ryan Singer, the avowed comic fan, brings Marvel Comics' X-Men back to the big screen on May 2 in the much-anticipated sequel, X2. This time around, Singer said he's making the movie he wanted to the first time around, but couldn't.
X2 brings back all of the original X-Men: Patrick Stewart (Professor Xavier), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Ian McKellen (Magneto), Oscar winner Halle Berry (Storm), Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), James Marsden (Cyclops), Anna Paquin (Rogue) and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (Mystique). Shawn Ashmore (Bobby/Iceman) has a bit more to do this time around. And the sequel introduces a flock of mutants, including Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama/Deathstrike, Alan Cumming as the blue mutant Nightcrawler and Aaron Stanford as Pyro.
And the film adds a new villain, drawn from the comics and updated for the movies: veteran character actor Brian Cox as Stryker, a human and a military commander with a shady past and dark connection to the X-Men, particularly Wolverine.
Jackman, Singer, Cumming and Cox took a moment recently to talk with Science Fiction Weekly about the sequel. The interviews are drawn from a press conference and in-person and telephone interviews over the last several months.
Hugh Jackman, was this as much fun to make as it looked?
Jackman: Yeah. I have to say it was more fun than the first for me, because I think I was pretty scared for about the first month. It took me about a year to admit, but I was pretty damn terrified. I got cast, for those of you don't know, a week into shooting on the first one. ... It was a lot of pressure on everybody, because it was a big franchise. ...
So come the second one, I had time to get in shape, I had time to think about it, work on the script, feel ready to go from day one. We had a four-page scene on day one, and I was like, "Whoa, here we go." And bang, we shot it. Every character played in it, and we got it, and we were off and running. It was great fun.
What was it like going back to the part?
Jackman: My fear was that we'd be complacent, like a football team that won 50-to-nothing one week and thought they would beat every team. We all worked very hard [on the first movie], and it was a surprise hit, I think. So we were all surprised at the success. So coming into the second one, I was worried about that. You probably heard the stories that I used to have cold showers and stuff. So of course, being superstitious, I had to have them again. It's like wearing the same pair of underpants. Everything I did on the first one, I've got to do that for the second one. It actually just felt remarkable easy to get straight back into it, because I love the character, and I really felt on the first one that I kind of got to grips with it. And it's a joy to go back and do it again.
You have a big fight scene with Kelly Hu, and she was saying she got pretty beaten up on this.
Jackman: She did. She asked for it, man. I mean, literally asked for it. She'd come in [and say], "Come on. Give it to me." I tell you, I've been in a few fights in my time, and I don't think I've hit many people harder than I've hit Kelly. And she was like, "Come on!"
What about you?
Jackman: A few bumps and bruises. Not much. I got a bit of a concussion on one thing, but she's a pro, man. If she'd hit me, it would just touch me. It would look like she'd whacked me, but she's a black belt, so she knew how to do it. Me, this is the only black belt I've got. No, I was just whacking her. ... I had to do this one scene where I'm down on the ground, and she runs, you see the camera flies from the top, and I have to turn, and I stab her in the stomach. So effectively I have to punch her in the stomach, and she has to fold over it. ... She kept saying, "Harder, harder, harder, harder. I can take it." I said, "Just do me a favor. Will you wear a pad there?" ... So she put a black pad on there, and I turned around, and bang, I hit her straight in the boob. Four takes without the pad I'd gotten right perfectly, and as soon as she gave me the target, bang. And I said, "Did I get you in the ... ?" And she goes [grimacing], "Yep. Just a little lower. Thanks, Hugh." That was the only time she didn't ask for it harder.
Did you like doing the action scenes?
Jackman: Loved it. In fact, I kept trying to rewrite to get more in there. That stuff in the mansion, I loved all that stuff. It was great. I like the whole idea of Wolverine being the babysitter reluctantly and having 50 people coming. In this one there was more of an example of his berserker rage, which was one thing I think was missing from the first. And fans said to me a little bit, "We didn't get to see that berserker rage. Go mental." So you've suddenly got more. The body count's pretty high in this one, I think. I don't know how we got it past the ratings board.
What was the hardest thing about making this film?
Jackman: There was one scene where you have a flashback of a nightmare of Wolverine. And in the script it basically says, "Flashback: nightmare of being worked on." And I remember going to Bryan, and I said, "Bryan, this is one of those unique opportunities where you can kind of see the making of a character." It's that moment where Wolverine becomes who he is now, with all that rage. ... And people under that extreme circumstance either fall ... or they're brought to life, which is where Wolverine was really created in terms of his heart. So we ended up shooting quite a lot on that. That was pretty intense. ... That's what I mean about this movie or this character being something you don't normally get. You get a little more meat on the bones.
Are you signed for the third film?
Jackman: No. I think all of us were signed on for one or two. I think people who were new to this film did a two-picture deal.
Would you do it?
Jackman: I'm pretty sure, yeah. I mean, I love it. I can't imagine myself giving it up.
