If you saw Glass during opening weekend, you may already know that James McAvoy really worked out before and during the movie's filming to get into beast mode. He's previously talked about his insane workouts, but recently James McAvoy revealed his motivation for getting into unbelievable shape for Glass. The answer might surprise you. He said:
I was like, 'OK. I'm going to have my shirt off, aren't I?' And (Shyamalan) was like, 'Yep. I knew I had to get down in the gym and kind of back up his name. I had to give a little bit of aesthetic credibility to that fear that he's supposed to inspire in people.
Of course, if you've seen both Glass and Split, The Beast has his shirt off in both movies. However, while The Beast's big scene in Split was filmed during nighttime hours, Glass' scenes were often set during daylight. Which means viewers had the opportunity to see every ripped muscle, or if James McAvoy hadn't gotten into shirtless shape, every single ounce of fat.
Previously, James McAvoy's trainer talked about what it took to get the actor into shape for Glass, noting that during Split's filming the actor basically hadn't tried hard enough. The trainer worked with McAvoy for weeks on training different muscles on different days to get him into peak (and vein-y) physique.
Elsewhere in James McAvoy's interview with USA Today about fitness, he also talked a little bit about what it took to become The Beast for the bigger budget Glass. He also revealed working out while acting helped.
You're in every day working your socks off (acting), and you're also in the gym at 5 in the morning and then pretty much working out on set whenever you are the Beast to get you all pumped up and get your veins popping and get the relevant muscles swollen for the shot.
All of that working out, not to mention all of the personality changes James McAvoy needs to inhabit in Glass were really difficult to achieve. McAvoy refers to playing Kevin as "knackering" and even says that it was "tiring" to "just stand[sic] still" while playing The Beast.
Not that he's really complaining. Glass has only been out one week and it has already been a big hit for Universal. Made on a relatively small $20 million budget, Glass has already raked in $95.5 million at the worldwide box office. So, James McAvoy might be tired after all of the months filming and all of the press that comes with officially releasing a movie, but I'm assuming the exposure will be worth it in the end.
Glass is one of the biggest releases this January. To see what else is coming up, take a look at our full movie schedule.
