JAMES McAvoy was allegedly punched by a stranger at a Toronto bar while in town for the premiere of his directorial debut, California Schemin’.
The 46-year-old Scottish Hollywood star was enjoying a quiet night out with his wife, Lisa Liberati, when things reportedly turned sour at around 11.55pm on Monday.
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“James was having a casual get-together with the producers of his movie and, as he later learned when speaking with the staff, there was a man who drank too much who was getting escorted out,” a source close to McAvoy told People.
“James’ back was to him and the man just punched him.”
McAvoy apparently tried to deescalate the tense situation.
Despite taking a hit, he stayed at the bar and even laughed off the incident with others, the source added.
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The alleged assault is said to have taken place at Toronto bar Charlotte’s Room.
It’s unclear whether the man knew he was punching the X-Men star or if McAvoy was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The star was in the Canadian capital for the premiere of California Schemin’, his first film as director, at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday.
The movie tells the wild true story of two Scots – Gavin Bain and Billy Boyd – who tricked music label bosses into handing them a record deal by pretending to be Eminem protégés from the US.
Performing under the names Silibil N’ Brains, the duo partied with Madonna, appeared on MTV and toured with rap legends.
The cast includes Séamus McLean Ross as Gavin, Samuel Bottomley as Billy, Lucy Halliday as Mary Boyd and Rebekah Murrell as their manager, Tessa.
The film is based on Bain’s autobiography California Schemin’, which was later reprinted as Straight Outta Scotland.
McAvoy, who grew up in Drumchapel, Glasgow, has said he’s passionate about telling stories from working-class backgrounds that are also entertaining.
Speaking last year at Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom, he said: “I was interested in telling a story not just solely set in Scotland, but about people from backgrounds where they have fewer opportunities, whether that’s council estates or whatever.”
The star added that the film was also about “telling a story that was entertaining and aspirational, and not just dwelling on the grime and dirt, which is part of that sort of lower economic background, definitely”.
McAvoy rose to international fame with his role as Mr. Tumnus in the 2005 fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and as an assassin in the 2008 action blockbuster Wanted.
He won the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2006 and went on to earn BAFTA Award nominations for his performances in the period dramas The Last King of Scotland and Atonement during that time.
In 2011, he took on the role of Charles Xavier in the superhero film X-Men: First Class, later reprising the character in subsequent films in the X-Men series.
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