As one-half of the fatalistic couple at the tragic heart of Atonement, director Joe Wright's adaptation of Ian McEwan's complex, decade-spanning novel, James McAvoy looks every inch the classic leading man -- even if McAvoy himself doesn't happen to agree.
"I'm 5-foot-7, and I've got pasty white skin," he insists. "I don't think I'm ugly, don't get me wrong, but I'm not your classic lead man, Brad Pitt guy."
McAvoy's not complaining; rather, he's celebrating the fact that someone who looks like him can be cast in such a role. "I'm always moaning about [the fact that] you see humanity represented as nothing but perfect, so it's good," he continues. "But I won't deny I felt a little bit self-conscious or worried. Will people accept me physically or visually for this role?"
The answer, most assuredly, is yes. McAvoy's performance as Cambridge-educated housekeeper's son Robbie Turner in the stately 1930s-set drama has, along with that of his co-star, Keira Knightley, been generating serious acclaim ever since Atonement opened the Venice Film Festival earlier this year. It comes to Baltimore next week. Everything Robbie holds dear is ripped apart after one hot summer's night when his long-suppressed feelings for Cecilia (Knightley), the eldest daughter of the household, passionately surface.
As written, Robbie was initially a little too angelic for McAvoy's liking. "I felt he was too straight," explains the 28-year-old Scot. "So I had to make him a bit dirtier and grumpier to make him more real."
Ultimately, McAvoy says, he found his way into the heart and soul of a character through the physical and spiritual transformation he undergoes midway through the film. "He knows who he is, which is incredible. But then a little girl comes along and tells him you're not who you think you are -- you're [a] rapist, and, by the way, the entire world believes me. The only person other than him who knows who he is is Cecilia. If it wasn't for her, he'd kill himself. In all my other characters I've always used conflict, and I couldn't with this until halfway through. [Then] he becomes the opposite of everything that made him difficult to play: damaged, conflicted and a much more recognizably human figure."
"McEwan has lots of descriptions of Robbie, but the description I liked the best and thought was most important for the story was of him having `eyes of optimism,'" says Wright. "I feel James has those eyes of optimism. Also, he's the best actor working in Britain today, of his generation. He's extraordinary."
