Many are used to seeing famous actors as these glamorous figures, with effortless good looks and easy-to-find success. In reality, those same people we see on movies and TV went through hell to get there. A big part of an actor's life is rejection. Many try out for dozens, even hundreds, of roles, and sadly, end up landing only a few. With talent and a whole lot of luck, those few roles they land will help them create a career that will either experience a constant growth, or face the same type of steep drop experienced by a viciously hot potato held by an individual unaware of its high temperature.
Case in point of this challenging road to success: James McAvoy.
Though the actor had been acting years before, he gained prominence playing Charles Xavier in the 2011 X-Men prequel film, First Class. which was followed up by Days of Future Past, Apocalypse and, ultimately, Dark Phoenix. Now, it's safe to say McAvoy is as synonymous with Professor X as Patrick Stewart. It was a tall order, but McAvoy lived up to it. Yet, before getting audiences to fall in love with him as Charles, he was up for a different comic book-related role, one that he lost out on in a fashion that is very... well, Hollywood.
McAvoy, alongside fellow X-Men actor Elliot Page, sat down for an interview with Josh Horowitz for his Happy Sad Confused podcast, recorded live at New York Comic Con. There, the actor revealed that, prior to X-Men, he got very close to appearing in another comic book film: "I did actually audition for another comic book movie in my early career, to play a small part of a younger version of a character for the first, like, five minutes of the movie, and then I'd be out of it. Really good scene, though."
Then, McAvoy met the director: "I won't tell you the film; I won't tell you the director, but we had this amazing conversation, and this amazing connection. And, like, we're laughing and crying. He's telling me stories about his life—like, real deep stuff, quite traumatic stuff that had happened to him. And he hugs me at the end, and we both cried."
It sounds like a great experience, doesn't it? Well, McAvoy continued:
"As I'm walking out, he turns to the casting director and is like, 'This is the guy, this is the guy.' And... he never called my agent. [...] And then he offered me a role, years later, on another movie—which I didn't end up doing with him—and I sat down and chatted with him, and I'm like, 'Do you remember me?' And he was like, 'No, we have never met before.'"
Ouch. Oof. That is a full-on gut punch if I've ever seen one. Maybe it's the way McAvoy told the story, but this anecdote is equal parts depressing and hilarious. Having gotten what could have been (depending on what project it was) a life-changing role—confirmed by the director himself, mind you—he was just never called back for it. This is just one example, but in reality, up-and-coming actors experience stories like this one almost every day.
Fortunately, McAvoy landed on his feet, and now has quite an impressive filmography. Plus, he has the added benefit of having a permanent place in the hearts of many geeks around the world for his portrayal of Charles Xavier.