Bryan Singer, this feels like the film you wanted to make the first time but weren't able to.
Singer: It is. I think the first time around there was a learning curve for myself, for the characters, for the actors and in the process. There were limitations: financial limitations, scheduling limitations.
And yet, I couldn't have made X2 without having made the first X-Men picture. So this is definitely the movie that I would have, could have, should have made. Yet it does take off from where the other one left off, and I don't think it could have been made had I not had the first experience.
You were able to get a lot of X-Men stuff into this movie, but had to cut other stuff out: the Danger Room, the Sentinels. Are you saving that for a future X-Men movie?
Singer: Possibly. You choose your battles. You figure out what serves the story and what is ultimately tangential. Each X-Men film, we lost a character. I had to battle Beast out of the first film. I think Angel was a character that found its way almost into the final drafts of this script. I had a wonderful scene with Angel that I was very fond of, and had to get rid of, because you don't want to have characters and plot lines for the sake of having characters and plot lines. You want them to serve the story.
If [there was] anything I've learned from making The Usual Suspects, it's telling a story about an ensemble of characters that keeps its focus. And supporting characters can have their arc, but they're never tangential, they're always part of the thrust of the story. Once they're not, then you're not servicing the movie, you're servicing something else.
Without giving anything away, the ending of X2 seems to set up a third film.
Singer: I would say it is early, but then, like making the first film, there are these things one thinks about and layers into the story that breed evolution, and there are several things. That's one of them. ... But whether we're going to get into Shi'ar empires and ... crystals and battles on the moon, I don't know. But there's something happening with Jean [Grey]. In the comic it tells one story. If you really watch the first movie ... you'll see a moment when Magneto's machine, the light effect passes across everyone. When it finally dissipates, the first image you see is Jean. And she just looks [at] her body [as though] something's happened. It's just little things.
The character of Nightcrawler has strong religious devotion. He looks like a demon, but he's very devoted.
Singer: For that very purpose. Like Rogue did in the first picture, he personifies the conflict of being a mutant. He is this deeply religious character. He has faith. In spite of this affliction, in spite of the fact that he looks like the devil himself, he has faith. And that is every bit as tragic and provocative as the fact that Rogue is this budding young beautiful woman who can't physically touch another human being. This is what makes the X-Men universe so interesting to me.
T.H. White's Arthurian book, The Once and Future King, comes up a couple of times in the movie: Magneto is seen reading it, and Professor X quotes from it to his students.
Singer: There's a number of reasons. One, I definitely think that's a story of evolution. The Once and Future King is someone who goes through their young life believing they are one kind of person, and then is forced to discover that maturity comes with a price of evolution and destiny. ... And they factor into a lot of our characters. Yes, Magneto believing that he is the once and future king. Or perhaps the evolution of Jean Grey, someone who's discovering that their future may be very different from their present. And also, I look for ways to bind Xavier and Magneto. The fact that there are chess sets, you'll notice, in both studies. The fact that the relationship with Cerebro: [Magneto] helped [Xavier] build it. And betrayal and love of these two men, who must have at one time had a strong relationship. They read the same books. They believed in the same things. But one went astray, and the other is desperately trying to hold the course and inspire faith in his team.
What did you see in Alan Cumming that suited Nightcrawler?
Singer: I saw him in New York do Cabaret, .. and I felt his performance revolutionized that show. And I felt that even on the stage watching him do it, he had the sly-and-yet-sensitive German down to a T. And in talking to him and meeting with him, I found that same personality. He exuded that personality.
We heard that a lot of women gathered on the set when Hugh did his flashback scene in the buff. Was your mom on the set for Hugh's naked scene as well?
Singer: Every other woman on the set, and a few of our males, too. My mother wasn't, but my mother did come on the set in a very funny moment. Remember when all the military rush into the underground of the X mansion, and the camera comes up to that guy who pulls off the visor, and they've just secured the mansion? I spent time choreographing this with all these guys and I really wanted it to look cool. And she had just arrived, and right before I was about to roll camera, she said, "I have to use the bathroom." And I'm like, "Fine. Go use the bathroom." ... And I was like, "Great. OK. Action!" They all rush in, military soldiers. And finally the final guy, the lead military guy, comes in with my mother. I'm looking at the monitor, I'm like, "What's going on?" And my mother's very short. She looks up at him and says, "Where's the bathroom? What's going on?" So you might find that on the DVD as well.
People are saying that the title of the sequel is X2: X-Men United.
Singer: The full title is X2. Don't let anyone tell you different. It's an advertising tag line. Could we do a big favor? Please, I beg you, because that will become a real personal point of contention with me, and just seeing that on those things is very confusing, particularly to people who aren't familiar. And I'm going to now have to go probably to every little group of people. The title of the movie is X2. That's it.
Alan Cumming, you play Nightcrawler.
