James McAvoy’s latest film puts an American spin on a Danish horror of the same name. But the actor didn’t watch the original until “the day after we finished filming,” he says.

In fact, he told TODAY.com in an interview that if he had seen the film, he “probably wouldn’t have accepted the role.”

In “Speak No Evil,” McAvoy once again takes on the role of a horror villain.

First known for playing romantic leads — like Robbie in “Atonement,” a superhero, his eight-year stint as Charles Xavier in the “X-Men” franchise, and of course Mr. Tumnus in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” — he moved into horror with M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” and “Glass.” (And what genre is he interested in now? “It’s been a while since I’ve done comedy,” he says.)

In “Speak No Evil,” McAvoy plays a brash but charming family man named Paddy who invites a couple he meets on vacation to his family’s home in rural England. They accept, and it turns into a visit from hell.

According to McAvoy, it’s not the idea of ​​playing the villain that appeals to him as an actor, but the complexity behind the character.

“If it was just a villain, I don’t think I would find it as interesting,” he says.

Paddy, specifically, is “oddly charming and entertaining and funny” – and also “vile and evil and brutal and venomously masculine,” according to McAvoy.

“That’s a lot to do sometimes in one scene, sometimes — sometimes in one line,” he says. “And so as an actor, it’s a challenge, and it was hard work. But it was really fun, hard work.”

What is ‘Speak No Evil’ about?

The film opens with Paddy and his wife Kira (Aisling Franciosi) on holiday in Italy with their son Ant (Dan Hough).

There they meet an American family who recently moved to London: Louise (Mackenzie Davis), Ben (Scoot McNairy) and daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler).

After a few polite encounters and informal dinners, Paddy invites them to his estate.

A few weeks later, after experiencing professional disappointment and struggling with the move, they move to the countryside.

From the start, something feels off. Awkward conversational tension builds into awkward situations until that “something” takes shape in the film’s final act. (We’ll save spoilers for later.)

McAvoy describes his character with a quote from his own grandfather: “Make sure you enjoy it to the fullest.”

“I think that’s one of Paddy’s rules that he keeps to himself,” McAvoy says. “I think I put that in the film at one point, but it never made it into the finale. Enjoy it to the fullest — and ‘take’ is a big thing.”

Both the 2024 Blumhouse production and the original 2022 Danish version of “Speak No Evil” start with the same premise.

McAvoy says he realized the film was a remake after reading the script.

“So I thought, ‘Well, of course I’ll watch the trailer or something.’ And I started watching the trailer, but after about 30 seconds I turned it off and I thought, ‘I shouldn’t watch this,’” McAvoy says.

“I just think if I had the misfortune to see the original film — not that it’s unfortunate if you’ve seen the film,” he clarifies with a laugh. “It would have been unfortunate because I probably wouldn’t have accepted the role.”

He describes the 2024 production and the 2022 Danish film as “slightly different films, somewhat similar films.”

“I would have felt a little bit trapped, I think, as an actor, because sometimes I make the same choices as in the other film,” he says. “Sometimes I don’t make the same choices as in the other film, but I was free to do my version of it.”

The stories also end in very different places.

How does ‘Speak No Evil’ end?

🚨🚨Warning: Spoilers for the 2022 and 2024 films “Speak No Evil” follow.

In McAvoy’s version of Speak No Evil, the first two-thirds of the film are a slow-building tension. From the start, Ben and Louise are visibly uncomfortable after Paddy lets Louise, a known vegetarian, try a piece of meat. The family is on the verge of leaving at one point after they find Agnes asleep in Paddy and Kira’s bed, but they are persuaded to stay.

Later, they witness Paddy roughing up Ant, who cannot speak, leading to an awkward conversation about the social morality of criticising someone else’s upbringing.

It all comes to a head when Ant shows Agnes the truth. In a barn on the estate, Ant points out a series of photos that show Paddy and Kira often meeting families on holiday. In each photo, they appear to be posing with a different child.

It turns out their MO is to take each couple’s child, cut out their tongues, and pass the child off as their own to the next family they encounter. That means Ant isn’t their son and Agnes is their next target.

Agnes tells her parents, and their attempts to leave the property are repeatedly thwarted. Paddy ties them up and makes Louise transfer all the family’s money into his account. He threatens to kill Ant, Louise and Ben, and prepares an anaesthetic for Agnes, presumably so they can remove her tongue. When Louise asks why they are doing this, Paddy says: “Because you make us do it.”

That phrase, along with the film’s title, helps underscore the film’s central theme: “Silence through civility,” McAvoy said.

“The Daltons, they represent in society this social complacency and inaction in the face of horrible behavior. Whether it’s personal, social or political, we remain silent. We don’t stand up. We don’t get involved. Sometimes we don’t even vote.”

Louise finally manages to fight back after hiding an X-Acto knife. A violent, bloody game of cat and mouse ensues on the estate as her family and Ant try to survive the attacks of Paddy and Kira.

Eventually, Louise’s family escapes through an upstairs window and up a ladder. Kira finds them and is pushed off the roof to her death.

Paddy is eventually stopped by Agnes, who injects him with the anaesthetic injection from earlier. But Ant doesn’t want to leave with Paddy alive. He approaches Paddy and picks up a rock. Before repeatedly punching Paddy in the face, McAvoy’s character says, “That’s my boy.”

Paddy says that last line several times in the film. Originally it was a reference to a cartoon Ant is watching.

“There’s a dog in there, maybe ‘Tom & Jerry,’ that says, ‘That’s my boy,'” McAvoy says, imitating a gruff, barking tone. “And so the director James (Watkins) wanted me to literally try to do a little evil version of that voice.

“But for some reason that cartoon didn’t get included in the movie, so I just used this weird cartoon voice for no reason, and that was a little weird,” he adds with a laugh.

The sentence marks Paddy’s last words.

“It’s like a parting shot from Paddy where he’s still trying to win,” McAvoy said.

Earlier in the film, his character quotes a poem, “This Be The Verse” by Philip Larkin, which goes in part: “They f— you up, your mother and father./ They may not mean to, but they do./ They fill you with the faults that they had/ And add a few more, just for you.”

“Paddy’s version of love, and how he learned to love, was through brutality,” McAvoy says. “And that was done to him by his father, and he took it out on the rest of the world and on these kids as well.”

The final scene of the film shows Louise, Ben and Agnes driving away from the estate in a car. Ant is also in the backseat, hands bloody, a single tear rolling down his cheek.

“I can’t imagine a world where Ant doesn’t have to work incredibly hard on herself to not become someone who is completely crazy,” McAvoy says.

How does the 2022 version of ‘Speak No Evil’ end?

The original “Speak No Evil” somehow ends even darker.

The Danish film, starring Morten Burian, Sidsel Siem Koch, Fedja van Huêt and Karina Smulders, ends with the escape of family members Bjørn, Louise and Agnes after Bjørn finds the body of Abel, the ‘son’ of Patrick and Karin (filmed in 2024 as Paddy and Kira).

Bjørn’s car breaks down and Patrick and Karin find them. They cut out Agnes’ tongue, stone Bjørn and Louise to death and move on to targeting a new family.