Tuesday 29 November 2022 10:15 PM James McAvoy sparks furious backlash after saying co-stars experienced racism ... trends now
James McAvoy has been slammed as a 'traitor' and accused of 'throwing scorn on his homeland' after he admonished the people of Glasgow for racially abusing his female co-stars.
The Scottish actor said women in his Cyrano de Bergerac theatre show suffered 'sexually explicit and violent' taunts on a daily basis in his home city.
The 43-year-old Hollywood star said the experience made him regret bringing the production to Scotland.
McAvoy's play, adapted by Martin Crimp and directed by Jamie Lloyd, ran for nine sold-out performances at Glasgow's Theatre Royal in March then moved to Brooklyn.
As the 'Split' actor predicted, the comments were not taken well in his homeland - and many Scots are now questioning what measures he took to defend his co-stars at the time.
'Did said actor do anything about this? Did he make it a crusade to deal with this to ensure it never happens again? Did he get police involved and put the theatre under pressure to weed this out? He throws scorn on his homeland,' one critic said.
'To say Scotland is racist denigrates the fabric of our county and I, for one, don't believe it to be true.'
McAvoy said his female co-stars of colour were racially abused 'pretty much on a daily basis' when the production came to his home city of Glasgow
Others were concerned about why it took McEvoy so long to address the distressing interactions.
'Why didn't he call out this vile behaviour when it happened instead of waiting eight months?'
There were also calls for the women who were targeted to speak out and share their experiences themselves, or for McAvoy to provide proof or witnesses of the attacks.
McEvoy was also accused by angry Scots of 'exaggerating' the abuse or 'jumping on the woke wagon'.
In an interview with GQ, McAvoy, who was brought up in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, said: 'The cast were amazing, it was brilliant. But I was really saddened, to be honest with you, because most of the women of colour in the cast got racially abused pretty much on a daily basis when we were there.
'I was just really saddened. I was absolutely shocked and dismayed and to use a Scottish word, scunnered.
'We were delighted to get to Brooklyn and leave Glasgow. It was horrible.'
