Article: Scottish reel: James McAvoy has played toffs, a rent boy and Idi Amin's doctor. Now, in Atonement, he plays the lead.(EYE)(Occupation overview)

When James McAvoy began to study acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama at age 18, he also undertook a second, more practical course of study--as a baker.

"Yeah, a confectioner," explains the 28-year-old, who's best known for his performance as a morally adaptable doctor under the spell of Forest Whitaker's Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. "I was like the apprentice confectioner. The other guy did all the hard stuff, and I would come in and put the cream and the little kiwi fruit on the top. It was great fun--cakes and tarts and gateaux and all that."

"Confectioner" seems a rather dainty backup career for the actor, who talks of ...

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