- 2 days ago
Xmen interview with the cast.
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00:12I didn't come as a comic book fan so to me I needed to I couldn't rely I couldn't I
00:18didn't
00:19want the audience to rely on full knowledge of the source material they had to believe in the
00:22world and take it seriously and the X-Men have always been kind of based in the real world
00:28environment so so that's why we were able to open the film and concentration camp and and take it
00:35quite seriously some really good scenes to act but wasn't all action it was a lot of just sitting
00:42down talking it you always have always sold it as a this is not an action movie this is a
00:48a movie with
00:50action in it yeah I guess you'd say and drama actors and great actors and ideas you know points of
00:57view
00:57about the world about the world historically and about the future too yeah is that what attracted
01:03you guys that new guys to the to the X-Men universe did you see that first movie did you
01:09see those what
01:09are we talking about there were X-Men movies before first class I beg your pardon I beg your pardon
01:16we
01:17walked right into that yeah no I mean no yes didn't yes no is always a good thing because it
01:23keeps both
01:24sides comfortable no I was I was a fan of the the concept of you know outsiders and people that
01:33feel like they don't fit in belong that is sort of a because like you Brian I never was a
01:39fan of
01:40comic books as a kid I never read any X-Men and didn't know much about until the films and
01:46that was
01:47the one thing that I always always drew me to the films was that idea of an outsider you know
01:53somebody
01:54who's not accepted and I think you know through various parts of anybody's life most people experience
01:59that at some point I think that's why the series is so popular all over the world because that's a
02:06universal sort of feeling and then again something that we were discussing earlier the civil rights
02:11element to it and you know two sort of opposing ideas looking for the same thing but different
02:18methods well I know one of the first things you ever said to me Brian about there was that there
02:25were
02:25it was relevant to being gay as a young person but the young person might consider himself to be a
02:31mutant or be can treated as a mutant by the rest of society and isn't it true that the demographic
02:36for
02:36the readership of the comics is young blacks young Jews and young gays well comic books in general I
02:41think I know I always felt yeah the gay allegory I always felt was very strong because the in some
02:47minorities grow up in in you know at least in a family of their minority or in a community you
02:56know
02:56gay kid wakes up you know in adolescence and starts to realize they're different from the parents from
03:00the brothers and sisters from the neighborhood and that can become even you know more isolating so
03:06that's I kind of when I first discussed with you and you were such an activist I that was my
03:10angle
03:11McKellen in Stewart I went with the civil rights is that what you got I can relate did you get
03:20that
03:20that's why I got the part first time in my life I got a part because I was black
03:26now I was did you know that Magneto was gay as you know that he was Irish is what he
03:31told me
03:36I remember I'd seen Hallie in Bullworth and she was fantastic in that movie and uh and came in so
03:42that was that was a no-brainer and uh so and uh the only issue there was the wig and
03:49I think oh my
03:49God that I couldn't it was the issue even now it's that wig is still the issue I don't remember
03:55in the
03:55hotel room you were saying you were finally because I I'm I'm you know I I'm not good with things
04:00like
04:00wigs and so where we knew I saw you the other night yeah we saw you but you wouldn't know
04:09but
04:10but I remember yeah there's that and it and for movie to movie it's still it's still an issue
04:15still an issue but wigs and it's an issue with the fans too I mean they take personal ownership over
04:20Storm's hair and how it should be and how it shouldn't be and it's an issue Peter's hairdo
04:28everybody thought Peter was wearing a wig oh wait till you see the 70s wig that I wear oh yeah
04:36that's no it is no wig on Peter no it is this real startling hair he reminds me the driver
04:42the driver
04:42was around the way to is it hot it was like why is the Irish said it I don't know
04:46he asked me if it
04:47was hot and I said what what the wig is it hot yeah it is very hot if you mean
04:54sexy yes you're
04:58talking about the fans like how aware are any of you of the fan talk back and what they do
05:05and don't
05:05like from the movies as we make them as we move forward like where do you get that they come
05:11up
05:11to me and tell me all the time you know even our first movie is what now 13 years ago
05:15they still come
