James McAvoy says he has ‘no faith’ in politicians who have ‘lied horrendously’

Actor said he feels both ‘proud’ and ‘horrified’ when he thinks about the pandemic response

James McAvoy has condemned politicians for “lying horrendously over the last gazillion years”.

The actor, who was recently seen in the lockdown drama Together with Sharon Horgan, was discussing whether the film has a political message when he made the remark.

In the domestic drama, written by Dennis Kelly, the daily coronavirus death toll is noted by numbers on-screen and the couple are shown reacting to the news with fury.

When asked by The Sunday Times journalist Jonathan Dean whether one of the messages in the film was that not enough was done by government to stop the toll rising, McAvoy replied: “I don’t think it’s political. It’s just being alive and honest. When people say political I worry they mean, ‘Oh, you’re getting all lefty!’ I don’t think that’s the case.”

He added: “I don’t trust politicians. I don’t have any great current affairs insight by saying the amount of them who have been found to have lied horrendously over the last gazillion years gives me no faith in what the system produces in terms of leaders. Still, at times I’ve been proud how we handled [the pandemic]. At times horrified. But [Together] examines our lives. What happened was extreme, so if we play it safe, how can we have integrity in the eyes of the audience? They’ll call bullshit, because they’ve all lived it.”

Together was given four stars by The Independent’s critic Ed Cumming, who wrote: “I expect many viewers will relate to its vision of the realities of life in lockdown. Its depiction of the gap between the irrepressible people we heard about, who spent the time taking up new hobbies, and the rest of us, who were just trying to limp across each day, is spot on.”