The role James McAvoy played two years after he turned it down: “It didn’t seem so horrific”
(Credits: Alamy)
Sat 15 November 2025 6:30, UK
Whether he’s playing a mind-controlling mutant, a doctor in the court of Idi Amin, or a shirtless goat-man amid a snowy tundra, James McAvoy always gives it 100%.
You don’t get to enjoy a career as long and as varied as his without proving to a lot of very influential people that you are really good at what you do.
One of the Scotsman’s many overlooked performances can be found in the 2013 film The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, written and directed by Ned Benson, and starring Jessica Chastain (Benson’s then-girlfriend) as the titular character. McAvoy plays her husband, Connor Ludlow, and the film follows various aspects of their lives, with an interesting aspect of where there is no definitive version of the film; one is filmed from his perspective, one is filmed from hers, and then there is another that attempts to combine both.
McAvoy had initially been approached to play Connor in 2010, but passed on the offer, which saw Joel Egerton take over the part but then drop out at a crucial moment, and when the former was asked again, he realised that the reason he’d held back all those years ago was no longer an issue.
“I’d just had a kid, and I didn’t want to touch a script about a couple that loses a baby,” he told Out, “They had four or five days to save the financing, and it was two years on from having my kid. It wasn’t as raw, and it didn’t seem so horrific to me at that point.”
McAvoy and his then-wife, Anne-Marie Duff, had just welcomed their first son in 2010, while the couple in the film narrative suffer several tragedies, one of which include Eleanor’s character undergoing multiple miscarriages and the loss of their young son, Cody, thus, you can understand why he wasn’t keen on such a heavy topic so soon after experiencing the joy of becoming a parent. The actor would become a father once more, but not until 2022, many years after he was forced to confront the concept of losing a child on film.
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby was Benson’s first film, which might explain why it needed McAvoy’s name as a boost; Chastain was not the household name in 2010 as she is today, so her involvement in the project did not guarantee funding.
Over the next few years, when McAvoy was finally on board, the red-haired star had also become more popular, so the film was able to attract big names the likes of William Hurt, Viola Davis, and Isabelle Huppert, the latter of whom fulfilled a lifelong dream of Chastain’s. It got decent reviews upon its release, but Benson wouldn’t direct another feature film until 2024’s The Greatest Hits.
This wouldn’t be the only time McAvoy stepped in at the last minute to cover a film’s ass, as he famously replaced Joaquin Phoenix in M Night Shyamalan’s Split, which is, coincidentally, where he met the mother of his second child. On both occasions, it’s hard to imagine anyone else turning in a better performance; fate has a funny way of working out like that.
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