James McAvoy used Andrew Tate as inspiration for his villain in 'Speak No Evil'.

James McAvoy as Paddy in Speak No Evil

James McAvoy as Paddy in Speak No Evil

The 45-year-old actor stars as the sinister Paddy in the English-language remake of the 2022 Danish psychological horror film, and McAvoy has now revealed he loosely based his performance on the controversial 37-year-old social media influencer who is famous for promoting toxic masculine behaviour to his millions of followers.

In an interview with Empire magazine, he said: "The thing I thought I could exploit in the character was, he thinks he's a bit of a f****** West Country Andrew Tate.

"He's like, 'I'm going to teach you what it's like to be a man again.' But there's a sort of polite face on it that isn’t quite Andrew Tate, enough of a sheen of, 'I'm not one of those guys.'

"He's [Paddy's] challenging you, 'Do you have a big enough d*** to have a drink with me?', Or, 'I'm sorry, this is too much for you because you're not real enough.'"

The 'X-Men: First Class' actor blended Tate's misogynistic outlook with the Australian slang term 'Bogan' – meaning an unsophisticated person who can be "associated with a certain level of toxic masculinity" – and Mark Rylance's character Rooster from the play 'Jerusalem', who was a dangerous social outcast.

He said: "You wanted something a bit agricultural.

"I had two big visual touchstones. The first was the Australian term 'bogan', which can be associated with a certain level of toxic masculinity.

"And the other was the character Rooster from 'Jerusalem', played so brilliantly by Mark Rylance."

McAvoy – who stars alongside Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis and Aisling Franciosi in the upcoming movie – had to put on a lot of muscle to play Paddy, although compared his somewhat relaxed demeanour to Ray Winstone's safecracker character Gary 'Gal' Dove in the 2001 gangster picture 'Sexy Beast'.

He explained: "Even though he's all masculine and throwing his d*** around, he's just a bit softer. Almost a Ray Winstone in 'Sexy Beast' vibe: 'I don’t mind if my belly's sticking out, because that's how comfortable a man I f****** am.'"

'Speak No Evil' is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures on September 13.

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