Scottish actor James McAvoy, most recently seen playing Macbeth on TV and about to don the furry hot pants of Mr Tumnus in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, talked to us recently about his next film, a take on Britain's best quiz show. That's right – he's taking on University Challenge in Starter For Ten.
"It’s a romantic comedy basically, set around University Challenge in 1985. It’s based on the David Nichols book of the same name and it’s just about a young guy going to uni and getting his dream of appearing on University Challenge before royally fucking it up, and the whole issue about, you know, growing up and discovering who you are and all that kind of thing and falling in love for the first time. Basically, it's a bit of a geek film, really. It’s good fun. It’s nice to be doing something so fun as well.
"After all the high stress of the jobs I’ve done over the past year, it's fun, do you know what I mean? There was a play at the beginning of the year at the Royal Court that was all about death, and the TV movie of Macbeth. So this year's all been, 'what does it feel like to kill a baby? What does it feel like to know you're going to die?' It's quite nice to go everyday and think, 'what does it feel like to screw up a conversation with a girl?' It's a lot more chilled out."
We'll bring you the full interview with McAvoy closer to the release of Narnia.