James McAvoy Recalls Landing Major Role After Joaquin Phoenix Suddenly Quit the Film

One of James McAvoy’s most memorable roles came in the M. Night Shyamalan movie Split. The accalimed performance helped the actor reach new heights in his career, but it only happened when the original choice for the role abandoned the project at the “last minute.”

Per Variety, McAvoy discussed his casting in Split during an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast to promote his new movie, Speak No Evil. He explained that Joker actor Joaquin Phoenix was originally set to play his role only to abandon the project just two weeks before filming, a move that the Oscar-winning actor has a reputation for. This opened the door for McAvoy to take the lead, though the caveat was he only had two weeks to prepare. Given the complex nature of portraying a character with dissociative identity disorder, McAvoy certainly had his work cut out for him, though he wound up nailing the role in the end.

When asked if it was strange to be taking over the role from Phoenix, McAvoy said, “No, definitely not. I’m confident enough to think that I will do it better anyway. I’m joking. I just like saying the wrong thing.”

He’d give a very different performance than the one I did but an incredible one.

“Are you kidding? He’s an amazing actor,” McAvoy clarified. “He’d give a very different performance than the one I did but an incredible one. Sometimes coming in last minute is the best way. I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last minute. I had a couple of weeks [to prep]. Two weeks. The script was well put together so a lot of it was clear what I wanted to do straight away. A couple characters took a little longer to find. Patricia came quick. Hedwig took awhile.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Split starred McAvoy as a man with dissociative identity disorder who holds three kidnapped teenagers held captive in an underground facility. The film, which also starred Anya Taylor-Joy and Betty Buckley, was a huge success at the box office, earning more than $278 million against a $9 million budget. Its reviews were on the positive side with critics heaping praise on McAvoy for his convincing performance. The film was the second installment of a trilogy that began with Unbreakable and ended with Glass, the latter of which saw McAvoy reuniting his role from Split.

Joaquin Phoenix Has Exited Other Projects Abruptly

Phoenix just recently made headlines again for leaving a project shortly before production. He was set to co-star with Danny Ramirez in a gay romance film by director Todd Haynes, but quit the movie five days before filming. In that case, the movie was shelved altogether after the actor’s departure rather than moving forward with a replacement. Gladiator helmer Ridley Scott also recently spoke about how Phoenix spoke to him about possibly quitting Napoleon shortly before filming as well, though he ultimately stuck it out in that situation and starred in the movie.

Split is currently streaming on Peacock.

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