James McAvoy has recalled nearly dying after a lung biopsy in 2017, before he began filming Glass.
Speaking on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, the X-Men actor described his lungs collapsing while he was alone at home. He said the collapse happened two days after the procedure.
The ordeal left him in hospital for two or three weeks, with treatment initially failing to resolve the problem.
This was not the first time James had discussed the scare. He spoke to Men’s Journal in 2019 about its impact on his working life.
That earlier interview revealed his desire to find a better balance, despite still loving his job.
“But there’s got to be more balance,” he said at the time.
James McAvoy explains his lung biopsy complications
James explained that doctors had spotted a shadow in his lung and wanted to check whether it was cancer. He said the biopsy showed it was not.
However, he blamed complications from the procedure for the serious health scare that followed.
“But that was botched, and I nearly died,” he told the podcast.
James said attempts to treat him in hospital were unsuccessful.
“They tried everything to clean [it] out — nothing was working,” he recalled.
He said doctors then discussed opening him up to carry out a more extensive clean-out.
In his 2019 Men’s Journal interview, he also described an unexplained physical change following surgery. James said one of his abdominal muscles had disappeared.
He recalled doctors being unable to explain why or how it had happened.
James McAvoy faced demanding preparations for Glass
His recovery also came with a demanding professional challenge. James needed to get into shape for his role in the horror thriller.
Glass followed Split, released in 2016, and brought him back as Kevin Wendell Crumb. The character has dissociative identity disorder, with the sequel exploring his superhuman personality, The Beast.
James told the podcast he would spend most of Glass playing The Beast, unlike his experience on Split. He also pointed out that he would be appearing outdoors in broad daylight.
Those scenes prompted him to push for a more intensive approach to his physical preparation.
His request was blunt: “You’re going to get me a trainer.”
He wanted someone who could help him build a physique resembling a figure from Greek mythology.
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