James McAvoy's terrifying new horror role was inspired by Andrew Tate

James McAvoy’s latest movie character might feel eerily familiar to cinemagoers this month, after the actor revealed that his new horror role was inspired by Andrew Tate.

The actor stars in the upcoming movie Speak No Evil, which is a remake of the Danish film from 2022.

The psychological thriller sees McAvoy play psychopathic father Paddy, who invites another family to their seemingly charming country house – but, as you'd expect, not all is not as it initially appears.

McAvoy spoke about the character’s toxic masculinity and compared him to Tate in an interview with Empire [via Deadline].

Tate and his brother Tristan Tate have become infamous on social media in recent years, gaining a reputation for spreading toxic misogyny and derogatory content about women. The pair are currently awaiting trial in Romania on accusations of rape and human trafficking and are unable to leave the EU. They both deny the allegations.

Getty/Blumhouse

McAvoy said: “I thought it played to a lot of these figures that are out there garnering the attention of young men, and not just young men, but a lot of young men at the moment, with this quite uncompromising and quite upsetting and worrying doctrine.

“But what I thought was really intelligent about it was that it’s always riding a line. He isn’t just being Andrew Tate. The film explores our capability to accept. Our capability to acquiesce, and to just take a lot of s*** and believe what you’re being told and comply."

The actor added: “A lot of the time, Paddy lets them do the work themselves. They’re digging a hole for themselves. He enjoys the game. He enjoys the hunt and that is something that’s really fun to play when a character is really enjoying himself. That’s usually a fun thing for me to do.”

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He went on to say: “Paddy holds to an older, traditionalist expression of manhood. Here’s this man’s man, beholden to some ancient idea of masculinity, living in the countryside, living off the land, or so you think. It all seems so wholesome and earthy.

“And yet this is ancient England that we’re talking about, and there’s darkness in the land; there’s a history of violence and bloodshed and horrible things in that dirt, and so there’s evil in that earthy masculinity that he’s romanticising and selling.”

Speak No Evil arrives in cinemas on September 13.

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