On Monday this week, not only was I lucky enough to see a very advance screening of the fantastic new movie prequel X-MEN FIRST CLASS, but I was able to boogie on down to the Dorchester Hotel in London to mix with the cast of the movie. Present was the likes of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemying, Alex Gonzales, Kevin Bacon and screenwriter Jane Goldman. Various questions were posed to the panel of A-listers, and here’s a little of what went down. We were even treated to tiny little X-shaped cakes – pan on down the page to see the one that I managed to devour. Lovely.
Jane Goldman, Kevin Bacon, Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Zoe Kravitz, Jason Flemying and Alex Gonzales
Were you all aware of the comic books before making X-MEN FIRST CLASS?
Kevin Bacon: I didn’t grow up so much with comics. I had a few, but it wasn’t a big part of my childhood. I knew the [X-Men] films, and one of the great things about working on this movie was getting this gigantic bible from the guys at Marvel, which had everything that had been written about and drawn about in regards to Sebastian Shaw. That made up about 75% of my research.
Michael Fassbender: Ditto
[laughter]
James McAvoy: A man of few words. I was really aware of the comic books and the cartoon when I was growing up. I was about twelve years old and the show had shown up on Live and Kicking I think. I would make the mistake of watching that first cartoon… and then they’d make you wait an hour and fifteen minutes to show you the second half of the cartoon.
Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy
These characters [Professor Xavier and Magneto] were established in the comic books but also in the movies by two other actors and my questions is, did you look at the actors or did you base your performance on the comic book?
James McAvoy. Well, the comic book history is very different from all of the X-Men movies that have come before; even the cartoon to a certain extent. In the comic books my character is an American person and Fox decided to make that character English when they cast Sir Patrick Stewart. So, I had to go with the film I think, so I watched the films and thenas this is a prequel, it had to be different, and the franchise needed to be fresh but also there’s no point having that character played the same way in a different suit becuase it just doesn’t validate the movie. It has to be different. So I looked at Sir Patrick and took a lot of notes but it was more about seeing something different. So, where Patrick was wise I would be foolhardy. Where he was chaste, I would be randy [laughter]. By the end of three films, if we make any money, I will end up doing something that feels more like Patrick Stewart, but it was really important to start in a different place, but taking the cues from Sir Patrick.
Michael Fassbender: Yes, at the beginnign when I found out that I’d got the job, I thought about studying Ian McKellen and get my hands on anything that I could where he was a young man on screen, just to study his physicality and voice and whatnot, but then I sat down with Matthew (Vaughn) and discussed it and he had decided that that wasn’t the way he wanted to go. So, I ditched that idea totally and started to use the comic book material and other source material that was available. I was spoilt really; there was so much there.
Question for Jane [Goldman, screenwriter]. I’m interested as to how it was writing this story are making it fit in with world history and whether there were any drafts that had to be rewritten when somebody spotted and oversight perhaps.
Jane Goldman: I think that it would be impossible to write any story that fits in with every single part of the X-Men universe because the comics don’t. Different writers and artists have their own take and the films have their own world as well. I don’t think that there’s any story that can fit in with the movie world and every itteration of the comic books. I think that the most important thing to do is to tell a good story and be respectful to the source material and be true to the spirit of it.
James McAvoy: I think that one of the things that always runs through the X-Men movies is that they are about people who feel like outsiders. People who are upset about self-loathing perhaps… are afraid of themselves and want to be normal perhaps or rejoice in the fact that they are not normal, and this is one of the key elements in all of the X-Men stuff and I think that you [Jane] managed to put in there.
Jane Goldman: I think that that’s an illustration of the spirit of it. Thank you.
James McAvoy: No problem. [laughs]
Michael Fassbender, Zoe Kravitz and James McAvoy
James, there a nicely humourous element towards the end of the film where you say that you might be bald when you get older. How do you think that that might be addressed. Maybe have a nice buzz cut maybe?
James McAvoy: Well, either he shaves it, or he loses it. In the comic books he loses it the day that his powers activate when he is very young. We decided not to do that . Maybe it’s a smart move in an origin story. We spend time in this movie expaining why he can’t walk so we’ll get to see why he loses his hair or shaves his head in a future movie. We’ve saved that for that.
Kevin, you are a superhero to your many fans – what was it like playing a mutant?
Kevin Bacon: Yeah, it’s great. Great to be a mutant.
[laughter]
Kevin Bacon: It’s the first time that I’ve played a mutant. I was a great opportunity. I think that if you look at this movie, aside from all of the powers and the mutations that these characters have, they are, compared to other comic book movies, extreemely human in the way that they feel things. They get jealous and hate and fear. That was kind of a challenge from Matthew’s standpoint. It was like forget about your powers, you powers are going to be there, that’s taken care of… It was more like who am I on the human side and for me, I;ve never played a billionaire playboy meglomaniac, so that was cool.
Long before they asked me about the responsibility to fans of the comic books, and I think that there is a responsibility to fans of the comic book… I hope that there won’t be too much disappointment that I look nothing like Sebastian Shaw. When I first read the script I wanted to go online and Google him. I found that he was this massive Lou Ferigno type, pony tail wearing George Washington dressing type of character, and I didn’t know how I was going to do that. So, I eventually heard from Matt that that’s not the direction that we wanted to go.
Kevin, moving on from that, I thought that Shaw had a real swagger. Did you come up with that?
Kevin Bacon: The walk is a cool part as to what the person is. It’s the way that they move. He’s [Shaw] a very confident man. I mean even at teh end of the movie when things start turning to shit, he thinks ‘ah,’ everything’s going to be fine. He’s very confident and I think that’s important in the way he moves.
Zoe Kravitz
Zoe, how was filming the action scenes for you – working with the harness?
It was good. It does after a while become painful around the crotch. The happy parts. [laughter]
X-Men seems to attract quality actors. Is it because of the depth that the characters have which is different to other comic book movies?
Kevin Bacon : I think that Robert Downey Jr’s quite a good actor actually. [laughter] I think for me to get a chance to work with some of the finest young actors working today who are blowing up or are about to blow up, was a thrill. It’s just a kick-ass cast. No pun intended. Just the way that it all laid in and the choices that Matt made about the actors. It’s one of the great strengths of the movie.
Jane, how much input do you have when you are writing in terms of actors. Do you think that hey, this could be a great Kevin Bacon role?
Jane Goldman: We certainly have conversations about it, but of course it’s always the director’s choice, but I do stick my oar in whenever I can.
Kevin Bacon: You didn’t call me until a week before shooting!
Jane Goldman: I was fighting for you all of the way Kevin!
[laughter]
Duelling ideologies in this film, one for Charles and one for Erik, but who’s right?
Michael Fassbender: That’s your call. That’s what interests me as an actor and as an audience member. I go to the cinema, especially nowadays with big commerical films, and see that the audience is spoon fed and they don’t have to do any work. I believe that you want to go and see films that you want to invest something yourself and that you have to do a bit of work as an audience member so that when you leave the cinema, you should be having those conversations. It’s like, should I be backing Erik? There should be an ambiguity, and there should be, I think, the grey areas. I don’t like; okay here’s your villain, here’s your hero. That just makes it too comfortable and easy for an audience.
X-MEN FIRST CLASS opens in the UK from Wednesday 1st June.
Here’s a couple of snaps from the press conference from my own high quality digital camera, otherwise known as an iPhone. Stay tuned to THN for more kick-ass X-MEN FIRST CLASS coverage.