05:16up to me and they have comments about the wig the exit one of their biggest concerns has always
05:23been why does storm get no love how come nobody wants to love so how come no guys attracted storm
05:30I said I don't know I'm asexual don't don't don't you know and the fans really can't understand why
05:36storm and I never have an answer for that so you know I'm always trying to recreate you know come
05:46up with some answer that will satisfy them in the moment other guys fans any fans when I was a
05:57kid
05:57and then but and again I never read the comic books but I think what's quite interesting about
06:02the whole series of films that are related to each other and no problem no but it's true it's good
06:08it's
06:08good is that you know like the comic books actually like the people that they portray but like the
06:13comic books they constantly evolve there's different runs they're all different they're all and I think
06:17that's what I responded to with with getting you know the approach to go and do first class was that
06:23it represented an evolution and what's really interested about interesting about this movie
06:28is that it carries on with that evolution at the same time is trying to hold on to what it
06:34has always
06:36been as well so it's it's it's like a kind of Darwinian picture do you know I mean for X
06:41-Men it's
06:41quite it's quite interesting and that's what I like about X-Men because if you are going to have you
06:46know
06:46including the Wolverine pictures seven movies they can't just stay the same and they have I think moved and
06:53that's a difficult thing I found with fans is that some fans want you just to stay the same they
06:58don't
06:58want you to change don't want and then other but then how are you going to make new fans and
07:02how are
07:03you going to and not all fans like that some fans want it to evolve you know but some people
07:07like
07:08that one run of that comic book and some people like that one movie of that group of films that
07:14are
07:14related to each other in France and Omar do is X-Men what's what's X-Men in France what is
07:21the
07:21X-Men fan because it's a universal story about the
07:39um come on did um outsiders uh people uh outside of the society we have that all around the world
07:50so
07:50we have that in in um in France and we have um X-Men fans in front big fans and
07:56uh um I just came
07:58from France I was there for two weeks and people come to me and say give me some more give
08:05me the the
08:06uh some some news about X-Men how was it I can't I can tell because I I wouldn't uh
08:13break the secret
08:14but the the people can beat you for for for for for for some of promotions so it's uh it's
08:23a big deal
08:23to um X-Men in France very very big very big you guys are new to it haven't you're new
08:29to it too
08:30how old were you guys when the X-Men one came out um yeah 20 20 20 22 and Ellen
08:40I don't know we did the
08:42third one when I was 18 so I must have been 13 or 14 I guess yeah you're saying yeah
08:49and you just
08:49uh something for heaven that you you just started really on the film and you got jumped in to this
08:57crazy guy and this guy and Nick and and what was that like to just get dropped into this universe
09:03pretty intimidating yeah really intimidating uh all really good actors and a lot of special effects
09:12stuff that I have to do that I really don't know how to do um it's cool man you nailed
09:17it though like
09:18your first day you came in you absolutely nailed it
09:35I think we're allowed to talk about this and I was told we need to ask more specific questions
09:38about this specific movie what was it like working together well uh in terms of the the movie we're
09:47there and not there is it fair to say that Brian yeah week yeah uh that sums up your acting
09:52really
09:56there speaks of mine who spent the last three weeks in a rehearsal room with me are you guys
10:00going to share a dressing room again for this one we have not I hope so yeah I may have
10:09moved on
10:09a little he's got to share his life with someone else eventually uh we had uh we had one half
10:16day
10:17I think on the set and uh it was uh memorable for a variety of reasons for you you've already
10:28forgotten it I don't know your bloody name no it was good eh it was quite it was really interesting
10:35and really I don't know I never thought for a minute when I took on Charles that I'd ever be
10:42acting with you playing Charles so it was it was kind of brilliant I've been a fan of yours for
10:46years
10:46so that was a bit of a thrill too they're both being self-deprecating so I'm going to say being
10:52on set uh watching these guys and I remember and I commented to Patrick it was James's first day on
10:59set
10:59it was a really pivotal scene and literally walked straight on into it this incredibly I think will
