-Our first guest tonight is a Golden Globe-nominated actor
you know from "Atonement" and the "X-Man" franchise --
"X-Men" franchise.
He stars in M. Night Shyamalan's new film "Glass,"
which is in theaters and IMAX Friday.
Let's take a look.
-I know this seems very unfair to you.
-Pbht!
-But you are stuck in this room.
-He's right there!
You can't beat the beast!
He don't think you can beat the beast, does he?
Huh?
Beast like -- [ Grunts ]
He doesn't think he can beat the beast, does he?
-Please welcome back to the show James McAvoy, everyone!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome back.
-Do the guys keep playing until I sit down?
-Yeah, they would play forever.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
-Play until they starve. -Yeah.
We had someone come once who never sat down.
It was really rough. It was like a hostage situation.
[ Laughter ]
So, congratulations on the film. -Thank you.
-That was just one of I believe 20 different personalities
your character has in this film.
-Yeah, no, we had 23 in the original script,
and then in the editing process,
Night decided to cut three of them.
I don't know why.
-Yeah.
-I was all for leave no personality behind.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, they ditched three of them.
-I have to imagine you can't approach this the way
you approach other roles in terms of how you rehearse.
-Uh, err, no.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-You know, typically on a movie, even if it's a big movie,
you get one week's rehearsal, so trying to rehearse 20 characters
was onerous, you know?
But actually, there was just a lot of rehearsing in the mirror.
Which I've not done since I was about 21.
But there was a lot of just kind of going like,
"All right, that's how she looks.
And, like, that's how he looks. And then he's like this."
And it was kind of fun. I felt like a kid again a little bit.
-I would also imagine,
on top of having to keep all those personalities straight,
obviously this is an M. Night movie.
They're kind of famous for their twists and turns,
where you also plot-wise have to keep a lot of things straight.
Were you just sort of in an utter confusion cloud
for the whole time, yeah? -To be honest, yes.
-Yeah.
-On the first movie, "Split," he --
I got the script and I read it. I loved it and all that.
And you know, ultimately, we revealed that it was linked to
the world of "Unbreakable"
and Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson and all that.
I missed this completely.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, and their movie that they made 19 years ago,
"Unbreakable."
And so we're like two weeks in,
and I'm sitting there thinking, like, geez --
"M. Night Shyamalan really talks about 'Unbreakable' a lot."
You know? [ Laughter ]
And I'm like -- no, dude.
I'm not here going, like, "Oh, I was in 'Atonement.'"
[ Laughter ]
You know, back on "Narnia..."
[ Laughter ]
I'm like -- And then one day he got really overt with it
and it -- kind of the penny dropped,
and I was like, "Oh! I get it." [ Laughter ]
And I styled it out and I pretended that I knew all along.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
It turns out this is why it's very helpful
when sequels are just the name
of the first movie with a "2" after it.
[ Laughter ]
-Oh, yeah, I know, yeah. Exactly.
-Then you don't miss it.
You get to work with two incredibly iconic co-stars
in Bruce Willis and Sam Jackson. What was that like?
-You know, those gu-- I've worked with movie stars,
and people that are my contemporaries
may be slightly older or slightly younger, and it's cool.
You know, but working with those guys -- Bruce was --
Bruce was a movie star and a big TV star when I was a kid.
I remember watching "Moonlighting."
-Sure. -With him and Cybill Shepherd.
And I loved him in that.
And he made me laugh, he excited me, he, like, terrified me.
It was amazing.
And then Sam, more in my teens,
just watching him being so dexterous as an actor.
He's been an example, like, for as long as I can remember
even thinking about acting.
Getting to work with him was incredible.
I remember we did this big scene, a big long pink room
where we do, like, a community therapy session.
And a chair there, we've got Bruce,
and then a chair there, we've got Sam,
and a big long walk to my empty chair in the middle.
And that's, like, weird -- and I'm walking down,
and I sit down and I'm like,
"All right, Sam. All right, Bruce."
[ Laughter ]
And then he says -- and then the director says, "Action."
I'm like -- I says, you know,
it's kind of a sort of pinch yourself moment, you know?
-And you also got to do a fair amount of press with Sam.
Did you learn anything about promoting a film from Sam?
-I mean, I saw examples of what I might be able to do
when I've got the balls that he's got.
[ Laughter ]
But, you know, you've got to be --
That guy does not suffer fools, which is a positive quality.
But he gets any kind of question
that is in any way not thought out properly,
he just drops the F-bomb and he is like,
"What are you talking about? What? What?"
He calls them out so hard, and it's the funniest thing.
I did an interview back in the U.K.
with Lorraine Kelly, who is a brilliant host.
But it just didn't work out with Sam and her.
And I'm sitting there going -- and I've been on her show
back home, like, many, many, many, many times.
She's a lovely, lovely lady.
And I'm sitting there going, like,
"Oh, no, this is going real bad."
[ Laughter ]
"This is going real --" And I can't get in between them
because once he gets going, there's no stopping him.
-Yeah. I think that's so.
-He's amazing. I love the guy.
And I want -- you know, I hope when I'm his age --
I hope when I'm -- a year from now I'm like him.
-Yeah, it's really fun, too.
Again, earned confidence. -Yeah.
-But a confidence must be a delight to go through life with.
I also -- [ Laughter ]
I mean, for real.
You shot in an abandoned hospital.
That was your actual set. Yes?
-Yeah, they abandoned it because it was terrifying.
-Wow. [ Laughter ]
It was too scary to be a hospital.
-It was too -- it was a mental hospital,
and it was making the patients be mental.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, it was a pretty scary little joint.
And it was freezing.
And they turned the heating off.
And we filmed it in, I think, November in Pennsylvania,
where it's freezing.
And I'm running about with no shoes on and no top on.
And I'm like, "Night, why did you write this for me right now?
I do like my nipples." [ Laughter ]
"I don't really want to have them sewn back on
by some incredible foreign surgeon
I have to fly to and see."
So, yeah, it was pretty gnarly.