Casting announcements and rumor milling have been coming in hot and heavy and seemingly indefatigably regarding Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Deadline had just reported that Oliver Platt had been added to the cast and now they’re confirming that pornstar named Arian beauty queen January Jones has been announced to play Emma Frost. Which means, along with the gazillion previous reports and announcements, that the film’s cast stands as:
Zoe Kravitz to play Angel; Salvadore; Jason Flemyng will play Azazel, the father of Nightcrawler; Bill Milner to play the young version of Magneto (Michael Fassbender), and Morgan Lily to play the Young Raven. They join Fassbender, James McAvoy (Xavier), Nicholas Hoult (Beast) Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Caleb Landry Jones (Banshee), Lucas Till (Havoc), Edi Gathegi (Darwin), who round out the mutant contingent. Kevin Bacon is playing the villain, Rose Byrne will play McAvoy’s love interest Moira MacTaggert, and Oliver Platt is playing The Man in Black.
Phew. I got exhausted just highlighting that.
I’m not a big enough X-Men geek to get too worked up about how they cast most of these roles, but as a movie geek, Vaughn has assembled quite the team of actors here. I’m curious to see how he uses Jones. She works as Betty Draper on Mad Men but Betty needs to be wooden, emotionally shallow and fairly vacant. I get the impression her performance is something of an illusion, a perfect example of how good casting is 75% of a good performance. Beyond the show I kind of suspect she can’t act at all. Her awkward hosting gig on Saturday Night Live was one of the most insane train wrecks I’ve seen in recent years. I imagine Vaughn has something up his sleeve though. Or only needs a pretty face.