There were various other tweets about James McAvoy being ill with the swine flu. That was why he didnt do the Q & A for the Last Station in Los Angeles on Nov 7. Director Michael Hoffman had to replace him. Here is a report about it:

I’ve just gotten home from the Back Stage-sponsored showing of The Last Station in L.A. No, James McAvoy was not present at the screening. Upon arriving really early at the line going in, I immediately heard other people saying that JM would not be there tonight due to “unforeseen circumstances,” but that the director Michael Hoffman would instead be showing up to handle the post-screening Q & A.

Anyway, right before the movie started, Michael Hoffman took the stage to better explain JM’s absence. He told the audience that while James McAvoy was in fact on a couple days’ break from his present shooting schedule [i.e., for The Conspirator, filming in Savannah, Georgia], he had become “very ill” with the swine flu. Hoffman did, however, pull out his Blackberry and read an e-mail that he had received from JM. In it, James expressed regret over not being there and hoped it wouldn’t be viewed as a “typical actor’s no-show.” Keeping with his trademark sense of humor, JM was reportedly “busy fending off crew members who felt that fried chicken was the cure-all for everything…after all this is the South!”

Although I had hoped to see James McAvoy there, it was nevertheless very interesting to hear Michael Hoffman talk about his film and how he’d lost his initial leads of Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep due to an earlier lack of financing when they had both been available to start shooting. Hoffman had also had Laura Linney in mind to play Sasha Tolstoy, but for the longest time couldn’t come up with anyone to play the role of Valentin Bulgakov…that is, not until he saw James McAvoy’s work as Dr. Nicholas Garrigan in The Last King of Scotland. Hoffman noted the unique challenges that JM faced in portraying Valentin in The Last Station, chiefly because this character is mostly “reactive” to all of the other main characters (as opposed to helping to “move along” the action himself). At the same time, however, Hoffman stated that JM as Valentin ultimately serves as the “glue” that holds the story itself together. It was readily apparent that Hoffman had greatly enjoyed working with James McAvoy on The Last Station.

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It’s hard to tell in general if its a normal flu or if it is the swine flu either way, hope James has recovered by now.Tweet

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