There are plenty of men who want to front like they enjoy working closely with women, but when it comes down to it, they do not. Hollywood is the same. There are actors who just want to work with women when those women are cast in supporting roles, as objects to be won, as objects to be fought over, as two-dimensional narrative devices to move the action forward. Take Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron’s working relationship on Mad Max: Fury Road, which was notoriously difficult. I believe there was probably a significant anger, on Tom’s part, that Charlize’s Furiosa was occupying so much space in the story. Anyway, James McAvoy is not that guy. I really believe that. McAvoy loves to work with women and he thought it was a deep privilege to work with Charlize on Atomic Blonde. Charlize is, without a doubt, the star of the film. McAvoy supports HER. And he was honored.

His character in Atomic Blonde: “I play the station chief of Berlin; he’s an MI6 agent and he has gone over there being a pretty straight spy-type… I just saw him as somebody who was burning up. I did this little bit of research and found this tidbit that I found very interesting and kind of formed the backbone of my whole characterization really: Which is that post-World War II, MI6 quite liked to hire alcoholics, drug addicts, and gay men. They liked the fact that they were already well-versed and well-used to keeping a very large secret and functioning well in society while keeping that secret—holding down relationships and jobs. There were transferable skills there. But also in the case of the drug addicts and the alcoholics particularly—they were probably gonna burn out really quick, die young. And as such, didn’t really present any ongoing problems.”

Working with Charlize: “Charlize. She’s so golden, she’s glittering, she’s so icy and dauntless. When I saw that, I thought, I’m definitely going to go the other way with my guy just to present a contrast—have him feverish, and burning up and sort of a mess. Really just struggling to hang on. And loves it! I don’t really get the feeling that [Lorraine] Broughton, as played by Charlize, is a character that relishes spy games, you know what I mean? She’s got a clinical kind of distance from it, and there’s a mystery behind her motivation and why she’s doing it. With Percival, he’s not really spying and dying for Queen and country, he’s doing it for the love of the game.

Whether he got involved in the action sequences: “It’s mainly Charlize. I get to tussle a little bit which is fun, and I get my ass f–king kicked by one Charlize Theron, which was a privilege and an honor. She really is fantastic in this film, she really is something quite spectacular. Watching her do what she does in it, I think it’s—you know, I’ve worked with Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie, and she’s up there. She is one of the most talented physical actors from a dance background all the way through all the fights and stuff. David Leitch, who directed this, would also say she was up there as one of the most physically gifted actors that he’d ever worked with, as far as fight capability and all that stuff. He was like ‘Charlize is just bang up there with them, you know?

He says Charlize probably needed surgery: “Yeah, I’m pretty sure she still needs surgery, or dental surgery? I think she fractured ribs doing this movie! She was a trooper, she just kept going. We had a small budget, shooting six days a week in minus ten degrees Celsius, whatever that is in Fahrenheit… it’s well below freezing, and she’s f–kin’ getting smacked about by big stuntmen, and there’s no—she doesn’t give herself any quarter. She doesn’t ask for anything, she came in, and just played on through it. She should, of course. People should do that. But she really, I don’t know, she really put the shift in for this one.

[From GQ]

Ooh, I love that he namechecked Angelina too!! I remember the promotion for Wanted (the film he did with Angelina) and he was always talking about how tough she was and how good she was at stunt work. I do believe that was Angelina’s strength, back in the day – she was great whenever she had to do very physical work. Charlize is the same – she’s one of the best physical performers, plus she’s great whenever she gets to play an icy bitch. I love this: “She’s so golden, she’s glittering, she’s so icy and dauntless.” I bet they had a great time working together, honestly.

Here’s one of the last trailers for Icy Bitch Realness: The Movie.

Photos courtesy of Getty, EW.