'My unpaid workload has doubled': James McAvoy is busier than ever after moving into directing
James McAvoy says his workload has increased now that he has made his directorial debut on the movie California Schemin'.
James McAvoy's "workload has doubled" now that he has turned his hand to directing.
The 46-year-old actor makes his bow behind the camera on the movie California Schemin' – about the Scottish faux-American rap duo Silibil N' Brains – and revealed that he is now working on projects from multiple perspectives.
McAvoy told Empire magazine: "It's nuts, actually. I've been working on the film for almost four years now and (been) in production on it since August 2024. And I'm still working on it (up until release).
"I said to my wife the other day, 'Do you think there'll be a day when I'm not working on this thing?' She was like, 'No, but you're enjoying it still.'"
The X-Men star added: "What I've found in becoming a director, even though I'm not directing anything right now, is that my unpaid workload has doubled. Now I'm reading scripts as an actor and reading scripts as a director; I'm developing things for other people.
"It's great. It's very creative. But I'm also like, 'When's the bit where I get to sit in my pants at 3pm and watch a film again?'"
McAvoy revealed how California Schemin' - which is set to be released in April - was his ideal directorial debut as it centred on characters with a similar "background" to him.
He said: "I wanted to tell a story about people from a background like mine, that I recognised and understood. People with limited opportunities, near horizons and a kind of in-built humility.
"But I also wanted to (make) a film that was entertaining, still had emotional impact and still confronted the obstacles and the realities that people from that kind of low-income background face."
The Speak No Evil star – who also has an acting part in California Schemin' – continued: "Also, it's a film (in which) you have two people who have to confront this thing that Scottish people do quite a lot, which is the reaction we get – from people who are not from Scotland – when the noise that comes out of our mouth lands in the other person's ears.
"I'm totally aware that, as a white, Northern European male, that discrimination isn't necessarily the worst discrimination in the world. But it is something that people in Scotland face.
"Like, my accent is so f****** mellow now. I do not sound how I sounded when I lived on a council estate in Glasgow. And I still get people that go like, 'I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Would you slow down?'"
James revealed that he ultimately enjoyed the "stressful" responsibility of directing.
He said: "It was incredibly stressful. The most stressful experience of my life, and I did it at my midlife-crisis time of life as well. Am I directing a film because I'm having a midlife crisis? Maybe. But I love doing it."
