JAMES McAvoy had to put on 12kg of muscle for his leading role in the action thriller Wanted. But that still wasn't as bad as kissing his leading lady, Angelina.

Don't ask James McAvoy about That Kiss.



The Scottish actor groans when asked yet again what it was like to pucker up with Hollywood's most plump-lipped leading lady, Angelina Jolie, in the action film Wanted.



‘‘It was awkward, sweaty and not very nice,'' he says in his thick Glasgow brogue.



‘‘There was angst involved in that, as always. It was just another day and the same old stuff as usual. I was thinking, ‘Oh God, I hope she doesn't think I'm getting off on this', and she's doing the same.



‘‘It's always weird, always strange, never nice.''



In the high-octane movie, McAvoy plays Wesley, a miserable office worker who is prone to panic attacks. Wesley is recruited to a secret fraternity by a mysterious assassin, Fox, played by Jolie.



As much as the A-list actor dominates the marketing campaign -- all seductive pouts and leather-clad, assassin cool -- make no mistake, this is McAvoy's movie.



The slightly built, snaggle-toothed, boyishly cute actor has made his name playing likable fish-out-of-water characters in dramas Atonement and The Last King of Scotland and romantic comedy Starter for Ten.



He smiles when tentatively told he doesn't appear to be the usual Hollywood action star.



‘‘Yes, I'm not used to seeing someone like myself in action roles,'' he says.



‘‘I love movies, and I do complain frequently that I'm fed up with seeing six-foot-five alpha males in these roles. I'm glad they cast someone like me, not in terms of what I can bring to the role as an actor, but more because I'm not an obvious choice.''



The film required McAvoy to physically transform himself, rapidly turning his character from couch potato to sinewy killer. An exercise-phobe, he nevertheless gained 12kg of muscle in two months, training rigorously for up to 14 hours a day.



‘‘I'd rather eat dog pooh than go to a gym,'' McAvoy says, grimacing.



‘‘The training was a big change for me. Sometimes my trainer pushed me so hard that I was on my knees, wanting to be physically sick. And he made me eat really, really horrible food at bad times of the day.



‘‘It wasn't my idea of a good time, but it seemed to do the trick -- it gave Wes the body he needed.''



The 29-year-old also had to become adept at handling a range of firearms -- another big challenge.



‘‘Guns are dangerous things, they really freak me out,'' he says. ‘‘Angelina, though, is really cool with them. She loves guns, really enjoys them.''



With his messy hair and mismatched faded cords, T-shirt, leather jacket and scuffed boots, there is nothing Hollywood about McAvoy. He looks as if he passed on the stylist to spend extra time in bed, rolling out minutes before the interview at a swank Beverly Hills hotel.



He says he has no intention to move to Los Angeles from London, where he lives with his wife Anne-Marie Duff, a British actor eight years his senior.



The couple, who married in 2006 after meeting on the set of British television comedy series Shameless two years earlier, enjoy a quiet life and are rarely bothered by paparazzi.



‘‘I'm not anti-Hollywood. I'm not anti-celebrity either -- just the s--- that goes with it,'' he says.



Interest in McAvoy soared after his star turn as Robbie Turner, a man convicted of a crime he did not commit in World War II drama Atonement, which received seven Oscar nominations.



Many young actors would jump at the chance to have the world's best filmmakers clamouring to employ them and the career security that brings. But the experience has made McAvoy uneasy.



‘‘One thing that disturbed me after Atonement was that I could plan the next five years of my life and have movies backing up over two or three years,'' he says.



‘‘The best part of my work is that when I finish a job, I don't know what I'm going to do the next day. And that suddenly disappeared, because I had offers that would wait for me for a year, for two years.''



He decided to slow down and has worked on only two projects since: Wanted and The Last Station, a historical drama about Russian writer Leo Tolstoy that also stars his wife, about whom he refuses to talk.



McAvoy seems wistful when he recalls his challenging early days as a struggling actor. He speaks fondly of sharing a small flat in London with Australian actor Jesse Spencer, who found fame on soap Neighbours before moving to Britain, then embarking on a Hollywood career in the television series House.



The pair, who planned to reunite for a low-key get-together in LA the night after the interview, met in London in 2000 when both landed small roles in the British historical romance Lorna Doone.



‘‘Jesse played chief sidekick for the main baddie, and I played chief sidekick for the main goodie,'' McAvoy says.



‘‘They were small roles but, even though we didn't have many lines, we were both there a lot and we became good friends.



‘‘He needed somewhere to live, and I was going away to do a movie in Prague. I said, ‘You can have my room'.



‘‘And when I came back, he still had my room. So he went to the couch and I went back to my room, and we ended up moving to a bigger place.''



Wanted opens today.





Originally published as It's weird being Wanted