Yahoo News James McAvoy's Split personas acted on separate days
'Mister Twister' M Night Shyamalan's latest movie Split features James McAvoy as a man with 23 different personalities (and a 24th on the way).
It's a horror/thriller with a dark vein of comedy that put McAvoy to the test. Now Shyamalan, talking exclusively to Digital Spy, has revealed that to get the best performance(s) out of him, he directed scenes with each of his personalities on different days.
"I kept one character on one day, another character on another day. For me it wasn't very different a thing to direct because I'm doing the exact same thing for each character and actor - talking through why I wrote it, what is their meaning in the movie and waiting to see the click in their eye," he told us.
"So I'm like, 'Great, thank you. I'm going to have the next actor come in for the next role', but it was still James. He had to do that many more times the prep."
Co-starring with The Witch's Anya Taylor-Joy as a girl kidnapped by McAvoy, the actor traverses different ages and genders, from small boy Hedwig to adult female Patricia.
The film hinges on the believability of his performance and Shyamalan is certain he got the right man for the job.
"Certain types of actor who have different preps might have had a really tough time with it, a really tough time of separating the emotion of the child from the emotion of the woman from the emotion of [the others] - they're very complex people. The other thing that's amazing about James is that he's an entertainer at the end of the day."
Split opens in UK cinemas on January 20.
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