In the character-driven X-Men: First Class, Bryan Singer, who directed the critically acclaimed first two X-Men movies and created the story for this film, takes us back to the origins of the X-Men saga, when Professor X was a naïve and idealistic Oxford student, Charles Xavier, and Magneto was Erik Lehnsherr, a young, angry victim of the holocaust.
Talented Scottish actor James McAvoy is outstanding as the young Charles Xaiver, a character originally played by sci-fi stalwart Patrick Stewart. Lauded for his work in Atonement and The Last King Of Scotland, McAvoy says this film “isn’t just about how Professor X became Professor X, or how Magneto became Magneto, it’s about how their relationship was born and broken.”
German-Irish actor Michael Fassbender, who is sporting a fake tan and bottle-blonde hair today as he’s currently filming Prometheus, plays Erik – a role formerly performed by Sir Ian McKellen. Best seen in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds opposite Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger, Fassbender muses that “The interesting thing for me in this film is that you have an ambiguous feel to the characters. The villains have the possibility to do negative and positive things and the heroes, likewise. It’s not so black and white.”
He says audiences tend to get spoon-fed in a lot of contemporary films, adding he doesn’t think that’s right. “I think the audience should have to work a little bit in the cinema; they should definitely leave the cinema asking themselves questions and trying to come up with the answers themselves, rather than it being so straightforward.”
Fassbender and McAvoy first met a decade ago on the set of the Steven Spielberg-produced mini-series Band Of Brothers. “I was watching him at that point and thinking ‘this guy is interesting, I think he will do well’,” recalls Fassbender with a grin. “I always liked his sense of humour, and he has a bit of mischief to him, and he’s a very talented actor and one of the contributing factors in me deciding to do X-Men.”
While frenemies on-screen, the two hit it off after hours, as McAvoy recalls with a laugh. “Fassbender and I ended up playing a hell of a lot of pool and getting exceptionally drunk – he’s a fucken shark; he’s a shark. I beat him maybe like four times out of twenty… but I can hold my drink better than him,” boasts the Scott.
“That’s probably half true,” replies Fassbender. “I think we had some pretty good pool games. He’s exceptionally talented on the pool table as well, but his driving skills leave a lot to be desired. I have to say, he managed to write-off a buggy at Pinewood (Studios), which is kind of interesting, considering I was in the backseat when it happened,” he smiles.
The two actors star onscreen alongside an impressive line-up of emerging talent that includes Best Actress Academy Award-nominee Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter’s Bone), Nicholas Hoult (Skins, Clash Of The Titans), Zoe Kravitz (Lenny’s daughter) and Rose Byrne (Get Him To The Greek) as well as big names such as January Jones, who goes from 1960s Madmen housewife to 1960s bad girl Emma Frost, and Kevin Bacon, who plays a brilliant Sebastian Shaw – the latter two characters being members of the infamous Hellfire Club.
As the all-powerful, albeit essentially sociopathic, Sebastian Shaw, Bacon speaks in English, German and Russian, and Fassbender says he had to laugh when Bacon asked how is German was sounding.
“I mean, it’s Kevin Bacon,” he smiles, “just the idea of him coming to me for advice is kind of weird. But yes, he said ‘how does that sound’ and I said ‘yeah, alright’.”
New York native Singer, who wrote the story, was involved with the casting and some of the design elements and who also hired the director, was originally signed on to direct this film, but stepped down due to a schedule clash with another film he’s directing – Jack And The Giant Killer, which is also starring Nicholas Hoult.
“I’ve made other X-Men films before,” Singer shrugs, on the decision to step down from the director role and take on the role of producer, “and I thought it might be interesting to see someone else realise my ideas.”
Like Singer, who was signed on to direct X-Men III but left to direct Superman Returns, Matthew Vaughn (who recently directed cult hit Kick-Ass) was signed on to take over from Singer and direct X-Men III, but he too left – just two weeks before shooting was to begin – citing a rushed production schedule among other reasons for his decision.
Not surprisingly, Vaughn was the last person the studio considered as a possible substitute director for X-Men: First Class – but a chance meeting between Singer and Vaughn at the Soho House in LA one night changed all that.
“Aaron Johnson (the star of Kick Ass), who I coincidentally met the day before, showed up at the Soho House and he introduced me to Matthew Vaughn – who I knew was involved with X-Men III and like me, he left… which is why he was on the ‘no list’ [from the studio],” explains Singer. “He asked if I was producing the new X-Men and I told him the 20 minute frenetic pitch. He texted me the next morning and I gave him the two hour sober pitch and he said ‘let me ask my wife, we’re about to have a baby’.
“So I said ‘well what about we shoot it in England?’ and he said ‘ok’, and so that was it. A few weeks later we had a deal.”
As far as tension between Vaughn, Singer and the Studio, Singer assures there was “terrible blood between all of us”, but that the studio “was able to patch up the bad blood with me to make this movie and it was only poetic that they would patch up the bad blood with him.”
He recalls the first conference call between him, Vaughn and the studio’s Chief Executive Officer Tom Rothman. “It was very funny… and it was a little emotional, actually. It was nice, but Tom said to Matthew: ‘you can’t leave this one’.”
While the comic fans may be disappointed that this film deviates away from the original comic book storyline, Singer argues that all the X-Men films have been original stories.
“The characters may have been based on the comics and some of the drama that happens in them, but what I’ve always tried to do is tell an original story – not base it on a comic book but also maintain some faithfulness and capture the essence of the characters.”
Is one afraid of the X-men fans?
“Yeah, totally,” McAvoy replies. “The reason they exist is because the X-Men world is so rich and so you can understand why they care about it so much.
“The one thing X-Men has always had in every single generation, every single medium it exists in,” he adds, “is that no matter what’s happening politically or action-wise or who the bad guy is or whatever, the leading figures are always outsiders that are persecuted or on the run or being bullied.
“Even if it’s not any of those things, they’re scared of themselves, they’re self-loathing, they have the self-persecution going on… and I think that appeals to a hell of a lot of people. It makes people feel not alone in their criticisms of themselves or the fact that they stand on the outside of a group, whether it be a social group or a political group. So you can understand why people really affiliate themselves to it strongly.
“There’s definitely going to be things in here that not every fan is going to like,” McAvoy reasons carefully, “but hopefully they can see past that and see it as a new, fresh beginning.”
As for what the future holds, many of the cast members are signed on for more X-Men films, but whether another will be created, naturally, depends on box-office figures. If the people want more X-Men, then that’s what they’ll get.
Singer says he has an idea in mind for a sequel. “It’s nothing I’ve discussed with anyone; it’s nothing I’ve discussed with this group (cast, crew etc). I have a thought, but I don’t know if it’s right or not,” he teases.
