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The Romesh Ranganathan Show

James McAvoy: Acting, X-Men & Directing His First Film

The Romesh Ranganathan Show

Ranga Bee & Platform Media

Comedy, Society & Culture

4.6713 Ratings

🗓️ 5 April 2026

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How did James McAvoy become one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood? Actor and director James McAvoy joins Romesh Ranganathan for a very special episode talking about acting, accents and the difference from Hollywood to home. James talks about accidentally getting into acting, why his philosophy is always “story first” and how he approaches building characters. Plus his skill at mastering accents, training as a pastry chef, bad reviews and being a part of the X‑Men family. We also discuss James' new film and his directorial debut, California Schemin'. And as always, a question from Shanthi. A Ranga Bee Production in partnership with Platform. 00:00 Intro 00:20 James joke and the stereotype of podcasts 04:15 James and Rom discuss Jordan Peterson 07:32 A gift for James 09:07 A moment for some Monster Munch 10:22 Early beginnings and getting into acting 18:20 Training as a pastry chef & Bake Off 20:12 Accents, agents and acting 29:28 Crying and vomiting on request 31:20 James and his agent Ruth 32:56 Romesh’s dad’s brutal honesty 34:24 The X-Men Films 38:18 James and Romesh on bad reviews 45:30 Future work and legacy 48:01 A question from Shanthi 49:72 California Scheming 01:03:19 Misquoted 01:10:28 On getting older 01:13:22 Meantime and Frankie Boyle 01:14:24 Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

So you do daytime discos, basically?

0:02.2

We did one at Halloween, and it was like from three till nine or something like that. Imagine going to a party, and then you can watch match of the day. It's amazing. We did one, and then I went out for dinner afterwards. Oh, me, it's the dream. It's incredible. It's the dream. There's loads of garage brunches and shit, and shit you know like you used to have a thing when I was a kid I never was allowed to go to it but it was called the unders yeah in Glasgow and it would be all the proper nightclubs like our chaos and the arches and all that kind of stuff and it would be under under 16s basically under 15s and under 16s so all be school kids in there all sneaking drinks and stuff like that, partying from 12pm till 4pm, people getting stabbed and all that kind of stuff. But you'd hear these stories like that. It's nice for that to happen in the afternoon, isn't it? Love to get stabbed in the afternoon. If you're going to get stabbed, make sure it's before tea time. But yeah, I love it's It's wicked, man. It's really good. And the one thing I was worried about was that that's, because sometimes I do mat and a stand-up gigs. And then you worry that in the afternoon, people aren't going to be up for it. I was up through. But the truth is, if you can get the room dark enough, people are sort of all right. Yeah, and they've had a bit of a drink during the day, which always gets you a bit different. Yeah, it's actually totally fun. I reckon three till four is a bit sticky. You know, people are sort of, I've just had lunch. Yeah, yeah, they're starting to get out like, I think I need a nap. I'd love a lie down right now.

1:28.3

And then they start to go,

1:29.9

hold on a minute.

1:31.0

This is all right.

1:31.8

And by 9 o'clock,

1:32.7

it's absolutely smashing it.

1:39.3

It's the Romish,

1:41.2

rank on,

1:42.6

Nathan,

1:43.9

Oh, shut up, Ramesh.

1:47.0

Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo have arrived on Disney Plus.

1:53.0

We're having a baby.

1:54.0

We're having a baby!

1:56.0

I've always wanted to be mom.

1:58.0

And we're bringing you on our journey to everything. I have no idea what we're

2:01.8

doing. Thank you. I have more of an idea. I think of it like a Tamagocchi. At the end of all of this,

2:08.5

we're going to have a little baby. Raising Chelsea, a Hulu original series streaming exclusively on Disney

2:15.2

Plus. 18 plus subscription required T's T's Apply.

2:18.7

My guest today is an actor and now director

2:20.7

whose career has spanned everything from British TV

2:23.3

and indie films to major Hollywood blockbusters.

...

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