James McAvoy Got One Of His Best Roles When Joaquin Phoenix Dropped Out

Joaquin Phoenix’s loss was James McAvoy’s gain. The latter is now starring in Blumhouse’s retelling of the 2022 Danish horror film “Speak No Evil” (which our own BJ Colangelo reviewed and praised, calling it “an assault of relentless tension and the best possible outcome for an Americanized remake”), adding yet another terrifying and brilliant performance under McAvoy’s belt as the antagonist of the story. Not surprisingly, the trailers for the movie almost seemed to be going out of their way to evoke the actor’s vaguely similar turn in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split,” where he stole every one of his scenes as the mentally unstable villain — one whose entire mood and personality shifted at a moment’s notice, not unlike his character in “Speak No Evil.” Well, those comparisons might never have happened in the first place if Phoenix hadn’t dropped out of yet another high-profile gig at the very last moment.

The “Joker” star recently made headlines for doing just that, abandoning what would’ve been a leading role in director Todd Haynes’ untitled gay romance and essentially killing the entire production, but that’s hardly the first time he’s pulled a similar stunt. We’ve known for years that Phoenix was originally intended to be cast in 2016’s “Split,” marking yet another collaboration with Shyamalan following “The Village” and “Signs.” What we didn’t realize, however, was just how late in the process the enigmatic star pulled out, forcing McAvoy to step up and fill his shoes with the genre performance of a lifetime. It’s difficult to imagine the top-secret “Unbreakable” sequel with anyone else playing the part of The Horde (the comic-booky moniker for the various dissociative identities fighting for control within McAvoy’s character). Luckily, this was one plot twist that ultimately worked out for the best.

Imagine going about your work day and minding your own business when, suddenly, you’re called up out of the blue for the toughest and most demanding task of your career to that point. That’s essentially what James McAvoy chose to embrace when he was cast at the last possible second for “Split.” The circumstances were obviously the furthest thing from ideal, where performers are given plenty of time to research and plan out every nuance of a given character, but the talented star made the best of it anyway. In a new interview on Josh Horowitz’s “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, McAvoy opened up about the unique challenges — and even the unexpected advantages — involved in this particular job:

“I think [Joaquin Phoenix would] give a very different performance than the one I did, but I think he’d give an incredible performance. But, do you know what, sometimes coming in last minute is the best way […] I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting, it was really last minute […] But the script was well put-together, so a lot of it was actually pretty clear what I wanted to do straight away.”

It’s also worth noting that McAvoy jokingly pokes fun at Phoenix, claiming that it wasn’t hard coming into this movie knowing that Shyamalan had someone very different in mind. “I’m confident enough to think that I’d do it better anyway,” he says with a laugh before clarifying that, obviously, he thinks Phoenix is an “amazing actor” and it’s all in good fun. Whatever the reasons for Phoenix’s abrupt departure, it’s safe to say that both stars benefited from this turn of events. McAvoy firmly reestablished himself as a performer not to be underestimated with “Split,” while Phoenix went on to appear in the excellent “You Were Never Really Here.”

“Speak No Evil” is currently playing in theaters, while you can next catch Phoenix in “Joker: Folie à Deux” this October.