I was going to give you a third option: The Tolkien and “Star Trek” fans.

I don’t know — it’s interesting. The New York Times thing I did, James McAvoy had a quote in it, and he said, “Oh, Benedict doesn’t need to fear the media or his fans or his new profile, he just needs to fear actors who will be looking at him with envy and want to cut his legs off.” Maybe that’s the case, but most of my friends who are actors are just really, really thrilled with what I’ve got. It’s kind of humbling, actually, just to be that supported by people. People say, “It’s really nice it’s happened to somebody we’ve watched be good over the years.” And at least, you know, I’ve started at the same level with everybody. And it’s nice because I’m not as good-looking as James and there’s an awful lot I can’t do that they can do. And it’s great that just by craft you can get where I’ve gone. That’s really thrilling. I’m very grateful for the opportunities that I’ve been given.

And I think, going back to what I fear most, I kind of watched [other actors] go through [a rise in fame] and it’s … there are just ways to engage with it and not engage with it. I think that’s the trick; I think choosing your fights or your battles, as is always the case — whether it’s your day at work or parenting or being in the public, I think you just have to be very careful.

It’s come at a time as well when I’m very fortunate: I’m working at a time of mass unemployment and economic contraction, I want to say depression, not depression. …

Recession?

Yes, recession, thank you. Not quite that bad yet, I hope, God, it won’t get that bad. Very grateful for that. Yeah, so I’m grateful for a time where there’s very sparse work that I’m employed. And there always is in our profession as well, which I guess is James’ point — 90 odd percent of us if not more are unemployed. [The acting pool is] a massive, massive population, and eight percent of us are working at any given time.

What was the other thing I was really happy about? [Laughs.] You were talking about the fears, weren’t you? And I was talking about … Oh, yes, so yes, so to be in the public glare. To be the focus of media and also the s—ty, schlocky media in Britain at a time when that is really coming under the microscope, when the inquiry has thrown a good media focus on the bad media focus and bad practices. I just think it’s great that someone is morally, finally, making a judgment on everything that’s happened with Murdoch and the Sun and all. But it’s not going to stop that from happening again in some other form, I’m sure of it. Journalism’s always been intrusive. And I think people have always wanted more of people in the public eye when they’re performers than they get with their characters, and you can understand why the obsession, the appetite builds.

I read profile pieces — or I used to, before now. [Pretending to read a tabloid.] “Oh, I learned something about that actor, oh he sounds a bit pompous, he sounds a bit petty, he sounds funny, he sounds lovely, she sounds great, she’s gorgeous, she’s not so pretty, she’s not who I thought she was.” Awful, judgmental s— — which, now that I’m going through it, I wish I could eat it all back.

But you know, my dear ex-girlfriend Olivia, we’re both very good friends still, but I used to berate her for reading Hello and Heat and all those rags, Grazia. I mean, I know why girls read them, of course they f—ing do. She’s a smart one, and she knew to look at it and go, “This is nonsense.” But it was entertaining, you know, hairdressing reading. I quite get why in the handbags of smart, as well as kind of pop culturally hungry girls, they’re great entertainment. But they can be really damaging because people do take them too seriously.

And it also then starts to affect people’s behavior so that this thing of image — even with men now. The pressure is always more on for girls in every sense. You have a really rough ride of it — in every single sense you have a rough ride of it. Seriously, like, actors can’t complain compared to actresses — it’s horrific. I mean, in Hollywood as well, the sanest, smartest people I know are beholden to the body image, to the f—ing aging shit. Of course we’re visual vessels to portray characters and tell stories, so of course people are going to want to see their better reflection or someone who’s dazzling or stunning or attractive. But it’s great when people like Charlize Theron can have “an ugly moment.” Then when people say, “it was just ‘unbeautifying’ her — that’s why she got the Oscar,” I just want to get up and punch them. Not only was it an incredible performance in “Monster” and a really unattractive character in “Young Adult,” where she was extraordinary, but she’s proven that actresses can have more than a shelf life, that they can have careers dependent on where they are and who they are at any given time in their life, not trying to maintain the idealized youth thing.

