The actor revealed the surprising link during an interview with Empire ... saying he thought about his character as being Tate from the country in a sense -- with the character's attitude focusing on teaching men to be men again.

James says he put more of an unassuming face on his character than Tate does in his own diatribes ... but, the undercurrent of that toxicity's very much there.

McAvoy adds that, even though he did put on muscle for the part, he still played the character softer than a raging hypermasculine male ... basically saying he didn't want to hit the audience over the head with it.

Of course, Tate's well known for his views on women ... publicly labeling himself a misogynist and dubbing himself the "king of toxic masculinity." He's also being accused of multiple alleged sexual offenses in Romania as well.

That said, it's unclear how he feels about JM basing a terrifying character on his personality. If you don't know ... "Speak No Evil" follows an American family that meets a British family on vacation and agrees to visit them at their home -- leading to a nightmarish ordeal perpetrated by McAvoy.