Cumming: I'm the new person. And I read some [of the] comics. And it's quite impressive. Because not only ... am I playing a sort of blue mutant with all these odd physical things, but also, you know, everyone in the world apart from me seems to have some idea about how this character should look or be. So it's a bit of pressure. Yeah, I've read some comics. Listened to people. But it's kind of hard, because halfway through the film I realized that Mystique is my mother, which I wasn't supposed to tell you. ... It's an ongoing learning curve.
How is dealing with the elaborate blue makeup?
Cumming: Mentally, it's very difficult. I just have to get up really early. ... I have lovely, lovely makeup people, Charles and Jane, who do it. And you just have to kind of get into a zone where you don't mind grown men poking at your face for four hours and spraying you [with] stuff. And sometimes I watch films in the mirror. But it's quite hard if they're subtitled. ... And I have these kind of tattoos. ... Which I rue the day actually ... I was the one who actually said, "No, let's go with the tattoos. They look really great." And now they take a long, long time every morning to get stuck on. So I'm hoping maybe that if there's a sequel, that some strange mutant accident can have taken place, and Nightcrawler will have no tattoos and be white.
The technology in this film, the effects and things, ... I thought maybe next time I could just do the film as me, and they could put my makeup on afterwards.
There was a thing about people who wore contact lenses in the first film. There's a sort of a ... you've paid your dues. Like Halle and Rebecca don't wear contact lenses anymore. They get those done afterwards. I am wearing contact lenses. It must be a kind of rite of passage you've got to go through. So maybe next time, I'll get no contact lenses.
The tail, sometimes I'm wearing it, and sometimes I'm not. Because sometimes it's done afterwards. But if I'm, like I've a harness thing, and there's various tails of different consistency of boinginess. ... And then If I don't have the true tail, I have this little stub thing, with little kind of dots on it for the special effects people to be able to things afterwards. And that's quite popular with the ladies. And the gentlemen as well.
Bryan Cox, tell us about Stryker.
Cox: I represent the human face, because I'm the only one who hasn't got some malevolent sort of power. Basically, he's a sort of head of homeland security. And he's determined that the mutants should be contained at all costs. And he does everything in his power to contain them, because he believes that they're not to be trusted.
He's very against the Xavier School. He believes that they're trying to make the mutants into a kind of elite, which he doesn't approve of. ... It's an interesting film, actually, when you think about it in the wake of what's been going on, what's actually going on at the moment in the world. The allegory of the film is really very strong.
Can you talk about the subtext of the film?
Cox: What really attracted Bryan Singer, who's Jewish, [is that] I think he sees very much the X-Men in terms of the whole notion of minorities and how they've become persecuted. And I think that the film is about tolerance. And of course, not all X-Men serve their own cause, like not all minorities serve their own cause. And therefore there are several bad apples amongst the barrel. And I think the plea of the film is clearly about tolerance and about acceptance of differences and how people are. And I think it's one of the things that is very current, really.
You were up in Vancouver shooting.
Cox: Yeah. Then we were up in Alberta for a bit.
Shooting outdoors in the snow?
Cox: Yeah. Because there's quite a lot set with a winter background.
How long was the shoot?
Cox: It was quite long. It started in July. It ended in November. So it was a long shoot. We went over quite a bit. Basically, it was sort of shot chronologically, really, which was a great advantage, because there were these sets, very clear, sort of different sets that were used. And they're almost used in chronological order.
Describe Stryker's underground lair set. It's amazingly huge.
Cox: It is incredible. It's like vast turbines. It's at the heart of a dam project. And used in a kind of gothic way, because it's also where he does his experiments, because he's also part scientist as well, Stryker. Guy Dyas, the set designer, his work was phenomenal simply in terms of the way he did these incredible things with false perspectives, which made the thing look like three times the size that it was.
Stryker has relationships with some of the other characters?
Cox: His main relationship is with Wolverine, who we believe he has a history with, and that he may be responsible for. But we know that he's been working in adamantium. So he probably did all the skeletal work on Wolverine. Because of Wolverine's powers of regeneration. ... [but] we don't know. We haven't quite got to the bottom of it. Even at the end of the film, it's still up in the air. Because he's part scientist, part soldier, it was probably something to do with special operations.
What was it like working with these other actors?
Cox: Patrick and Ian I had scenes with. Ian I've known for years. Ian and I have worked together in the theater. He actually did King Lear, which I did. I played Lear, and he played Kent. And I was Duke of Buckingham when he did Richard III. So we're very well acquainted with one another. And ironically, Patrick, who I have known ... for certainly 25 years at least, I've never worked with. Our paths have never crossed. This is the first time. One of the key scenes in the movie is with Patrick, which is a very good scene. They're great. The nice thing about working with people like Patrick and Ian is that we all have a shorthand, because we've done the theater. We have a good grounding in what we do. And that is an enormous advantage.
Did you hang out together after filming?
Cox: We did. Ian had a house, and we all kind of used to congregate there for maybe a couple of weeks or so. There was a couple of parties and things. It was a very, very congenial company, a very happy company in that way.
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