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"  Thanks to movies like X-Men: First Class and Wanted, James McAvoy has become something of the thinking woman&amp;#039;s action star. While not the brawniest, he&amp;#039;s got those blue eyes; and then there&amp;#039;s that Scottish accent, more Sean Connery than Shrek, with a hint of Craig Ferguson to let you know he has a sense of humor. Indeed, McAvoy, 34, seems to be enjoying himself. Around the time that his breakthrough film, 2006&amp;#039;s The Last King of Scotland, established him as a formidable presence, he also scored offscreen, marrying the British actress Anne-Marie Duff. Now living in London with their son, the couple remains fiercely protective of their private life, but McAvoy is considerably freer on-screen\u2014as a badass detective in Welcome to the Punch (out now) or showing his naked ass (not to mention some serious gravitas) in this spring&amp;#039;s Trance, a thriller about a stolen painting and the amnesiac who knows where it&amp;#039;s been stashed\u2026if he could only remember. Great Scot! ELLE: You considered entering the priesthood as a young man. Were you prepared to take a vow of celibacy? James McAvoy: Yeah, I thought I&amp;#039;d give it a buzz. I wanted to be a missionary and work abroad, but girls started to become a bigger part of my life around the time I lost interest in the priesthood. ELLE: Have you always been good with women? JM: Girls didn&amp;#039;t really take much interest in me until I was about 14. But I knew how to talk to them very quickly. What I figured out\u2014that my friends didn&amp;#039;t\u2014was you have to talk to women like you&amp;#039;re not constantly trying to have sex with them. That seemed to work. ELLE: You ride motorcycles. Did that start as a way to impress women? JM: No. You should see my motorcycle. Google &amp;quot;2001 blue Honda Hornet 600&amp;quot; and you&amp;#039;ll see how uncool I look on my bike. ELLE: You&amp;#039;re famous for your blue eyes. Was there ever a time they got you out of trouble? JM: Well, I am an actor. And I can cry at the drop of a hat. ELLE: You&amp;#039;ve faked crying to get out of an argument? Give me the story. JM: I can&amp;#039;t. It would make certain people feel bad. ELLE: Has a woman ever made you actually cry? JM: Yeah, totally. Tons. Because we split up, or because they cheated on me. I&amp;#039;ve cried a lot because of women. I cry a lot, as a person. ELLE: Who would cheat on you? JM: Everybody&amp;#039;s been cheated on, haven&amp;#039;t they? ELLE: Did you learn something from infidelity? JM: Just don&amp;#039;t try to flog a dead horse. ELLE: That&amp;#039;s very evolved thinking. What were your early relationships like? JM: I learned something from a string of failed relationships. You don&amp;#039;t see a pattern quickly. You see it over time. I learned to stop jumping in at the first sign of attraction. ELLE: Meaning you would get too serious too quickly? JM: No, no. As soon as you&amp;#039;re attracted to someone, you go for it\u2014whether or not it&amp;#039;s a good idea. Basically, just going out and getting laid. But I finally met the person I&amp;#039;m in love with and want to spend the rest of my life with. ELLE: You got married in 2006. How did you know it was right? JM: You never know it&amp;#039;s the right one. I don&amp;#039;t think there is a &amp;quot;right&amp;quot; one. There are many people you could fall in love with forever. Marriage is an ongoing thing, man. You continue to work at it. But it&amp;#039;s joyful. And joyous. I don&amp;#039;t care if people are living without a marriage certificate. It&amp;#039;s just about people, in some way, saying to each other, I commit to you. I will help you in this life. We&amp;#039;re not in this room for the next 20 years by accident. We&amp;#039;re here because we mean it. ELLE: What&amp;#039;s the most romantic thing you&amp;#039;ve ever done? JM: I don&amp;#039;t know. I&amp;#039;ve done a lot of stupid shit. I think the most romantic thing you can do is just turn up. Turn up when it&amp;#039;s difficult for you. Travel halfway around the world or just up the road. Whatever it is, just be there. ELLE: You have a pretty explicit sex scene in Trance with Rosario Dawson. Did you discuss that with your wife first? JM: No. Anne-Marie and I are both actors. We never tell each other when we have to do anything kinky. We keep it to ourselves. Then afterward we&amp;#039;ll tell each other, &amp;quot;I had to do a bit of kissing today.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s fine. It&amp;#039;s just embarrassing and awkward. ELLE: Actors always say love scenes are awkward. But when Rosario walks in the room, naked\u2014 JM: It&amp;#039;s so awkward! You&amp;#039;re sitting there going, &amp;quot;Okay. Don&amp;#039;t look. Don&amp;#039;t move your mouth.&amp;quot; When they say action, you play it truthfully. Before that, you don&amp;#039;t want to make anybody feel like they&amp;#039;re being ogled, so I&amp;#039;m just sitting there on the bed with it all out. Hopefully people are being respectful toward me as well! ELLE: For years, people asked you what it was like to kiss Angelina Jolie in Wanted. JM: [Laughs] Ask her what it&amp;#039;s like to kiss me, motherfucker! That&amp;#039;s been my reply quite a lot. I remember the camera crew getting really excited\u2014and excited on my behalf. &amp;quot;Guys, it&amp;#039;s just a screen kiss. Calm down.&amp;quot; They were all in love with her. But it was just another day at the office. ELLE: Nice office. Do you see yourself as a sex symbol? JM: No, not at all. Generally, I play the guy where it&amp;#039;s a bit like: Yeah, he&amp;#039;s not unattractive, but it&amp;#039;s not his looks that make the lead girl want to be with him, so much. That&amp;#039;s the way I always feel in my head. I feel like I get away with more than what I was given. Liked this story? Get it first when you subscribe to ELLE magazine. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a13761/james-mcavoy-interview/>