James McAvoy says he once turned down 'a ton of money' to potentially play Tom Riddle in 'Harry Potter'

• James McAvoy said he turned down the opportunity to potentially play a key role in "Harry Potter."
• The actor said he was asked to be put on a retainer for the role of Tom Riddle.

Scottish actor James McAvoy has said he once turned down the opportunity to potentially play the role of a young "Voldemort" in "Harry Potter."

During a recent appearance on the "Happy Sad Confused podcast" with Josh Horowitz, the 45-year-old said that at the start of his career, he auditioned for the role of Tom Riddle.

"I was nearly in 'Harry Potter.' Almost," McAvoy said, adding: "The very first movie, I think it was. Tom Riddle is in the first one, right? But he's like in it for like a scene, in a flashback or something like that."

"It was crazy, I'd hardly done any work. And me and I think maybe 10 other actors or something like that, they wanted to put us on a retainer so they could hold us and keep us to choose later. It was a really strange thing," he added.

McAvoy said that they offered him "a ton of money" to accept the job. "It was like £40,000 ($52,000) or something like that, and I'd done very little work."

However, there was a catch, he said. If he had agreed to the retainer, he wouldn't have been able to do any work for around seven months.

On the advice of his agent, whom he still has now, the actor declined the offer, and he went on to take a lower-paid theater role instead, which he said was "the making" of him as an actor.

"I did that instead and got paid, I think, £275 ($360) a week," he said, adding that he was "booed by a homophobic gentleman" in the audience while doing the play.

McAvoy would later go on to gain widespread acclaim for his roles in films such as "Atonement," in which he starred alongside Keira Knightley, and "The Last King of Scotland," which costars Forest Whitaker.

While McAvoy didn't seem to have much interest in being part of HBO's upcoming television reboot of "Harry Potter," he said there were a few genres he would like to take on more.

"I don't know if there's anything that I'm really missing in terms of what I've covered. I don't think I've done enough sci-fi just because I love it," he said.

"I don't think I've done enough comedy, but I've been able to be funny in things that aren't comedies. Always trying to bring the gags," he added.