Soundtrack Of My Life: James McAvoy

13 September, 2024

James McAvoy

The first song I remember hearing

Rod Stewart – ‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’

“We’re gonna try and get Rod Stewart to be in the film I’m about to make actually. It’s a true story about two guys from Dundee who, in the early 2000s, were rapping and they were really good. They were really talented. They came down and auditioned for Sony, and the two reps who were auditioning them laughed them out of the room because they were Scottish. Anyway, they came back months later, pretending to be two West Coast California skater-dude rappers and they got a record deal for 35 grand. It was the same songs, just re-recorded. For the next bit of their lives, for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even when they were on their own, they would pretend to be these characters. Great things happened and bad things happened and the story is pretty wild.”

How does Rod Stewart come into it?

“You’ll have to watch the film to see if we got him. Rod, we’re coming!”

The first album I bought

‘The Power And The Glory’ compilation (1991)

“It’s a compilation, featuring such greats as The Black Crowes and Alannah Miles. I loved ‘Black Velvet’ by Alannah Miles, which features in this film actually. I got it from the local Asda when I was about 12… growing up in a council estate called Drumchapel, which is just on the edge of Glasgow.”

The first gig I went to

U2 at Murrayfield, Edinburgh in 1997

“I was actually quite old – about 16 or 17. I went with my mates and we were right in the front. We got there super early in the morning to queue up. And then as the day went on, people kept skipping in front of us. But before that started to happen, some of the roadies came out and gave us all cups of tea and stuff like that because we were there so early. They told us to keep hold of the cups. Then later on, we were 500 people back by then when we’d been 20 from the front, and they came and found the people with the cups and they brought them to the front of the queue again. It was awesome.”

The song that reminds me of home

Dougie MacLean – ‘Caledonia’

“I’ve lived in London longer than I’ve lived in Scotland, which is crazy to me – but Scotland is where I’m from.”

The song I wish I’d written

Damien Rice – ‘The Blower’s Daughter’

“It’s beautiful – just stunning. I think that whole album [2002’s ‘O’] is incredible. I couldn’t listen to for a while because I’d listened to it so much. But I’ve sort of come back to it in the last year.”

The song I can’t get out of my head right now

The theme song to Blippi

“Blippi is a children’s entertainer/educator who’s become a multi-gazillionaire on YouTube and multiple platforms. He’s a sort of latter day Pee-wee Herman with more of a focus on education type. He wears jeans, trainers, a denim shirt buttoned-up to the top and orange braces (or suspenders as they call them in America). And he wears a blue and orange hat.”

The song I can no longer listen to

Plan B – ‘She Said’

“It was my favourite tune for such a long time. I think I just played it too much. It was a couple of years ago though. After this, I’m going to see if I’m ready for Plan B again.”

The song that makes me want to dance

Alannah Miles – ‘Black Velvet’

“There’s a scene in Speak No Evil where this song comes on. If you pay attention, my character and his wife, played by Aisling Franciosi, are like, ‘Oh, this is our tune. Let’s go!’ And we get up and dance. We had to film what was described as a “sexy dance”. We were more nervous about doing a sexy dance than having to do anything else in this mental, messed-up film – so much so that we both had a shot of whiskey beforehand. And honestly, the first take went on for about seven minutes. We were mortified, truly mortified – and then most of us dancing got cut from the film!”

The song I want played at my funeral

Deacon Blue – ‘Dignity’

“It’s quite triumphant in some ways. It’s aspirational, about somebody who’s from a background where they don’t have much. It’s about dreams, manifesting something and making it happen… I’d never thought about my funeral until I saw this question in the car on the way to the interview… If I’ve been OK to people, then hopefully they’ll take care of my funeral for me.”