James McAvoy 'saddened' by treatment of female co-stars during Cyrano's Glasgow run

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James McAvoy was "absolutely shocked and dismayed" by the abuse his female co-stars suffered during his homecoming run of Cyrano de Bergerac in Glasgow, Scotland.

After a successful run on London's West End, the Split actor brought the play to his hometown of Glasgow for a two-week run in March, marking his first time back on the Glaswegian stage in 20 years.

While the occasion should have been a celebration for McAvoy, he admitted in an interview with GQ he couldn't wait to leave and take the play to New York.

"The cast were amazing, it was brilliant. But I was really saddened, to be honest with you, because most of the women of colour in the cast got racially abused pretty much on a daily basis when we were there," he admitted, adding the abuse was entirely directed toward female actors and was sexually explicit and violent.

"I was just really saddened. I was absolutely shocked and dismayed and to use a Scottish word, scunnered. We were delighted to get to Brooklyn, and leave Glasgow. It was horrible."

The Atonement star confessed he wasn't sure whether to tell the story because it might not go down well back in Scotland.

"The narrative that Scottish people and the Scottish media want to hear when one of us has gone away and done all right, they like you to be back at home and go 'It's rare. It's fantastic. I'm chuffed to be here and there's no crowd like a Scottish crowd,'" he explained. "But I was going on stage every night going, I don't want us to be here. I brought this cast here and I don't want to be here."

McAvoy finished his run in Cyrano de Bergerac in New York in May.