James McAvoy Has Had Series Of Fainting Spells On Movie Sets

Only a few actors have managed to beat James McAvoy in the world of offbeat content and blockbuster drama. From his role as a star-crossed lover to playing in "X-men," McAvoy brings to the table confidence and sincerity, which endears him to his fans.

Although he debuted his career as a dramatic actor, these past few years have featured McAvoy's range in different genres and performances. From being a host in "Saturday Night Live" to playing a role of having multiple personalities in "Split," the actor has proven again and again that he's not afraid of daunting roles.

He debuted his acting career in 1995 with "The Near Room." After a long time with the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he began to appear in various British films and series. Filmmakers soon began to notice him, and when Hollywood roles came calling, McAvoy finally had the global audience to whom he could show off his talent.

However, inhabiting the roles of characters is no mean feat as some actors can become so into their characters that it threatens their physical well-being. This is no exemption for McAvoy, who revealed that he passed out in a torture movie that felt too real.

The "Watership Down" actor once reminisced a scary experience of being tortured in "The Last King Of Scotland." In the scene, his character was to be hung on meat hooks. In addition to taking a physical toll on the actor, it also took a psychological toll on him.

"The torture scene was the hardest day of the shoot," McAvoy explained to Artisan News Service. "Because we had a bombing in London, and nobody could get through to family and friends and loved ones. It was terrifying. At the same time, we had to film this ridiculous torture scene which felt so wrong at the time. But we had to do it, so we did it."

The scene was more challenging because the director didn't want anyone screaming on the shoot. This resulted in McAvoy showing his pain differently.

"We did the first take, and I passed out completely. The script said something like, 'Nicholas refuses to scream even though he'd been tortured. And I thought, I don't think he's that strong of a person inside," McAvoy said, referring to his character. "So I thought, 'How could I not scream? If I don't breathe because I'm in so much pain, then I won't be able to scream. Because there's no breath to vocalize it."

History almost repeated itself for McAvoy when he found himself almost fainting in this shoot of "Watership Down." In the movie, he plays a rabbit looking for a home. He admitted to making a lot of animal sounds, which affected him.

"I've almost passed out a couple of times," McAvoy said according to The Independent.

A co-star, who also played the role of a rabbit, narrated how it was liberated and also fulfilling. "You have to do this pass, it's like an 'effort pass,' which is where you record, 'oh, you're running away from a cat now, and you're sniffing the air, and you're running away from a seagull,' and you just have to be a child really," Arterton shared. "And it's always fun; you always do it at the end because you might hurt your voice because you have to scream and things like that, but it's quite liberating – you just have to let yourself be a complete idiot."

Recently, the actor wounded himself on the filming location of "IT: Chapter 2." He tried to execute his stunts which led to a disastrous effect for the "Split" star. He also revealed that he had tendinitis for six months.

"We did this whole scene, rocks falling on our hands. I thought it'd be super awesome if I smashed down on my knees. It was brilliant. The director said, 'Cut, it is perfect. Do it again,'" McAvoy recalled on Conan. "And unfortunately, we did it like 29 times, and I pulled my quads and got tendinitis in my knee."

In an interview with the Ain't It Cool News, M. Night Shyamalan disclosed that McAvoy broke his hand on the movie "Split."

"There's a big scene where go transforms between characters when they're all reaching for the light, and we reshot it. He was exhausted when we did it the first time. It was the end of the original shoot, and it was so challenging. He has to switch-switch-switch-switch with absolute authenticity and bring love and passion for each of them. 

He got upset and hit the door, which he thought was a fake door, but it was solid metal. He hit it and broke his hand, but we didn't realize it. He was so angry that he couldn't get this. We did the scene repeatedly, and he couldn't get it perfect. 

I said, 'I think I can cut this together.' As soon as he heard me say that and I heard myself say that, we knew we were coming back. If you see the movie again, the scene where he's on the train, and he's putting on his glasses, you'll see his hand is completely blown up, broken."