James McAvoy has candidly confessed that directing his maiden feature film, California Schemin', was an "incredibly stressful" experience. The X-Men actor, who not only starred in but also directed the movie, described the four-year journey of making the film as the "most stressful experience of his life," possibly even a result of a "midlife crisis."
"It was incredibly stressful," James, 46, told Empire Magazine. "The most stressful experience of my life, and I did it at my midlife-crisis time of life as well. Am I directing a film because I'm having a midlife crisis? Maybe. But I love doing it."
The film, based on the true story of a pair of Scottish rappers who pretend to be from Los Angeles in order to break into the music industry, saw the BAFTA winner pull double duty as both an actor and the movie's director, which he described as "horrible."
"Horrible," James told the outlet of the experience. "Christ, it was f**king disgusting." He explained that he discovered how much more time went into behind-the-scenes and consulting work than he had previously imagined.
"What I've found in becoming a director, even though I'm not directing anything right now, is that my unpaid workload has doubled," James said. "Now I'm reading scripts as an actor and reading scripts as a director; I'm developing things for other people. It's great. It's very creative. But I'm also like, 'When's the bit where I get to sit in my pants at 3 pm and watch a film again?'"
California Schemin' stars Samuel Bottomley and Séamus McLean Ross as the rap duo Silibil N' Brains and McAvoy as their record label boss Anthony Reid. The film will be released in U.K. cinemas on 10 April.
