Anya Taylor-Joy has admitted she was relieved to hear James McAvoy had replaced an actor in Split, known for his intense methods.
The actress, who is currently promoting her new Apple TV+ show Lucky, reflected on M. Night Shyamalan’spsychological thriller to Hits Radio’s Olivia Marks. In an early role for the Emma star, she played a teenage girl kidnapped by a man struggling with dissociative identity disorder.
James McAvoy played the role of Kevin, for which he earned almost universal acclaim. But, Taylor-Joy revealed that he wasn’t always the intended actor for the role.
“I was so grateful it was him, because originally it was supposed to be someone that’s very known for being a method actor,” she explained. “And if I had been in Philadelphia with a method actor whose intention was to eat me, I think that would have been a different experience.”
The Furiosa star also praised the Scottish Atonement actor for how mindful he was of the young women who were playing his victims, Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula.
“I was very grateful to have James, who I think also understood that he had three young women with him,” she told the popular celeb interviewer. “And so, every time after a take, he would just make it a little bit lighter and was very supportive and just a general great guy.”
Anya Taylor-Joy didn’t name the method actor, but many presume she is referring to Joaquin Phoenix. The Oscar-winning actor pulled out of the psychological thriller project at the last minute, per Variety.
McAvoy spoke about replacing Phoenix in a 2024 episode of theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast, where he praised the Joker star as being “an amazing actor” but admitted he would have given “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 explained. “I think he ditched it two weeks before they started shooting. It was really last minute. I had a couple of weeks [to prep]. Two weeks. The script was well put together so a lot of it was clear what I wanted to do straight away,” he recalled.
Joaquin Phoenix has become known for his intense on-set behavior which has involved shedding weight quickly, asking the cast and crew to call him by his character name and even wiring his mouth shut to create a speech impediment.
This story was originally published by Parade on Jul 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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