11:05become iconic moment which I think you beautifully directed it was so great to watch the two of them
11:10um I fell asleep at one point but it was a good two or three hours into it and I
11:16was on this anyway
11:17you know you were lying down anyway dude yeah it's cool and Michael talk about a little bit you know
11:22because we're arcing from first class to this movie to imagining you would eventually become
11:28Ian in your how do you sort of fashion the performance with him in mind but you know
11:34well I've just been watching a lot of YouTube footage and uh and just trying to sort of you know
11:40um
11:42yeah make that sort of um connection because again like in first class it was supposed to be sort of
11:50a
11:50brand new sort of shake up so there was a point in time where I you know I was talking
11:55to Matthew at the
11:56time I was like well should I go away and study Ian's accent and Matthew was like no I want
12:01you to
12:01stick with your accent so that's going to be a bit of a weird thing in this one I will
12:04be speaking
12:05differently um but uh so on this one because we were both in the same film and that opportunity came
12:11about I did what I was sort of thinking of doing in the first one so I studied a lot
12:16of um Ian's RSC
12:19workshop tape from what year was is that was that 19 79 79 something like that anyway so um I've
12:27been
12:27listening to that probably thousands of times and uh and just sort of working away on that and then
12:32um it's always kind of weird doing the metal manipulation so I'll study a little bit of that
12:37as well um there we go ladies and gentlemen oh wow oh it's a match oh that's creepy isn't it
12:48so you know you don't you know you never got to sail um um the golden gate bridge over to
12:55Charles did you no that's ridiculous he does something similar yeah we've done something
13:03similar yeah oh what yeah yeah maybe even bigger ian i'm just saying oh yeah maybe you can see it
13:09yeah and how do you keep it straight here you got everybody you're both sides of the coin you're both
13:14periods you've been in every movie very greedy very great it's actually it's been an unbelievable
13:20opportunity because i mean if you think how when brian first took on x-men one comic book movies
13:26were really not forget about in vogue they really weren't on the table at all and now you have
13:33unbelievable cast uh some who are not even with us today and i get the opportunity to work with every
13:38one of them i feel unbelievably grateful literally every day and the way i hope i'm not giving away too
13:43much but because we control this so i love it so ian ian and patrick uh i think it was
13:49mainly
13:49your schedule where they were doing a play so we shot the future part first so it was literally
13:55like a reunion to begin with there was you know brian and all of us together and obviously hailey and
14:02and ellen and sean and and uh anna paquin and it was unbelievable uh to be on set and do
14:09that for i
14:10don't want to say how long but and then we sort of flipped and went into the past um where
14:16in a way
14:16you and me brian were walking in in the atmosphere that you guys are creating because the movie's
14:21really a sequel to your movie so it wasn't it's been an incredible embarrassment of riches it's
14:27like doing two great movies in one it's also fun um because um i chose to bring in the the
14:33hallways
14:34and the and cerebro from the original uh x-men films because john meyer and i always were inclined to
14:40the the production designer always were inclined to believe that those were built like futurism of
14:44the of the 60s and 70s um kind of like uh 2001 so so to have those sets now built
14:51again for the
14:52whatever third or fourth time and then to have the younger actors who were in first class who been in
14:59an x-men movie played famous x-men characters but have never been in those particular sets
15:04was very fun and they happened to be doing their costume fittings uh nick jen and and all you guys
15:09were some of you guys and walk it was fun to watch them walk on those sets and feel like
15:15oh it's like
15:16if i walked on like the millennium falcon or some some kind of familiar set and then seeing you standing
15:21there in full wolverine is also in that environment is also i don't it was fun to watch the you
15:26know
15:27those guys ease into it more fun than the first time i walked on that set because i remember one
15:31of the
15:32crew members says oh officers in the building and you overheard it because my hair was like
15:36and we shut down filming it we went back to the makeup trailer for about five hours who was it
15:42that
15:42said that it was this guy who did not work on the film for long no that was my first
15:48i i've done a
15:49film took place in the 80s the 40s and a film second world war i've this is a period of
15:54time that i was
15:55a child in um probably when i was watching and consuming this kind of science fiction fantasy material
