‘People Were Throwing Stuff At The Screen’: James McAvoy On New Thriller Speak No Evil

Actor James McAvoy has an eerie talent for portraying strange, yet captivating characters.

His role in M Night Shyamalan’s 2016 film Split garnered rave reviews from fans upon its release so watching his new thriller Speak No Evil for the first time at ComicCon with an audience was the obvious choice.

“I might never watch another film with an audience again because it was wicked,” he tells Sky News.

“Every time I wanted them to laugh, they were laughing. Every time I wanted them to get shocked and scared, they were scared and then they surprised me with other stuff that happened.

“The biggest thing that surprised me is people were throwing stuff at the screen at one point when my character was being particularly toxic, which was amazing.

“It was brilliant.”

The film is a remake of the 2022 Christian Tafdrup thriller of the same name and is set in the UK countryside and Italy.

It follows an American couple and their child who meet another family on holiday.

Once back in the UK, they take a trip to visit their new friends and chaos ensues.

Produced by Blumhouse – the creatives behind Get Out, Halloween, and The Purge – Speak No Evil was written and produced by James Watkins and also stars Terminator: Dark Fate’s Mackenzie Davis, Argo’s Scoot McNairy, and The Fall’s Aisling Franciosi.

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‘Compliant’ societies

The Scottish actor says the team “tried to do something specific with this film”, incorporating a thriller with humour, love, and fear.

“One of the things the film is about is compliance and how compliant we have become as a society and how that is potentially, I think the film is arguing, a big problem because we accept terrible behaviour not just from individuals like Paddy, but from society and governments and institutions that run our lives”.

He adds: “I feel like we tried to do something specific with this film and you never know if you’re actually going to manage or not. This thing turned out like I think we wanted it to turn out.”

‘Not great with horror anymore’

For the actor’s own cinema habits, he says he’s “actually not great with horror anymore” and tends to steer away from the genre, as well as his own films.

“I don’t think I’ve rewatched the film I’ve been in, maybe, ever”, he says adding, “it’s like looking at a picture album going, that’s what I used to look like when I was 33.

“I don’t really dwell on it too much. I try not to rewatch anything and if my son wants to watch something or somebody that I know wants to watch something that I am in, I’ll maybe watch it with them, but not much.”

Speak No Evil is in cinemas now