Versatility is a rare commodity, yet one that often goes undervalued and underappreciated. Take Swiss Army Knives — they are just as ideal for foraging in the woods as they are for cutting fingernails and opening letters. Similarly, Vaseline is known for its multipurpose uses, from chapped lips to boxer's gloves. These things are multifaceted and provide extensive, perhaps unconsidered versatility. He may not be able to moisturize your crusty lips or skin a rabbit, but James McAvoy is the true personification of versatility. The Scotsman's filmography comprises an incredible variety of films and roles, seemingly never putting a foot wrong in his performances no matter how widely varied.
It perhaps comes as a surprise that an Oscar win still eludes him, and he thus remains a mostly underrated actor despite his phenomenal filmography and his ever-growing group of critically discerning admirers. That being said, some of his performances warrant as much acclaim as those recognized by the Academy. With his recent entirely improvised performance in My Son, out on Amazon Prime, reflecting on his great work so far is certainly fitting…
5 Wanted
It may seem strange that an actor as handsome and charming as James McAvoy would an anxiety-ridden office drone who lets everyone walk all over him, but he nails it. He plays Wesley Gibbons, a man who hates his job and his life, with a girlfriend who cheats on him with his supposed best friend and co-worker. His dull life explodes into the wonderfully stylish action thriller Wanted when a beautiful assassin (Angelina Jolie) informs him that his deceased father was an assassin, and recruits him into a secret group of killers.
McAvoy shines as a zero who becomes a hero in this excellent, fun film brimming with great characters (with the help of Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Common, and Terrence Stamp) and some of the best action sequences of the past two decades. The wonderful soundtrack from Danny Elfman (with a range of great cuts from bands like Nine Inch Nails) and the exciting direction from Timur Bekmambetov seal the deal.
4 Atonement
Atonement follows the tale of Robbie (James McAvoy) and sisters Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Briony Tallis (Saoirse Ronan) in 1930s England. Robbie and Cecilia’s blossoming love is swiftly cut short when Briony misinterprets a series of incidents that lead to the unjust, erroneous arrest of Robbie, who is accused of rape. The seeds had been previously sewn for this role when director Joe Wright had identified McAvoy’s talents several years prior while the X-Men actor was performing on stage in Out in the Open and began offering the actor parts in the film.
McAvoy masters the sensuality and passion of his character in this beautiful, heartbreaking film. As critic Peter Bradshaw writes for The Guardian, “What a clever, ambitious, compassionate picture it is; what success for Joe Wright and for Knightley and McAvoy - though it is probably in the long, languid wordless summery scenes at the beginning that the film works best. It's a film which aims at big ideas, and it treats us like grownups.”.
3 Split
Talk about versatility… in the 2016 psychological thriller Split, McAvoy remarkably and successfully manages to incorporate 24 different personalities as he plays Kevin Wendell, a man tormented by his split-personality disorder. One of the best M. Night Shyamalan movies of recent years, and starring the likes of Anna Taylor Joy and Bruce Willis, it’s nonetheless McAvoy who steals the show here as he expertly travels from persona to persona.
As Christy Lemire states, “It’s a performance that also showcases McAvoy’s great agility and precision. He has to make changes both big and small, sometimes in the same breath, and it’s a hugely engaging spectacle to behold.” His multidimensional performance exhibits his absolute best qualities as an actor.
2 The Last King of Scotland
It was McAvoy’s appearance in the screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis’s novel The Chronicles of Narnia that really announced his big-picture breakthrough, yet it was his stunning performance in another adaptation, The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden, that truly launched his name into the stratospheric heights of film. Based on the Ugandan despot Idi Amin, a man responsible for the mass genocide of 300,000 Ugandans, the film follows Dr. Nicholas Garrigan who through various circumstances finds himself as one of dictator Amin’s closest confidants and personal physicians.
Kevin Macdonald’s screenplay offers a fascinating probe into the unspeakable evil of Amin (in one of the best Forest Whitaker performances), giving the historical narrative a cutting edge by intertwining the fictional addition of a morally-conflicted Garrigan, whose dawning realizations unravel right before our very eyes.
1 X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past
McAvoy made his X-Men debut in the 2011 installment X-Men: First Class, and he thoroughly made the role of the young Professor X his own. Following the vast success of X-Men: First Class, the franchise exceeded itself with 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. Nestled amongst a star-studded cast, James McAvoy finds himself as a young Professor X, formerly played by Sir Patrick Stewart... no pressure.
With a battle against the increasingly threatening sentinels at hand, the X-Men send Wolverine back in time to the 1970s to prevent the evolution of the sentinels by attempting to save their creator from assassination. McAvoy plays a youthful yet alcoholic Professor X, haunted by his telepathy. The Glass actor puts in a typically emphatic display of acting, unequivocally demonstrating his ability to mix it with the biggest names in the film industry, as well as proving his worth as one of the most prominent characters in the franchise.