James McAvoy Was Harassed by a Famous Co-Star on His First Day as a Professional Actor: 'I Laughed for Three Minutes'

One of James McAvoy's first jobs as an actor came with mixed feelings. The star of 'Penance' recounted filming an episode of the HBO series 'Band of Brothers' during a recent appearance on 'Watch What Happens Live.' In the early 2000s, McAvoy was a young drama school graduate who was cast in a role in […]

One of James McAvoy's first works as an actor was accompanied by mixed feelings.

The "Revenge" star reminisced about filming an episode of HBO's "Band of Brothers" on "Watch What Happens Live" this week. In the early 2000s, McAvoy was a young drama school graduate who booked a role in a World War II miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. His role, Pvt. James Miller only went on for one episode, but he gave McAvoy a lot of lines in the midst of a packed ensemble — and it turns out, not everyone was happy about it. RELATED STORIES 'Scrubs' Writer Eric Weinberg Goes on Trial for Raping and Sexually Assaulting Seven Women Tamera Mowry-Housley Joins Season 2 of 'Scrubs' Reboot

"On my first day on set, there were a lot of actors ... it was one of those scenes where everybody's in it, and we're all in the same bar," he said. "I had a scene. And all these guys were in it for nine months, 10 months, and they get one line in one episode and one line 10 episodes later. They were all mad. I come in for one episode, and I have an arc and a scene. I have multiple lines." Popular in Variety

Host Andy Cohen had shown a picture of the "Band of Brothers" group, and McAvoy confirmed that someone had singled him out in the photo. "So one of the kids in that picture decided to bully me — on my first day out of acting school as a professional actor," she continued. He forced him and his friends to stand and point at me and laugh at me for three minutes."

McAvoy noted that he wasn't completely isolated: Dexter Fletcher (who went on to direct films including Rocketman) and Robin Ling "took me out, and they were like, 'Come join us, man.' McAvoy rated his overall experience on set as a "nine," but that day, it felt like a two.

"Band of Brothers," which premiered in the fall of 2001, was a commercial and critical success, winning several Emmys, including best miniseries, and a Peabody Award, and spawned Hanks and Spielberg's wartime TV series collaborations that have since included "The Pacific" in 2010 and "Airster" in 2024.

Many of McAvoy's "Band of Brothers" actors, including Colin Hanks, Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston, have had long careers in television and film. Four years after Band of Brothers, McAvoy's acting career took off when he played Mr. Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.