The Sex Scene That Ended In James McAvoy's First & Only Movie Injury

According to veteran actor James McAvoy, he sustained an injury working on his upcoming film — but it wasn't an action scene. 

On a short bonus episode of the podcast "Restless Natives" with hosts Martin Compston and Gordon Smart, McAvoy said that on his new project "Turn Up the Sun!" there's a scene involving an orgy. While shooting it, McAvoy and his scene partner Almudena Amor decided to improvise a little bit, but what ended up happening was that McAvoy got injured. "On day one, we had to go at it with each other and be funny with it but also properly go for it, and we were both just in the same area at the same time," he said, before complimenting Amor: "She was an amazing actor, fearless, and so young and so confident in the way that takes a lot of actors a decade to get to."

"So, we get to the end of the week and we're doing this big improvised orgy," McAvoy told Compston and Smart. "She's an amazing dancer and I'm confident in my dancing without being good at it. She was like, 'this is great, we're totally vibing.'" Apparently, this is where things went wrong.

"At one point, she's bigger than me, she's 5'11, and I'm holding her upside down doing some f**king weird thing and somebody grabs me on the back of the neck, started biting my neck or something, and I just deck it," McAvoy admitted. "Smashed my knee real hard on the ground, and I think that's the only time I've ever been injured making a film."

So what exactly is this project that gave James McAvoy his first-ever on-set injury? That would be a movie called "Turn Up the Sun!" which stars McAvoy alongside Almudena Amor, Irish actress Aisling Franciosi, and "Emily in Paris" standout Lucas Bravo (also known for the rom-com "Ticket to Paradise" and the heartwarming film "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris"). This particular film, which is written and directed by Jamie Adams, began its production in late 2023; McAvoy spoke to "Restless Natives" about his injury in March 2024, so hopefully, everything's been resolved.

In any case, there's not a lot of information about "Turn Up the Sun!" out there just yet, although a report in Deadline from October 2023 said it's "about two couples that accidentally book the same countryside mansion for a weekend of work and pleasure but discover things may not be as they seem." Based on McAvoy's on-set stories, it definitely sounds like a wild ride ... which makes sense, because the actor has spent his career in Hollywood seeking out fascinating, diverse projects.

James McAvoy isn't exactly new to Hollywood, which makes it all the more surprising that his first-ever on-set injury was quite this recent ... and for a sex scene rather than some major action setpiece. Early in his career, McAvoy made a name for himself in action flicks like 2008's "Wanted" (alongside Angelina Jolie) and followed that with superhero movies like the "X-Men" franchise (where he plays Charles Xavier in several of the films), thrillers like M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" and "Glass," and modern horror like "It Chapter Two," so it's safe to say that McAvoy has never shied away from intense physicality in his roles. 

The actor's biggest upcoming project, "Speak No Evil," certainly seems as if it'll make use of McAvoy's physicality as well. The horror movie, which co-stars Mackenzie Davis ("Station Eleven," "Blade Runner 2049"), Scoot McNairy ("Argo," "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice") and McAvoy's "Turn Up the Sun!" colleague Aisling Franciosi, is, like that film, a story of a vacation gone wrong in very unexpected ways. In "Speak No Evil," though, it becomes clear that McAvoy's character Paddy is hiding something truly terrifying ... and audiences will have to wait until September 13 to find out what that is.

"Turn Up the Sun!" doesn't have a release date quite yet, but is set to release sometime in 2025 — so McAvoy's fans will see the risqué scene that left the actor hurting in real life.