James McAvoy has claimed that his involvement in Split only came to fruition because Joaquin Phoenix abandoned it two weeks before filming.
In an episode of podcast Happy Sad Confused, released yesterday (September 13), host Josh Horowitz brought up the fact that Phoenix was attached to the 2016 M. Night Shyamalan film before he was replaced by McAvoy, who played the lead role of Kevin, a troubled man suffering from dissociative identity disorder.
“I’m confident enough to think I’ll do it better [than him]” joked McAvoy, laughing. “He’s an amazing actor. I think he’d give a very different performance to the one I did, but I think he’d give an incredible performance.”
He expressed to Horowitz that “sometimes coming in last minute is the best way”. The situation left McAvoy hurrying to prepare for the role. “I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting,” he reveals. “It was really last minute.” Watch the full episode below – the segment addressing Split begins at 25:13.
Like Phoenix, McAvoy has taken to great lengths to prepare for his roles. For his latest in horror film Speak No Evil, the Scottish actor revealed that he would do push-ups “five seconds before the take” in order “to pump my shoulders out, make my neck thicker, get the veins going”.
In the film, McAvoy plays Paddy, the patriarch of a British family that hides a dark secret. The actor has spoken previously about the basis of the character’s toxic masculinity, revealing that he was inspired in part by Andrew Tate.
The Phoenix story comes after news broke last month about the actor dropping out of a Todd Haynes film days before filming was set to begin. The film’s shutdown led to crew members losing out on work with losses speculated to potentially exceed seven figures.
He will soon be seen in Joker: Folie à Deux, which NME awarded four stars. “Phoenix is fantastic once again as Arthur, delivering a compelling and remarkably physical performance that teeters on the edge of insanity throughout – it’s simultaneously chilling and unexpectedly moving,” Matthew Turner writes.
“Lady Gaga is equally good as Harleen, sparking palpably insane chemistry with Phoenix, and there’s strong support from both Keener and Brendan Gleeson as Jackie, a prison guard with a fondness for musicals.”
In NME‘s four-star review of Speak No Evil, James Mottram writes: “All the cast play their parts, but an off-the-leash McAvoy is a joy to behold, channeling the same twisted energy he mined for his addict-cop in Irvine Welsh adaptation Filth. Touching on issues of class and the rich-poor divide, the result is a top-notch British thriller that’ll scare the bejesus out of you.”