The 2008 action thriller film starring James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Common, and Morgan Freeman was a critical and commercial success, garnering over $342 million worldwide. While Angelina Jolie gained widespread acclaim for portraying the role of a super-assassin, it was the unusual casting of James McAvoy that made the movie what it is today. In fact, Jolie herself admitted that it was the news of McAvoy’s casting that piqued her interest. But why was the Scottish actor so intimidated by her?
However, while discussing his role in Wanted, James McAvoy opened up on why he was so intimidated by Jolie and his other co-star that the filmmaker had to cancel his take to reshoot.
James McAvoy revealed the exceptional skills of his Wanted co-stars including Angelina Jolie
According to Angelina Jolie, she was surprised by the unusual casting of James McAvoy since she thought that everyone saw him as a sweet, fun guy – qualities that were quite different from what was expected from him in the movie. Revealing how she was eager to take up something new after a series of emotional roles, the actress admitted that McAvoy’s casting intrigued her and also influenced her decision to take on the role.
However, little did she know that it was McAvoy who would be intimated by her skillset on the sets. During his interview with GQ, the Scottish actor revealed how his co-stars in Wanted had a penchant for improvisation. While sharing an anecdote from the sets of the movie, the X-Men actor said,
“There was a great piece of improvisation from Common and Angelina. I was like standing, trying to figure out if that dummy that I’m shooting …I start to realize that I think this isn’t a dummy. This could be a person. I think it’s a dead person hanging there that I’m meant to be shooting.”
Furthermore, he shared that during the particular scene, his co-stars were asked to improvise a bit and that completely threw him off of his game.
James McAvoy “lost his sh*t” during the shoot
Sharing how Jolie and Common effortlessly improvised their respective dialogues during the scene, the Split actor continued,
“As the camera sort of like focused in on me and they kinda shared that focus, it was I think they were asked to sort of improvise a little bit of just the background mumble. I don’t know if it’s in the film, but she bluntly just went ‘Hey, have you seen Alan or whatever lately?’ And he goes like ‘Nah, think he broke his leg. Jumped off a building or something.”
However, this surprised McAvoy who was in awe of the effortless improvisations by Jolie and Common. Sharing what exactly was going on in his mind, the actor said,
“And it was so mundane and real for what these super assassins must be doing, for what these super assassins must go through in their daily lives, the trials and tribulations of being a super assassin. And it was so real and so just like office chat that it made me lose my sh-t and we had to cancel the take.”
Admittedly, the exceptional talent of the actors is reflected through their performances on the silver screen. Having been nominated for two Academy Awards, Wanted won the Empire Award for Best Sci-Fi/Superhero Movie in 2008.
