James McAvoy Talks Life After Divorce

James McAvoy recently sat down for an interview with Mr. Porter, where he talked about how his life has changed, post-divorce. Here's what he had to say:

On how his life has changed in the past 12 months:
“Ha, ha! My life has changed massively. At the same time, so much has stayed the same. One of the things that’s stayed the same is that I still don’t talk about my personal life, really. Me and Anne-Marie, when we were together, it was our policy not to speak about each other in public. We rarely broke that and if we did, it was for tiny things – ‘Yes, we are cooking turkey this Christmas’ – and that policy still stands. Even separated, we’re still respectful of each other and committed to doing that publicly and personally. But yeah, things are really good. Which is a rubbish, pat answer.”

On bulking up for roles:
“On [Wanted], I didn’t go out a lot. I was on set 12, 13 hours a day, and I was in every scene, so it was different. With Split, I had less time to get it done, and I did it in a different way. I googled ‘good way to put on muscle quick’, just went into a gym and did it myself: a power-lifting routine called 5x5. You do five different exercises four or five times a week, and they’re huge, big exercises. Pick something up and do that, then put something on your back, sit down and stand up. It’s super-simple, but it works every muscle. 

And I’d eat 5,000, 6,000 calories a day. Instead of eating two eggs in the morning, I’d eat eight. Then a snack of chicken breast. Then two chicken breasts for lunch, and then a steak for another snack. Then two salmon steaks for dinner. So, in a relatively short space of time I got relatively bigger. I wasn’t huge, but I was quite chuffed with myself.”

On cutting back on drinking:
“That used to be my drink – a peaty Talisker, or a Laphroaig. But I find that I can’t drink too much whisky any more. More than one or two now and I get a bit leery, a wee bit fighty, a bit chippy, looking for an argument. And I didn’t like that. So I mostly stopped drinking it. My problem is, if I have it in the house, I’ll tan the lot.


I’m a consumer. If it’s in front of me, I’ll fucking do it. I’ll consume it. I’ll take it, whatever it is. I’ll have a go… And I don’t know what that is. I still drink, and sometimes have a lot of drink. But I just don’t want to have alcohol in the house any more.”