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How Speak No Evil Channels James McAvoy's Performance from This 2013 Cult Hit
Sure, McAvoy was scary good in Split and Glass, but director James Watkins was intrigued by something filthier.
In Speak No Evil, the new horror movie from Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, James McAvoy plays a man named Paddy who invites a couple that he and his wife met on vacation to come stay with them at their country house. However, Paddy’s mask of hospitality belies an unpredictable, possibly cruel streak. Of course, McAvoy is no stranger to playing characters whose personalities can change on a dime; after all, he played all 24 of Kevin Wendell Crumb’s personalities in the M. Night Shyamalan films Split and Glass.
However, James Watkins, director of Speak No Evil, says that’s not the role he was thinking about when McAvoy took the part.
Speak No Evil director James Watkins on James McAvoy's Filth
“It wasn't Split,” Watkins tells SYFY WIRE in an interview ahead of Speak No Evil’s September 13 premiere. Instead, it was a 2013 black comedy called Filth (now streaming on Peacock), in which McAvoy plays “a very reprehensible Scottish cop” who starts to lose his mind while investigating a murder — a case that he’s primarily motivated to solve because he wants a promotion.
“It’s much more grounded [than Split and Glass], but this character's deeply unpleasant,” Watkins says. “And yet James also finds a line where you understand his humanity and you understand the pathos and what drove him to that space.”
Scoot McNairy says James McAvoy is a "beast" in Speak No Evil
Even though Split wasn’t what Watkins was looking to when McAvoy got the part, there are some similarities between the roles.
“He’s a beast of an actor,” Scoot McNairy tells SYFY WIRE about his co-star in Speak No Evil, unintentionally namedropping the secret, murderous personality McAvoy’s character adopts in Split. “He couldn’t have painted more colors into this performance.”
Still, McNairy is quick to assure that, even though McAvoy is really good at playing a dangerous, unhinged psycho, he’s not at all like that when the cameras aren’t rolling.
“The only thing I can say about the similarities between the role he was playing and himself is that James is incredibly funny, he loves to have a good time, and he’s incredibly charismatic. So that was something I did see him sort of bring to Patty,” McNairy says. “But he's so far from being a toxic, masculine person that he did an exceptional job at leaning into that and playing that.”
Speak No Evil premieres in theaters September 13. Get your tickets now! In the meantime, check out Filth, now streaming on Peacock.
