James McAvoy in Wanted Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Read Premiere's review of Wanted.

Calling James McAvoy a "hot Scot" probably won't impress the Glasgow-born Wanted star, who is far more comfortable chatting about football games with friends in British pubs than he is pondering any presumed international sex appeal. "It's completely something I brush off and laugh at," says McAvoy with a melodious Scottish brogue, pushing a hand through his brown shaggy hair. "It's not something that I'm comfortable with. I don't think about it." He punctuates this sentiment with a laugh. "I think it'd be a very interesting person if they said 'Yeah, I do sit around contemplating how sexy I am.'"

And yet, despite all protestation, this reluctant sex symbol who earned a Golden Globe nod for his smoldering role in Atonement may have no other choice; his fiery performance in this summer's highly anticipated action flick could easily slingshot the classically trained thesp into the movie stardom stratosphere. It will be quite a change from the Shakespearean roles he cut his teeth on while studying at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

"You want to do stuff that's really different and really challenging, not just psychologically but physically as well," says McAvoy of his part as Wesley Gibson, a Chicagoan cube-dweller recruited by Fox (Angelina Jolie) into the Fraternity, a secret group of weavers-turned-assassins whose orders come from a giant Loom of Fate.

Wesley's first assignment: To avenge the death of his long-lost father.

While he does a perfect American accent with ineffable ease — "I just sort of winged it," he shrugs, "and there were a lot of Americans on set" — and shows a mastery of biting dialogue, McAvoy's role demanded an intense transformation of both body and mind, not to mention a facile wielding of firearms.

James McAvoy, Common, and Angelina Jolie in Wanted Courtesy of Universal Pictures

"One of the things that really attracted me to the film was that the basis of the journey begins with this clinically depressed person," remarks McAvoy. "I thought that was quite a true and sad place to begin. [Wesley] gets more and more expressive as the film goes on. He's a provider of fantasy — for both men and women. He goes from a depressed to a psychopathic place, and he's done some questionable things. He's murdered a lot of people. I think he's probably very screwed up and probably a very bad person. His character is certainly empowering, but I hope not an inspiration."

Based on the comic book series by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones, the Timur Bekmambetov-directed adaptation relies on a spectacular series of CG-generated effects — think close-ups of bending bullets and impossible car chases. It's "camp as knickers, with a kind of real guilty pleasure at the end," McAvoy says of the lush-looking film. In fact, McAvoy often found himself "absolutely shattered physically at the end of the day" after performing some of Wanted's gravity-defying stunts, including one where he leaps over an elevated train.