James McAvoy says he auditioned to play young Voldemort in ‘Harry Potter’ films

Los Angeles, Sep 15 (PTI) “It Chapter Two” star James McAvoy says he was offered a hefty sum to play a young version of the primary antagonist Lord Voldemort, whose real name was Tom Riddle, in the “Harry Potter” movie series.

The Scottish actor, known for starring in popular movie series such as “X-Men” and “Unbreakable” trilogy, said he turned down the role in the first film “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” because of how much time it would have required.

During his appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, when the actor was asked if he would want to portray a character in “Harry Potter” or “Star Wars” franchise, McAvoy said: “Almost, yeah, I can probably say this one. The very first movie, I think it was…who is the, is it Tom Riddle in the first one, yeah? But he’s like in it… for like a scene in a flashback or something like that? And they had, I simply remember it was right in the beginning of my career.”

The 45-year-old said he auditioned for the role and the makers wanted to put him on a retainer basis.

“And they offered me something like – it was crazy, I’d hardly done any work – and me and I think maybe 10 other actors or something like that – they wanted to put us on retainer so that they could hold us and keep us to choose later. For me, at that time, it was a ton of money, it was like 40,000 pounds (USD 52,000 approximately) or something like that, and I’d done very little work,” he added.

“Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, released in 2001, was helmed by Chris Columbus. It featured Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in the lead roles.

The character of Tom Riddle played a major role in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”, the second book and movie in the franchise. Christian Coulson eventually played the role in the 2002 film.

Since “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”, the fourth film in the eight-part franchise Ralph Fiennes has played the adult Lord Voldemort, with his nephew Hero Tiffin Fiennes essaying a younger Tom Riddle in “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” (2009).

McAvoy made his acting debut in 1995 with David Hayman’s directorial “The Near Room”. He then went on to be a part of projects like “Wimbledon” (2004) and “Inside I’m Dancing” (2004).

His latest work is James Watkins’ psychological horror drama film “Speak No Evil”, which hit the screens on September 13.