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‘I’ve failed, badly – and I’m good with it’: James McAvoy on class, comfort and carnage

He says that acting is a gamble – but is a dead cert to terrify audiences with new film Speak No Evil. The Scottish actor talks about marriage, therapy – and why Ken Loach would never cast him

Because I’m a 5ft 7 guy, you’ve got to project a lot.” (Here, he takes a brief detour down memory lane of the unnamed but keenly remembered parts he didn’t get, because he was too short. For a short time, it appears to be a tense comedy of cross-continental manners and how disgusting British plumbing, domestic hygiene and decor are to people used to a higher standard and who use napkins. Photograph: Susie Allnutt/Universal Pictures and BlumhouseIf Speak No Evil fits into the body of McAvoy’s work, it is in more general terms, in that Paddy, albeit cynically, describes his project as class war.

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