16:01and and and yet uh making a film the design the clothing is such a weird mind seeing the how
16:09awful the collars were and the pants and the fitting i mean you guys make them look very good the
16:1570s is
16:16a good time for fashion you hate it i think it's ridiculous i love it i love it the 70s
16:20has been good
16:21to me i was born then the cars are great the cars and oh yeah 50s good cars 50s 50s
16:27for me for cars
16:28yeah okay it's beautiful yeah signs just embrace it you're in the 70s i'm loving it you know i'm
16:33going on all i'm going around burgundy and the whole thing going back to what you were saying earlier
16:38about the cerebro corridors i freaked out completely because it was walking along in there and obviously
16:43i watched the original films and i was like 10 or now shut up and then uh very young
16:50and then looking over it was like when we did the first class it didn't really feel even though it
16:55was
16:55an x-men movie it didn't really feel related so walking in those corridors and looking over at
16:59you i was like i completely freaked out and was so nervous until your wheelchair went really slowly
17:05for that one take we were walking along so slowly the the guys had to walk behind my wheelchair and
17:12yeah and for some reason it was it had been turned the speed on it had been turned down and
17:17so we did
17:17this take and we have to travel like 20 meters or something like that and my my chair is literally
17:21going like this fast and it just took us like what a minute and a half to walk it and
17:27we're all like
17:28just guys are walking behind me like that's going yeah nobody's like just made the dialogue last for
17:33this move that's right that's one of the things that's cool about the movies is just how the villains
17:38are always really real and grounded and we have a new villain in this movie you want to talk a
17:45little
17:45bit about trust i played the villain not from your perspective no everyone believes they're right
17:49all our villains believe they're they're they're right and they're all justified justified that's
17:55it yeah and they're justified socio-politically again not necessarily personally there's no personal
17:59vendettas or or or revenge stories um there was a bit in x-men 2 with striker because of his
18:04son
18:05but in this is this trask is more of a actually he's a peace lover oddly enough yeah yeah he's
18:13he has good
18:14intentions um he doesn't have a flamboyant villain costume or anything like that he has great hair
18:22and a pair of eyeglasses and his microscope but he really truly does it's really grounded in reality
18:27and he really does think he's doing the world a service um you know he likes his economic freedoms
18:36but uh you know he really sees them as a threat yeah yeah there's a line in the movie i
18:43i at first
18:43i thought oh mutants are they really that and it's your scene in the white house where you basically
18:47explain to the to president nixon right that you know one can control metal that's your army and the
18:55other can be anyone even you right which means they can launch a nuclear strike if they want to and
19:01that
19:01and that's just two of them and suddenly i was like wow you you'd need to start revolutionizing
19:07your army and changing your tactics if you did fear a group like that it is the classic thing where
19:12the mutants are just sort of evolving faster human beings are kind of like the neanderthal and
19:18they will be overtaken i mean that's just sort of the laws of sort of evolution isn't it so
19:24yeah what you said as well about like quite often the bodies in x-men being grounded in reality
19:29if x-men and mutants in this world represent like we've been talking about the ghetto eyes the
19:36disenfranchised the people who are um on the outside looking in generally your your biggest enemy or
19:43certainly the person you're probably most afraid of is is joe normal you know i mean because that's
19:48the person that's got a problem with you the normal guy that's that's your bad guy you know so
19:53it's quite interesting that like he is so grounded in reality and truth brian was there ever a moment for
19:58you of well there must be some nerves with every movie but having done one and two and taking a
20:05break was this an easy decision or were you always like oh well it was an easy decision to make
20:09because
20:10i had produced and got and and wrote the story for first class um so i was already involved in
20:16that movie
20:17and the opportunity to get to work with that amazing cast as a director now and get back with you
20:24guys who are just awesome to work with and have so much fun with it it's uh um that made
20:30an easy
20:30decision the the actual the story was scary the the initially we had we didn't have the the time
20:38travel figured out how it would work what who like just how it would work because there's a lot of
