Sometimes actors say things off the cuff. These things fall into three categories:
1) Complete bullshit. They’re just trying to get their name out there, so they’ll claim to be in talks for a part or that they’re meeting a big name director. But they’re lying. It isn’t even that they’re wrong or the situation changes, they’re just liars.
2) They got it wrong. This is probably the most common one. Actors don’t know their schedules. They don’t know their own upcoming projects. I can’t tell you how many actors, when I am interviewing them, blank on the names of other movies they have coming up, or blank on the names of directors. Actors have their lives carefully managed by handlers, and sometimes we know more about their schedule than they do. When an actor says they’re doing something in the near future, they might very well be simply wrong.
3) They spilled the beans. Actors also don’t always know what they can and can’t talk about. Especially younger ones. They’ll spill the beans like nobody’s business, nonchalantly giving away all sorts of details.
So which one is it when Tim Pocock*, who played young Cyclops in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, tweets the following:
Currently shooting Australian TV series till February 2010…then X-men first class
Lauren Shuler Donner has been making some noise that X-Men: First Class, the latest in the series of X-Men prequels, will get underway soon. Pocock seems to think that he’ll be donning those ruby red glasses some time in early 2010. Is he a 1 or 2? Or could he be a #3, a bean spiller? Only time will tell.
*Hopefully after a few more years of working he can be Tim Richcock. Or at least Tim Fairlywelloffcock.