‘X-Men’ and ‘Glass’ Star James McAvoy Reveals He Almost Died Last Year

X-Men and Glass star James McAvoy may be hosting Saturday Night Live tonight, and while tonight may be full of laughter, that wasn’t exactly the case in 2018. The Charles Xavier/Professor X actor revealed recently that he nearly died last year.

In a recent interview with Men’s Journal (via ET Canada), McAvoy opened up about how what should have been a fairly routine biopsy of a spot on his lungs turned into a life-threatening infection that not only downed the actor for three weeks in the hospital, but nearly cost him his life as well.

“It nearly killed me,” McAvoy said. “It was very scary. A terrifying f-cking thing to go through.”

The ordeal began last April when the actor went in for a routine physical. However, when the doctors found a suspicious shadow on the X-ray of his lung, they opted to biopsy. The shadow turned out to be nothing, but the infection at the biopsy site was a much bigger problem. While he survived the infection and the incident, McAvoy went on to explain that the illness gave him some perspective and helped him see that he needs to have a bit more balance in his life — especially since he’s a parent — which means more movies closer to home and being more selective about his work.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not slagging off my industry,” he said. “I love my job. Love it… But there’s got to be more balance.”

As for his job, McAvoy’s most recent film, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass is set to win its second weekend at the box office. In Glass, McAvoy reprises his Split role of Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with a number of personalities including the terrifying Beast. The increased presence of the Beast in Glass prompted McAvoy to embrace a new physique in order to convey the persona’s horrifying presence.

“I realized that if [director] M. Night Shyamalan’s world is suggesting that the Marvel world and the DC worlds, and all the comic book worlds, they grew up out of something that is possibly true, then the aesthetic of those worlds should maybe come from something that’s possibly true as well,” McAvoy previously told Entertainment Weekly. “So, I thought, it I’m going to run about with my shirt off for half the movie I’ve kind of got to buy into the comic book superhero aesthetic a little bit, you know. Which I didn’t necessarily have to do massively for the first movie, because, really, I only had my shirt off for two minutes at the end. I was in good shape, and I made sure I was toned and all that stuff, but I thought I’d better actually get bigger this time.”

What do you think about McAvoy’s admission of a major health scare? Let us know in the comments below.

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

Glass is in theaters now.

McAvoy can also be seen in Dark Phoenix, opening on June 7, and It: Chapter Two opening September 6.