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JAMES McAvoy pulled off death-defying stunts as one of the X-Men.
But he’s admitted voicing a rabbit was so physically tough for him he was left on the brink of collapse.
James is one of the star voices in the new BBC adaptation of Watership Down. Its cast had to make wacky noises when their characters were running away, sniffing or panting.
James said: “I found myself getting quite light-headed doing those scenes. I almost passed out a couple of times. I did about 10 sessions!”
His co-stars had less trouble sounding like animals. Gemma Arterton said: “It is fun and you always do it at the end because you might hurt your voice screaming. It’s actually quite liberating to let yourself be a complete idiot.”
Nicholas Hoult added: “I had to nibble on a lot of pencils.
“I had pencils around the recording studio that I had been nibbling on while saying lines.”
Gemma added: “The best is when you have to do drowning and you literally go “bleugh, bleugh”. It’s so silly. Nicholas was doing proper rabbit acting.”
Other stars who voice characters include Olivia Colman, Sir Ben Kingsley and Peter Capaldi. ¬ Watership Down is aired in two parts on BBC One, on December 22 at 7pm and December 23 at 7.20pm. FANBOY James was already a Watership Down geek before he was asked to be involved.
The actor was thrilled when he was offered the chance to voice lead character Hazel.
He said: “When I got the email I was actually wearing my Watership Down T-shirt.
“I took a selfie of myself and said: ‘Check it out, man – this is crazy!’
“This story is up there with Narnia and Dune.”