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M. Night Shyamalan’s 2016 thriller Split was supposed to star Joaquin Phoenix in the lead role, but the actor dropped out just two weeks before filming was due to begin. James McAvoy, who took over for Phoenix, discussed this unusual development in a recent interview.
Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McAvoy said Phoenix is an “amazing actor,” and he would have played the character differently from the Scottish actor. Split tells the story of a man (McAvoy) who has 23 different personalities, so anyone could understand how preparation sounds like it might be critical to playing the role well. But McAvoy said coming in so late in the process was something of a relief because he couldn’t over-prepare.
“I think he’d give a very different performance to the one I did. But I think he’d give an incredible performance. Sometimes coming in last minute is the best way,” he said. “I think he ditched it like two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last minute. I had two weeks [to prepare].”
McAvoy went on to say the Split script was so well put-together that he didn’t struggle too much to understand what he wanted to do in the film, even though he came in so late. McAvoy said there were a couple characters/personalities that “took a little bit longer to find,” but apart from that, he said he didn’t struggle too much to find his footing and make the movie Shyamalan and Blumhouse wanted.
Split wasn’t the last time Phoenix dropped out of a film right before filming, as he recently quit a Todd Haynes romance film just five days before filming. A report said Phoenix is likely to pay a low-seven-figure fee as a make-good, considering sets were already made and the movie was sold to distributors when he abruptly left.
McAvoy stars in the horror movie Speak No Evil, which is in theaters now. As for Phoenix, his next big movie is Joker: Folie à Deux, which comes to theaters in October.
In other news about McAvoy, the actor also discussed how he auditioned for and could have starred in the Harry Potter movie series, but chose to pass.
