"X-Men" cast on playing mutants in "Apocalypse"
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"X-Men" cast on playing mutants in "Apocalypse"


Returning cast Jennifer Lawrence (L) and James McAvoy.

"X-Men: Apocalypse" is the final movie in the trilogy that began with 2011's "X-Men: First Class". In ""Apocalypse", not only do we see a new villain – the titular villain himself, but we also see a new, young cast being introduced to the universe.

Read on to see what the returning cast (Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Peter Evans) and new cast (Oscar Isaac, Olivia Munn, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Alexandra Shipp, Ben Hardy) have to say about "X-Men: Apocalypse".


"X-Men: Apocalypse" cast.

Can you tell us about your characters in "X-Men: Apocalypse"? Is it any different from the previous movies?

Michael: Oscar and I had dinner together before we filmed the first scene that we were doing and he brought to my attention this idea of god represented to Magneto. That's why in that scene with his family, he calls for god to show himself and the next scene we see Apocalypse arrive. There was something interesting about that, he was following a different religion in this one as opposed to his own solo mission which we saw in the last one.

James: Definitely as an actor you're constantly asked to do something different. If I have one ambition in my career, other than to be the best actor in the world (smiles), it would be to constantly try new things. I've played the same character [Charles Xavier] three times and each time it felt like a different guy.

Jennifer: It's great because, ten years in between each story, and when we get the script, we just don't know where we're going to find our characters. So it was great because in the last movie, she [Mystique] used to be so passionate, "Mutant and proud", what not, hiding her mutancy. And then she realised she was kind of the face of this world that she didn't really believe existed so she swung the other way.

Oscar, how was it like playing the apocalyptic villain?

Oscar: I knew that I wasn't going to be representing a naturalistic type of expression that is needed for this kind of character because it's larger than life, larger than the universe, in a way. This is basically the monolith of 2001 embodied in a person. And he has this special power, that he can transfer his consciousness from body to body, therefore he believes it's his responsibility to usher the world and usher civilisation in a way that he believes is the strongest. And it's going to be the strongest with him at the head of it.

Evan, you reprised your role as Quicksilver, your 'bullet time' sequence took longer to shoot this time around?

Evan: Twenty odd days for, like, two minutes of film. Yeah, it was pretty epic, a lot of motion capture, a lot of green screen. Colin Follenweider was my stunt double, who really is Quicksilver essentially. He was a Cirque du Soleil guy and has been in countless superhero movies.


The new cast of "X-Men".

You guys are the new, younger cast. How is it like playing a character portrayed by someone else before?

Sophie: I very much enjoyed playing that. I like the conflicted, tormented character and it was just fun to see a side of Jean where she's not powerful, well, she is powerful but she can't control it. She doesn't have her life together basically, it's nice to see that side of her. Rather than just a fully-fledged superhero that we saw in the first few.

Ben: I felt like, because the timeline reset, we kind of do what we want to do, this is in my opinion. I thought that we didn't worry too much about what Ben Foster [Angel] had done. I mean, I think he's a great actor and I respect what he did but I think the fact that in the last movie, the timeline was reset, gives me more freedom in that respect.

Alexandra: But don't get us wrong. It is nerve wrecking to be following up after such amazing actors but at the same time, we can either allow that to destroy us or inspire us. For me, I want people to look at my Storm and be like "Oh, and then it becomes that", I want people to get it.

Tye: Obviously I respect the character [Cyclops] so much, I respect what James Marsden did with the role. I actually reached out to James Marsden because I heard he said something really nice about me in an interview. And I wrote him a letter and sent it to him.

Alexandra: You handwrote it? That's nice.

Tye: Yeah, he responded within hours of getting this letter. We started just talking and keeping in touch with each other. I would update him like, "Going to get my face casted for my glasses" and he'll say, "Yeah, that's one of the stranger things you'll do for this role". That was really comforting, to hear his positive reaction to the new cast of "X-Men".


Olivia Munn's Psylocke (L) is closer to the comic book version than Meiling Melançon's in "X-Men's: The Last Stand".

Olivia, being a big fan of X-Men, specifically Psylocke, you actually helped develop the character for the movie?

Olivia: Simon Kinberg told me that he'd offer me the role of Psylocke, my first thought was "I know that she was in an "X-Men" before but they didn't really show a lot of her and what are you going to do with it this time?" And he explained that she will be one of the Four Horsemen and this is the introduction to Psylocke in this world. When I found out [the costume was black instead of purple], I asked Bryan, I said "it has to be just like the comic." You just don't take a character like Psylocke and not make her look like Psylocke and he did that. My stunt double too did not do martial arts, whereas I do. So I asked "can I train myself instead"?

What can fans expect from "X-Men: Apocalypse"?

Michael: I think the fans are really going to enjoy the rebooting of a lot of characters like Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler. I think that's gonna be exciting for the fans to see a new development of these characters. But there's so many relationships going on in this, so many subplots. It's action-packed in terms of not only just the set pieces but in what's happening between the characters.

Watch the videos below for the full interview with the cast and director of "X-Men: Apocalypse".


Listen to more of what Michael Fassbender a.k.a. Magneto has to say here.


Catch the rest of the "X-Men" cast and their interview in this video.



"X-Men: Apocalypse" is now showing in cinemas.

Interview video footages courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Malaysia.


Related Movies:
X-Men: Apocalypse (19 May 2016)
X-Men: Days Of Future Past (22 May 2014)
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE (29 Apr 2009)
X-Men: First Class (02 Jun 2011)
The Wolverine (25 Jul 2013)

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