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On Sunday 27th May ITV1 and Old Trafford will once again play host to Soccer Aid, the star-studded charity football match in aid of UNICEF.

Soccer Aid, transmitting live on ITV1, has raised over £7.5 million pounds for UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, since its inception in 2006. The match brings together some of the biggest names in sport and showbiz to compete in two teams, England and Rest Of The World, for the chance to walk away with the coveted title of Soccer Aid Champion, 2012.

The brainchild of Robbie Williams, Jonathan Wilkes and UNICEF UK, this year’s main event will be hosted, live from Old Trafford, by Dermot O’Leary with Kirsty Gallacher reporting pitch side. Dave Berry will capture the reaction from the game on Soccer Aid: Extra Time on ITV4 after the match.

Getting a sense of the anticipation and excitement from both camps in the build up to the big game, will be Cat Deeley, who presents a series of three nightly shows on ITV1, live from the players’ hotel. These shows will feature all the latest news and gossip from training and include unprecedented behind the scenes access to both teams and the big names, as they prepare to battle it out for the Soccer Aid crown 2012.

Once again, Robbie Williams will captain the England team with Welsh movie star Michael Sheen leading the Rest of the World.

Players for the star studded Rest of the World squad include Will Ferrell, Gerard Butler, Mike Myers, James McAvoy, Patrick Kielty and Gordon Ramsay with ex Manchester United players Edwin van der Sar, Roy Keane, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Jaap Stam. The team will be managed by legendary Scot, Kenny Dalglish.

The formidable England team will be captained by Robbie Williams, with Jason Isaacs, Mark Owen, Marvin Humes, Aston Merrygold, Olly Murs, John Bishop, Jonathan Wilkes, Ben Shephard, Jamie Theakston and Paddy McGuinness. Football heroes Teddy Sheringham, David Seaman and Martin Keown will complete the squad. For the first time Bradley Walsh takes on the role as Coach with Jamie Redknapp assistant managing.

With a whole host of other famous faces still to be announced, Soccer Aid 2012 is gearing up to be another fantastic night of high drama. Michael Sheen’s Rest of the World squad took away the trophy in 2010, winning a nerve jangling penalty shootout, but Robbie and the England team will definitely be looking to set the record straight and get their revenge.

Tickets are now on sale for fans to see their favourite superstars take to Old Trafford’s hallowed turf. Announcing the match, UNICEF UK Ambassador Robbie Williams said: “Soccer Aid returns for the fourth time and with it a renewed sense of passion for this remarkable event that can help vulnerable children all around the world. I make no bones about it, we lost, The Rest of The World managed to scrape together a jammy victory. Soccer Aid this year will be bigger and better than ever because this time it’s personal. Michael Sheen, I’m gunning for you son.”

Michael Sheen added, “It’s a great honour to be asked, once again, to captain the mighty Rest of the World team, and a real privilege to work with UNICEF once more. As defending champions we have no intention of giving up our crown without a fight. Mr. Williams will need more than “Angels” on his side if he wants to get his grubby little fingers on our title.”

Money raised through profits from ticket sales and donations made by viewers during the match will go to UNICEF’s invaluable work helping children around the world. This will be the fourth Soccer Aid event, with the previous matches, held at Wembley in 2008 and at Old Trafford in 2006 and 2010, raising £7.5 million in total for UNICEF’s work.

David Bull, UNICEF UK Executive Director, said, “Soccer Aid 2012 will raise vital money to change children’s lives around the world. Every minute of every day, children die from easily preventable diseases like diarrhoea and malaria. Right now, children are suffering because they don’t have enough to eat. It shouldn’t be like this. Please, buy a ticket to go to Soccer Aid or watch the match and help us make a change for children.”

UNICEF Ambassadors, Robbie Williams and Ewan McGregor, and UNICEF supporters, Lewis Hamilton, Keira Knightley, Eddie Izzard and Keeley Hawes have each made a short appeal film which will be shown during Soccer Aid, showing viewers how money raised could help some of the world’s most vulnerable children to survive.

