James McAvoy: Patrick Stewart 'has a bag of my hair in his safe'

James, who plays the younger version of Sir Patrick’s Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men franchise, confessed that he found the keepsake “kind of creepy” as he spoke on The Graham Norton Show about finally going bald for the new Apocalypse film.

James McAvoy spent 17 hours getting hair extensions for his role as Charles Xavier (Jonathan Short/Invision)

He said: “I shaved (my head) months before to see what it would look like and turned up on the shoot with about two months’ growth and they were like, ‘What have you done?’ and I had to have the first of 17-hour hair extensions sessions.

“When we finally shaved it off we decided to facetime Patrick Stewart so he could pass on the baldy baton.

“We though it was funny when he asked if he could have some of the hair, but it turns out the director bagged it up for him and he now has all my hair at home in a safe, which is kind of creepy.”

The cheeky smile of a man with a safe full of hair (John Salangsang/AP)

James, 37, also said he would be on board to make more X-Men films.

He said: “If they write good stuff for us, if schedules work out and they pay enough money I am sure we’ll still keep doing it.”

James McAvoy has gone bald in X Men: Apocalypse (20th Century Fox/YouTube)

X-Men: Apocalypse is released in the UK on May 18.

The Graham Norton Show airs on May 13 on BBC One at 10.35pm.