Have a good holiday period!" Quite frankly, it sounded a little like we were actually talking to Arthur Christmas for a minute. Which isn't a bad thing at all. "Arthur Christmas" appears in your stockings (and in cinemas nationwide) on Wednesday, November 23rd.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/james-mcavoy-talks-arthur-christmas-danny-boyle-and-his-secret-love-for-santa-claus-the-movie
Nov 21 11 11:59 AM
Nov 21 11 1:45 PM
Posts: 1049
Nov 21 11 2:59 PM
Nov 21 11 6:31 PM
Santa Claus. He's rather like the parent we eventually shipped off the the old folks' home after we became tired of all the loud and annoying antics. But that's not how it should be! Discovering the flaws of your loved ones should bring you together, not tear you apart — at least that's the message of Aardman Animations' Arthur Christmas. And the film's star, James McAvoy, is here to tell us why Santa Claus doesn't care about you (and why that's OK).
I saw Arthur Christmas and it made me cry (a lot), so thanks for that.
James McAvoy: It made me cry too!
What was it about the Arthur Christmas script that made you want to get involved?
All really, really good Christmas movies (I think) have one thing in common. And that is, [the notion that] the whole idea and the whole ethos of Christmas is in danger. Something is wrong with Christmas. Either Santa Claus is in physical danger, or some kid doesn't believe or is in danger of not believing, or perhaps the presents won't be delivered. Basically something is threatening what it is that Christmas is.
In this movie, the thing that threatens Christmas is that its integrity seems to be compromised by a business-like nature. And the fact that one kid not receiving a present doesn't seem to be that big a deal to Father Christmas. You might as well just get rid of the whole thing, and I liked that. I really liked that because I felt that it reflects what's going on today. Don't get me wrong, it's just a piece of entertainment for the family, but it also reflects what's going on in the world. The marketing of it all, and the financial side of it all, is that all so much more important than what is basically making sure that people are happy? And giving and generosity and all the great stuff the comes from Christmas. And that's kind of what the film is about. Plus you get all the comedy and the action and all that as well.
The humor is very adult at times, what's your favorite funny moment in it all?
I think my favorite joke is when I say, "Grand-Santa this is impossible, it can't be done." And he says, "Well, they used to say it was impossible to teach women to read." That's quite adult humor there, and quite irreverent and slightly risque humor as well. Someone's going to be offended by that, even though it's not meant in an offensive way. I just like that in a movie, I think it's slightly brave. Some of the jokes are slapstick and physical but a lot of the jokes aren't patronizing children. They're quite linguistically funny. That's something that I think we miss a lot in kid's movies.
All of the characters have these giant flaws in their characters. Were you comfortable giving the House of Claus such great flaws?
Yeah definitely. It's got to reflect something in real life, and nobody's family is perfect. But this guy [Arthur] thinks his family is perfect. He thinks they're amazing and he thinks his father is the greatest person on Earth and that Christmas is perfect, that Christmas is the best thing ever. But neither of those things really live up to his expectations. That's something I think a lot of children are going to have to face at some point. It's about seeing what your parents actually are, and seeing what Christmas actually is. Seeing that it's not as holy and perfect as you maybe once imagined, but still seeing the worth in it and loving it. Maybe even forcing the rest of the world around you to come up to your expectations...
Sometimes your parents let you down. It's quite a strong and sophisticated topic to get into really for a Christmas kids movie. His Big Brother and his Father all let him down. They're all desperately flawed and it's just about realizing that your parents aren't perfect but that doesn't make them any less deserving of your love, or your family. Maybe it makes them even more deserving of your love and it makes that bond more vital.
What were most surprised after seeing Arthur on the big screen?
I found it surprising just how much I laughed and how much I cried. Equal measure. I really did cry a lot, I found it very moving. That was the big surprise. I knew it was meant to be funny and moving but you never knew it was going to work. I was laughing my ass off and crying my ass off.
What are your favorite holiday movies?
I love Polar Express. When I was growing up, I really liked the Santa Claus movie with Dudley Moore.
What was your favorite update to the Kringle Enterprise in this film?
The present distributor the one that you stick in a sock, that can load a sock in 2 seconds flat. The Elves they're whole military Matrix-style elf operation was probably the best part for me.
http://io9.com/5861659/james-mcavoy-explains-why-we-all-have-secret-daddy-issues-with-santa-claus
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Nov 21 11 6:46 PM
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Nov 21 11 11:33 PM
Nov 22 11 12:54 AM
Plus: Some tidbits on Danny Boyle's new thriller 'Trance'
By Gregory Ellwood Tuesday, Nov 22, 2011 2:33 AM
Want to know a big reason why "Arthur Christmas" should be on your must-see list for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend? Let one of the animated film's leading voices, James McAvoy, explain to you how the "quality" of the script made him jump at the chance to join the project. "It's one of the funniest things I'd read that year and just the opportunity to work with Aardman Studios. Y'know, they made 'Wallace & Gromit' and 'Chicken Run.' I think they are a really good idiosyncratic voice out of Britain and to get to work with people like that is something that's very exciting," McAvoy says during a quick phone interview. "And, in fact they offered it to me without making me audition. That was nice." (Of course, that last part is just the always charming McAvoy throwing in one of his typically self-deprecating zingers.) As the title character, McAvoy infuses Arthur, son of the current Santa Claus, with the big goofy heart he needs to keep the Christmas spirit alive among an increasingly modern and technological "mission." It turns out director Sarah Smith was lucky enough to have most of the acclaimed cast record their dialogue together. "I got to record with Billy Nighy, Imelda Staunton and Jim Broadbent. If you had told me I was going to work with them I would have said yes without even reading the script," McAvoy says. "I've worked with Bill a couple of times before, he's played my dad. This was the first time I've worked with Jim and Imelda though. Great fun. It's a credit to McAvoy that most audiences won't even recognize his voice as Arthur. It's not just that the Scot is speaking in a broader English accent either. "It's the same with every character you play, even a Scottish character," McAvoy says. "I just recently played a Scottish guy in Danny Boyle's new film. He doesn't sound like me, it's just a different thing. I don't really think about it. When you start to play someone who isn't you your voice just starts to change automatically and I know I'm gonna put on an English accent when I put on Arthur, but it's almost like a subconscious glide into a different character."Moreover, the father of two doesn't mind the fact he's added another family film (after "Gnomeo & Juliet") that will play to kids to his resume.
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