Celebrity4 min(s) read
James McAvoy speaks out on ‘Band of Brothers’ co-star who bullied him on set
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James McAvoy has opened up about a difficult situation he faced in an early acting job, after being 'bullied' by a co-star.
The actor, now 47, had his first professional acting role in 2001's series Band of Brothers, where he played Private James W. Miller.
The American war drama miniseries was based on historian Stephen E. Ambrose's 1992 non-fiction book of the same name, created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who also served as executive producers.
Speaking on Watch What Happens live, hosted by Andy Cohen, McAvoy revealed that his time filming the series was derailed from the first day by one co-star.
During a game of 'Spill the IMDb Tea' with his fellow guest Peter Krause, the actors were asked to rate their experience working on past projects out of 10.
Cohen asked McAvoy about Band of Brothers, saying the experience of filming a war series was "probably grueling".
McAvoy stood up from his chair to look at the photo production had put on the screen from the show, revealing: "I’m not going to tell you who it was,” before opening up on the bullying he experienced, and confirming it was one of the eight actors in the photo.
He revealed: "My first day on set, there was like a ton of actors. It was one of those scenes with everybody in it and we’re all in a bar, and I had a scene."
McAvoy explained that many of the actors had been working on the show for nine or 10 months but would have "one line" in an episode and their next line would be "10 episodes later".
He added: "And they were all pissed and I come in for one episode and I’ve got like an arc and scenes. I’ve got tons of lines in this.
"One of the guys in that picture decided to bully me on my first day as a professional actor out of acting school.
"He got him and his buddies to just stand point at me and laugh at me for like three minutes."
The role was McAvoy's first major project after graduating from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2000.
While he did not reveal which actor it was that singled him out, the men in the picture shown to him are Ross McCall, Adam James, Frank John Hughes, Donnie Wahlberg, Kirk Acevedo, Scott Grimes, Neal McDonough, and Philip Barantini.
McAvoy revealed that two other stars - Dexter Fletcher, who played Staff Sergeant John 'Johnny' Martin, and Robin Laing, who played Private First Class Edward 'Babe' Heffron - made the experience less isolating.
"They took me aside and they were like, ‘Come hang with us, man,’" he revealed.
However, despite the bullying he felt from one of the cast, it didn't dampen his overall experience, as McAvoy clarified: "I’d say apart from that day, it was a nine [out of 10]. But that day, it felt like a two."
Band of Brothers, which had a huge ensemble cast, went on to win a Primetime Emmy for outstanding miniseries, and has often been cited as one of TV's best series by many critics.
Fellow castmember Damian Lewis told People in May that being part of it "means everything to me," adding: "It was an incredible show to be part of. Its legacy has gone on and on and on.
"People adore it. It stands up. I’ve seen it recently. It stands up as a piece of drama."