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The X-Men: First Class team is keep up a pretty robust Facebook presence these days, and it should net some interesting info for those keeping an eye on it.
The site caught my eye with today’s debut of a new, if unremarkable photo from the film (seen to the right), which was followed by some poking around on the “X-perts” widget. It’s a pretty slick interface that allows you to submit questions to 16 different members of the cast and crew, who will be answering them in stages across the next few months. So far producer Bryan Singer and actor Nicholas Hoult have responded, with Oliver Platt and Rose Byrne up next on the 30th of March. Other notable respondants? McAvoy on April 27th, Fassbender on May 4th, Jenny Lawrence on May 11, Kevin Bacon on 25th, with it all being capped on June 1st with director Matthew Vaughn and star January Jones.
Many of the questions are fluffy bullshit, or too concisely answered to be interesting, but here are a few that caught my eye…
From Singer…
Q: Is there less pressure producing this film as opposed to directing it (like X-Men 1 and 2), or are the pressures just different – with different things expected from you?
A: I can absolutely say from my standpoint that there is less pressure. There is no position with more pressure than directing. Hats off to Matthew.
Q: Was it a conscious decision by the team to pick and choose which parts of previous movies would be canon to this movie? (White Queen already appearing in other movies, etc.)
A: We did our best to maintain continuity with the other films. But as sometimes happens for the sake of telling the most compelling story possible, we made a few concessions.
From Hoult (who seems to have more time on his hands than Bryan)…
Q: Beast is my favorite comic book character. Did you feel any pressure to show his feral side, while keeping him as lovable as he is in the comics?
A: There is pressure when playing a character who is so iconic and loved by fans, so you have to approach it with respect. Hank is urbane whilst being slightly shy of his mutations in this story, but then later on once the transformation to Beast has taken place he should still be charming but have a feral edge.
Q: What type of preparation did you do for the role of Beast?
A: In preparation for the role I watched lots of Frasier and listened to people who spoke with a similar accent to Kelsey, my dialect coach and I worked on creating something towards Kelsey’s dialect but without being an imitation. I also did lots of fitness training as being in the Beast costume and make up could be very tiring and tough physically.
Q: Did they do any CGI on your hands and feet prior to Beast going blue to make him seem more ape-like as in the comics and shows?
A: Before the transformation Hank’s feet are a CGI effect so I would wear a blue sock and then the larger ape like feet would be added in post production. I did wear shoes a few sizes larger so that in theory they would have fitted in.
Look for more Q&A responses on the FB page and for us to cover any particularly notable information that emerges. X-Men: First Class hits on June 3rd.
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