GUESS WHO?

‘Band of Brothers’ Actor Calls Out Co-Star’s Awful On-Set Behavior

James McAvoy gave one hint about who the offending actor was.

Actor James McAvoy has broken his silence about how he was treated while filming one of his earliest projects, 2001’s war drama miniseries Band of Brothers.

McAvoy, known for playing Professor X in the X-Men film series, said he was “bullied” while working on the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks-created series during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live. Host Andy Cohen asked McAvoy to rate his experience on his past projects, prompting the actor to give Band of Brothers a two for another star’s behavior.

“I’m not going to tell you who it was...” he began.

“On my first day on set, there was a ton of actors. It was one of those scenes with everybody in it, and we’re all in a bar. And I had like a scene, and all these guys were in it for like 9 months, 10 months, and they get one line and one episode, and one line and 10 episodes later… and they were all p---ed,” McAvoy explained. “I come in for one episode, and I’ve got like an arc and scenes. I’ve got tons of lines in this.” McAvoy said one star corralled the others to retaliate.

The series featured appearances by well-known actors including Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Simon Pegg, and Jimmy Fallon, but its core cast featured Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Neal McDonough, Donnie Wahlberg, Scott Grimes, and David Schwimmer.

“One of the guys in that picture,” he continued, pointing to Cohen’s screen, “decided to bully me on my first day as a professional actor out of acting school. And he got him and his buddies to just stand point at me and laugh at me for like three minutes,” McAvoy went on. “Dexter Fletcher, who now is a great director as well, and a lovely Scottish actor called Robin Lang—they took me aside, and they were like, ‘Come hang with us, man.’”

The experience ruined the job for him, but for just a day, McAvoy said. “Apart from that day, it was a nine. But that day, it felt like a two.”

As for the actor’s identity, McAvoy welcomed Cohen and guest 9-1-1 star Peter Krause to “guess,” if they wanted, though he insisted he wouldn’t confirm whether they had the right answer.

He offered only one hint: “It’s not David Schwimmer.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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