James McAvoy was almost cast as He Who Must Not Be Named at the beginning of his career.
Appearing on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, the Split actor shared that while the opportunity could have been lucrative, it would have kept him sidelined for seven months.
“I was nearly in Harry Potter,” McAvoy, 45, said, explaining how producers wanted to hold him and several other actors on a retainer. “They offered quite a lot of money — 40 thousand pounds or something like that — but I wouldn’t have been able to work for seven months.”
After consulting with his agent, McAvoy turned down the offer. Instead, he opted to perform in a play where he humorously recalled being “booed by a homophobic gentleman” and earning a fraction of what the Potter role would have paid.
“No regrets,” McAvoy stated. “It was part of the making of me. I was actually learning and doing all that.”
Christian Coulson eventually took on the role of young Tom Riddle in Chamber of Secrets, with Ralph Fiennes’ nephew Hero Fiennes Tiffin portraying a younger version of the character in Half-Blood Prince.
However, fans still frequently imagine what it would have been like if McAvoy had taken on the iconic role.
