British films dumbing down, says McAvoy

Actor James McAvoy has revealed that he believes British films are being dumbed
down for American audiences.

The 32 year-old, whose new film X-Men: First Class is released in the UK on June 3,
claims many UK filmmakers ‘patronise’ Americans.

Speaking to Sky News, McAvoy said: ‘We dumb our movies down because we want
Americans to understand them. The Americans watch it and go, ‘This is a really
unsophisticated, dumbed-down movie. Why would we want this? Why do we like
this? We don’t.’ It’s like we’re patronising them and short-changing ourselves.’

The Bafta-winning actor stars as a young Charles Xavier in the latest installment
of the mutant superhero franchise, a role which was played by fellow Brit Patrick
Stewart in the first four films.

He said: ‘It was a big responsibility. The fifth X-Men needs to be different as you
can’t keep putting out films with the same tone and vibe.

‘I think this does that. It’s about what may have been. It’s about brothers and them
tearing each other apart.’

The prequel was directed by Brit Matthew Vaughn, whose previous credits include
Kick Ass and Layer Cake. The action movie was made at Pinewood Studios, but
despite its British connections, is financed by US studio Twentieth Century Fox.

British actors Michael Fassbender and Jason Flemyng also star in the film. Flemyng,
who plays a teleporter in the film, was pleased that such a huge US production was
being filmed in the UK:

He said: ‘Filming it at Pinewood was fantastic because it was like the old 1950s
studio. I’ve never seen a studio so busy and I loved it. But it’s difficult. It’s great
everyone’s working but we need to develop and work up our own stuff so that some
of that money comes back into the British film industry.’