James McAvoy has revealed he was “almost” in the Harry Potter franchise.
The Bafta nominee was a guest on a recent edition of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, during which he discussed an opportunity that came his way “right at the beginning of my career”.
Following an audition to play Tom Riddle (a younger Lord Voldermort) in Harry Potter, James recalled that he and around 10 other young actors were selected to be put “in a retainer”, which the Scottish performer claimed would allow producers to “hold us and keep us to choose later”.
“It was a really strange thing, and they offered quite a lot of money,” he said. “For me, at that time, it was a ton of money. It was like £40,000 or something like that.
“I’d done very little work and I wouldn’t be able to do any work for about seven months, I think it was.”
However, it was James’ agent who ultimately convinced him to turn down the offer.
“Absolutely not. Don’t do that. We’re gonna go and do something else,” he was told by his agent, instead accepting a part in the play Out In The Open, where he was “booed by a homophobic gentleman” in the audience.
“I did that instead and got paid I think £275 a week,” James said. “But it was part of the making of me. I was actually learning and doing all that.”
Tom Riddle was eventually played by Christian Coulson, who went on to appear in films like The Hours and the TV series Blue Bloods, High Fidelity and Nashville.
The character returned later in the series and was played by Hero Fiennes Tiffin, the nephew of Ralph Fiennes, who played the grown-up Lord Voldermort.
This article has been updated to correct a factual error.