Soccer Aid 2012 has been commissioned for ITV1 by Layla Smith, ITV Controller of Entertainment. The Executive Producer for Initial, an Endemol company is David Staite.

Tickets now on sale for Soccer Aid 2012, call 0161 444 2012 or visit itv.com/socceraid. Calls to this number will be charged at local rates.

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The life story of Scottish blog founder Peter Cashmore – who is reportedly set to sell his website Mashable for £127million while still only 26 – is being translated on to the big screen, with James McAvoy being eyed up for the lead role.

Cashmore grew up in Banchory, and founded Mashable in Aberdeen in 2005 at the age of 19.

The site’s primary focus is social media news, but it also covers the latest developments in the likes of mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets.
James McAvoy to play Scottish internet tycoon in new movie?

It’s been reported that Cashmore will make £127million when he sell his website Mashable to CNN.

His Twitter account is also one of Twitter’s 40 most-followed pages, with over 2.8 million followers.

Now it has been reported that a bidding war has begun over the rights to film Mashed Up, which tackles his life story.

Its screenwriter Anthony Phelan was quoted as saying: “We’re talking to studios and there’s a real buzz.

“James McAvoy is our No 1 choice to play Pete – he’s Scottish and they look similar.”

McAvoy last year starred in blockbuster X-Men: First Class, and has recently been filming in Scotland for the adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Filth. (See him talk about that and his other films to STV’s Grant Lauchlan earlier in the year.)

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James McAvoy has become the latest star to join this year’s Soccer Aid.

The Scottish actor, best known for starring in 2007 movie Atonement, will represent the Rest of the World team.

The 32-year-old will accompany fellow movie stars including Gerard Butler and Will Ferrell, as well as ex-Manchester United footballers Edwin Van der Sar and Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Rest of the World squad.

The event, raising money for children’s charity UNICEF, sees Robbie Williams captain the England team, which also features the likes of Olly Murs and Teddy Sheringham.

Tickets are now on sale for Soccer Aid 2012 – call 0161 444 2012 or visit itv.com/socceraid.

Soccer Aid 2012′s England v Rest of the World match will be played at Old Trafford on Sunday, May 27, airing on ITV1 from 8pm.

Robbie Williams, the organiser of the special biannual event, has also been on a UNICEF trip to Mexico City with Jonathan Wilkes, where he met children living in slums.

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Since Danny Boyle’s adaptation of “Trainspotting” hit screens back in 1995, its source writer Irvine Welsh hasn’t really managed to become a fixture on the big screen. His writing credits have mostly been confined to shorts and TV movies, despite talk of an adaptation his “Trainspotting” sequel, “Porno,” never really going away since that novel was published a decade ago. But this all looks like it will soon change, with Welsh providing updates on a number of his projects via a diary in the Financial Times.

His latest novel, “Skagboys,” is out later this month, while a film based on another one of his novels, “Irvine Welsh’s Ecstasy,” is released in the U.K. the same week. That film (starring Billy Boyd and Kristin Kreuk) will open in the U.S. in September, but Welsh was also forthcoming with some some new info on one of his other (more high-profile) upcoming releases. The adaptation of his novel “Filth” starring James McAvoy, Jamie Bell, Jim Broadbent, Imogen Poots, Eddie Marsan and a generally fantastic British cast is the project we’re most excited about, and Welsh had this to say about it: “Filth, the movie of another novel of mine, is in the edit, as we frantically try to get it ready for the Toronto International Film Festival in September.”

That’s likely music to the ears of anyone attending TIFF this year. Welsh’s novel is about a bipolar, bigoted, drug-addicted, sexually-abusive cop, Bruce Robertson (who will be played by McAvoy), who tries to land a promotion and win back his wife and daughter, while still mired in his own vices. It will definitely be a very different McAvoy than we’re used to seeing, and we can’t wait to see the results. Here’s hoping that the edit team pull this together in time for TIFF.

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April 15 2012: Olivier Awards 2012 – Arrivals
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