James McAvoy Enjoyed Getting the 'S**t Kicked Out' of Him by Angelina Jolie

James McAvoy is a jack of all trades. He has wooed Keira Knightley ('Atonement') and Anne Hathaway ('Being Jane'), and had the stuffing knocked out of him by the most badass starlet of them all, Angelina Jolie, in 'Wanted.' He'll soon come to Robin Wright's defense in Robert Redford's historical drama 'The Conspirator,' and is hard at work filming the hotly anticipated 'X-Men: First Class,' in which he plays a young Professor Charles Xavier, opposite Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence, January Jones and Nicholas Hoult.

The Scottish actor, who has a seriously adorable accent, is also voicing the titular garden gnome in Disney's 'Gnomeo & Juliet.' The 31-year-old actor talked to PopEater about whether he wears a kilt in the proper Scottish style (that's commando), the "slightly naughty, kinky-looking" garden gnomes he grew up with and why "if you're going to have the s**t kicked out of you by someone, it might as well be Angelina Jolie."

When you first heard 'Gnomeo & Juliet' was based on 'Romeo and Juliet,' did you think that the gnomes would kill themselves at the end?

Yeah, kind of. I thought, "But it's a tragedy," so how can you make it not a tragedy? Although Tybalt does die, which is kind of really harsh. I know he comes back at the end, so he can get super-glued back together, but for all intents and purposes at the beginning of the film he dies. I was very shocked. In a kid's film one of the characters dies!

Did you grow up with garden gnomes?

I did actually. I think we had three in our garden. We had one little frog, and we had two others that were slightly naughty, kinky-looking gnomes.

What do you mean? Did they have their trousers down?

One of them did have his trousers down.

Was he showing any naughty bits?

No, just his bum and the other one looked very abashed.

Did you notice your character has rather thick eyebrows?

I didn't notice that. I hope it doesn't take away from the performance.

You're the father of a baby boy. It must be exciting to think he will be able to hear your voice in a Disney cartoon movie.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. I think that's one of the things, in general, actors like to do. Something to show their family and their kids. I think it's a big attraction for a lot of people to do these films. You want to tell stories that people appreciate, and if you can capture children, there's something fantastic about that.