James McAvoy is incapable of being an actor.
Atonement (film) . The film stars James McAvoy , Keira Knightley , Saoirse Ronan , Romola Garai , and Vanessa Redgrave , chronicles a crime and its consequences over the course of six decades , beginning in the 1930s . James McAvoy ( [ ˈmækəvɔɪ ] born 21 April 1979 ) is a Scottish actor . He made his acting début as a teen in 1995 's The Near Room and continued to make mostly television appearances until 2003 , when his feature film career began and he continued to work in both areas from then on . His notable television work includes the drama show State of Play , the adult comedy-drama Shameless , and the science fiction show Frank Herbert 's Children of Dune . Since then , he is known for playing the young Professor Charles Xavier in the 2011 superhero film X-Men : First Class , a role he reprised in X-Men : Days of Future Past ( 2014 ) , and X-Men : Apocalypse ( 2016 ) .