James McAvoy based Speak No Evil character on Andrew Tate

James McAvoy used Andrew Tate as inspiration for his villain in 'Speak No Evil'.

The 45-year-old actor stars as the sinister Paddy in the English-language remake of the 2022 Danish psychological horror film, and McAvoy has now revealed he loosely based his performance on the controversial 37-year-old social media influencer who is famous for promoting toxic masculine behaviour to his millions of followers.

In an interview with Empire magazine, he said: "The thing I thought I could exploit in the character was, he thinks he's a bit of a f****** West Country Andrew Tate.

"He's like, 'I'm going to teach you what it's like to be a man again.' But there's a sort of polite face on it that isn’t quite Andrew Tate, enough of a sheen of, 'I'm not one of those guys.'

"He's [Paddy's] challenging you, 'Do you have a big enough d*** to have a drink with me?', Or, 'I'm sorry, this is too much for you because you're not real enough.'"

The 'X-Men: First Class' actor blended Tate's misogynistic outlook with the Australian slang term 'Bogan' – meaning an unsophisticated person who can be "associated with a certain level of toxic masculinity" – and Mark Rylance's character Rooster from the play 'Jerusalem', who was a dangerous social outcast.

He said: "You wanted something a bit agricultural.

"I had two big visual touchstones. The first was the Australian term 'bogan', which can be associated with a certain level of toxic masculinity.

"And the other was the character Rooster from 'Jerusalem', played so brilliantly by Mark Rylance."

McAvoy – who stars alongside Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis and Aisling Franciosi in the upcoming movie – had to put on a lot of muscle to play Paddy, although compared his somewhat relaxed demeanour to Ray Winstone's safecracker character Gary 'Gal' Dove in the 2001 gangster picture 'Sexy Beast'.

He explained: "Even though he's all masculine and throwing his d*** around, he's just a bit softer. Almost a Ray Winstone in 'Sexy Beast' vibe: 'I don’t mind if my belly's sticking out, because that's how comfortable a man I f****** am.'"

'Speak No Evil' is scheduled to be released by Universal Pictures on September 13.