James McAvoy is currently in theaters starring in Speak No Evil, but the actor is also preparing to step behind the camera with his directorial debut, California Schemin’.
When asked about the process of getting ready to film, McAvoy said he was “excited” to experience the “whole new world” of prep work as a director.
“It’s a whole new world for me to do this,” the actor told The Hollywood Reporter at the Speak No Evil premiere in New York earlier this month. “I’ve got experience with everything else after we start rehearsals. This whole period of prep, I’ve never been a part of it, so I’m excited.”
As for how things are going, McAvoy said, “It’s going.”
“We’re working on the script; we’re casting actors, and we’re just gearing up, building a little army, which is what you do,” he said.
California Schemin’ is based on the true story of two Scottish friends Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd who pretended to be a California rap duo, Silibil N’ Brains, in a hip-hop hoax based on Bain’s autobiography.
In addition to directing, McAvoy is set to play a supporting role in the movie with Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley playing the lead roles. Archie Thomson and Elaine Gracie adapted the screenplay, which is set to be produced by Ransom Films’ Guy J. Louthan (The Call) and Homefront Productions’ Danny Page. Bankside Films’ Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green are executive producing. The project has been presold to StudioCanal for the U.K., Ireland and other international markets.
McAvoy previously told THR that California Schemin’ was “the right piece of material for me.”
“I’ve always wanted to tell stories about people from working-class backgrounds who don’t have the opportunity that’s afforded to other people,” he said. “I’ve wanted to tell stories that are entertaining and aspirational. They’ve got humor, and they are movies, not just gritty black-and-white films. So when California Schemin‘ came my way, it was exactly that. It gave me the opportunity to tell those stories about people from backgrounds like mine, but also entertain and shock and surprise, while having so much aspirational hope in it, as well.”
In Speak No Evil, McAvoy returns to the sort of villainous character he so memorably portrayed in Split and Glass. In the film currently in theaters, he takes on the role of Paddy, a doctor-turned-farmer who invites an American couple he met on vacation, Scoot McNairy‘s Ben and Mackenzie Davis’ Louise, to spend a weekend at the farmhouse he shares with his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son Ant (Dan Hough) where things soon turn sinister. The movie has an 83 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has grossed $43 million worldwide since it hit theaters earlier this month.
Speaking about what drew him to the role of Paddy, McAvoy said he was intrigued by the complexities of both the character and the conflicts the film explores.
“To get to play a person who could simultaneously upset, terrify and entertain, that’s a lot of weird things to do at the same time,” McAvoy told THR at the Speak No Evil premiere.
He was also drawn to the film’s clashes between American and English characters, city and country dwellers, men and women, and even older and more contemporary versions of marriage.
“There’s like, weird contradictions and conflicts happening, not just onscreen but within the audience as well and how they relate to the people onscreen,” McAvoy said. “So all those things made it a really attractive prospect because it was complicated territory.”
As for the movie’s take on toxic masculinity through McAvoy’s character, director James Watkins said, “The film very much kind of wants to explore the sort of seductive nature of that toxic masculinity and mentorship [between Paddy and Ben] and to expose it, and then ultimately, to see that it’s not the path to salvation and this notion of being an alpha man is nonsense.”