20:43laws
20:43that you have to create and then adhere to when you're making those kind of movies so it was only
20:48the
20:48moment when i felt that i had figured that out that i felt confident to move forward and now explore
20:54the story that that that simon had been developing uh with matthew and that um and that we were
20:59continuing to develop together you know it's funny the the title it it feels like we're living days of
21:05future past in our own reality like there's certain things that have happened in the past and now we're
21:11i get to go back in time with all these folks and and mix it up a bit change it
21:18yeah it's when we were
21:20working on the script one of the things that was tough for people was the way it bounced from future
21:25to past and they couldn't track it so i just started putting in the slug lines as you all know
21:28what were the ones that read the script um that that it says future and past in the slug line
21:34so it
21:35literally is bouncing back and forth the whole movie and the biggest thing we did from the comic book to
21:40this
21:40film i think that the biggest change was in the original story kitty pride goes back in time um
21:46and in this she's sending logan back um so i don't know if you read the comic or the script
21:51first
21:52oh i read the script yeah um but yeah i mean i think this was a great way of figuring
21:58out how to
21:59meld the two together and um and i just like love the whole aesthetic of the future and the difference
22:07from the last one and the sort of like diy survival um it was it was awesome there were moments
22:17for me
22:17that were cool in the future too because and it was the first day of shooting and you're saying when
22:22people are going to see the fact that bobby and magneto were walking down this hallway like what does
22:25that mean what does that how does that expand the world i mean these two characters that never would
22:29have interacted in the past are all of a sudden interacting and to what end and i think that's kind
22:35of a fun a fun avenue that was opened up because all of a sudden these people that were enemies
22:41in
22:41the past have found that common goal and i think that's just a fun thing to explore with all these
22:45characters and just as an actor it's like ian you and i were in scenes before but we never really
22:49spent much time together and so that was kind of a nice surprise to get to do that so that
22:54was kind
22:54of fun for me it's mature as well that's the mature thing about the the comic books and the series
23:00that's what happens like in times of war political you know leaders that are total sort of opposite
23:05ends they do get together they have to get together sometimes and work things out and sort of even
23:10work together so i've always found that really interesting with the relationship between professor
23:15x and magneto that there is there's a complexity there um that just goes beyond you know two sort of
23:23enemies their friends as well as being enemies that's great there's so much to play with there
23:27and you guys get to do both things in this movie i mean when you when you come back together
23:30you're
23:30sort of enemies you unite and then split back apart yeah it's almost like they both realize
23:36they're both necessary you know they're you know both sides of the coin yeah i think james you said
23:42that at one point that like there couldn't be a professor xavier without a magneto in his life
23:46that there is part of the evolution was having to go through that yeah i think so i think that
23:50you know i think the way i've always viewed professor x is as a boy not professor x but
23:56charles as i've had the opportunity to play him is as a voyeur so he's a genius and he's got
24:02this
24:03ability to read people's minds and but his real power is is a very human thing his real gift is
24:08empathy
24:09you know he can empathize with people's problems and he can help them but as a young man i think
24:14you
24:15certainly the way i tried to play him was that he was much more like a kind of like posh
24:18guy fascinated
24:19with with working class guys you know what i mean a little bit and he becomes very sort of drawn
24:23to
24:24that figure then and then what happens in this movie is is what at the end of the last movie
24:28you give him his angst you give him his thing that makes him just like everybody else actually and
24:35therefore he can't be a voyeur inside people's minds anymore he's a he's a he's a passenger on the
24:40same train and he's and the train is going to hell you know um and they're really they're just they're
24:48like that with each other they're they're really close they're stuck in each other's journey aren't
24:56was the hairstyle your idea changing hairstyle no that was really cool idea yeah we just wanted to
25:03again well my feeling about the future is that you're you're you've you've sort of become had to
25:09become militarized yeah so i wanted storm this is this this is the storm the warrior fighter that
25:14she ultimately had to become in this alternate terrible future it was my favorite version of
25:20storm actually i thought she it finally came together for me who she was the hair had always been a
25:26an
25:26issue i mean when you have to wear a head of gray hair you know that right away that's like
25:31a little
25:31daunting but i think that platinum that's a nice way to put it you know it looks great but i
25:37think this
25:38time because of the the the edginess of it and the vibe of it it made gray a lot easier
25:43to pull off
25:45or platinum a lot easier to pull off um we're going to wrap up i think but unless you lost
25:50thing i was
25:51thinking about just having everybody here that tweet you you you made about the oscars and emmys and all
25:57the different insane awards these people have won um the hardest kind of acting to do is
26:04taking the the most outlandish characters and making them believable and serious i think i think it is
26:10some of the hardest acting um dramatic acting is a conventional drama you know believability is
26:19grounded in something we all understand but when you've got to make an audience believe in characters
26:23who can fly and who can move metal and and and do all this fantastical sometimes silly stuff silly
26:31seeming stuff and actually bring truth to it requires the best actors so um it makes sense to me that
26:38such
26:38a lauded group of uh actors participate in this kind of movie um but when we were all when we
26:44were adding
26:44it up it's like i couldn't fit the nominations into my tweet but it's insane that that's when these movies
26:50are at their best um and that was why it was so important early on ian and patrick in the
26:57very
26:57beginning that was that was to to make you know that that that would legitimize this endeavor we
27:05almost hugh whose last that was x-men one yeah you were you came in we were cast after you'd
27:11started
27:11filming so yeah almost yeah i came in to do a test with brian they said you're gonna have to
27:17wait to
27:17the end of the day because they're shooting and i was like what yeah i was almost hoping you wouldn't
27:22work out because then i'd have i'd shut down for two weeks and figure out the script right and then
27:26he walked in i was like oh this guy might work i told you what happened though this one guy
27:29comes up
27:30this uh that while you were doing your screen test with anna paquin uh this this custodian at roy
27:35thompson hall comes up to me and he doesn't know who i am director because i'm standing kind of away
27:39from the monitor he pokes me i'm like yeah and he says is that the guy they got to play
27:43wolverine
27:44and i was like yeah and the guy was like cool it's like oh because i wasn't i had no
27:53money and
27:53i gave him 50 bucks and it was a lot of money see that guy over there tip him on
28:01the shoulder he
28:02gets it on the shoulder go this guy's cool he's awesome it was memorable because we we've been
28:07shooting yeah a couple of weeks or three weeks yeah and yeah and this this cute australian guy turned up
28:13and we all thought he was really cute and really nice i remember you saying like well you know you
28:17won't see me again after today how was the accent that that was pretty good pretty good and then i
28:26think i think before the day was over you'd made the decision oh no i offered it to it's the
28:31only time
28:31i've ever offered offered a film directly i never thought i haven't got a job more in my life because
28:36as everyone on these couches will know when brian directs he quite often is difficult to tell if
28:42he's happy or not because this was my audition all right just do the second scene yeah maybe a little
28:49yeah all right cut and i was like oh i haven't got this he couldn't be less enthused and he
28:53came over
28:54and gave me a hug he said thanks wolverine you're on the film i said what it was uh i
28:58was quite surprised
28:58did they make you do anything like and stuff no thank god no well he was coming off curly in
29:04oklahoma so it was sort of like hello in the end it's it's very much about charles becoming
29:13charles or becoming professor x or the other you know each each movie has their own you know specific
29:19journey and but but in the end i think that people are going to find at the heart of the
29:23movie that's
29:23the the story we're telling and i and i like that story professor x has always been my personal
29:27favorite character probably because i'm a director and he's sort of the director of his of his
29:33peer group and uh and and yet it's lonely at the top jeez yeah it's lonely in the room
29:48we'll leave you with charles
29:57we'll leave you with charles thank you guys
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