On Finding The Right Actors For Professor Xavier And Magneto:
He was top of my list. When we talked about who could play Professor X, I thought McAvoy was perfect. So I sat with him. Then I think he got pretty annoyed at me, because I made him audition with every single actor who came in for Magneto, because if we were going to do the Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid thing of chemistry, I think it’s really, really important that you see that chemistry beforehand. The poor guy, I was wheeling him in every day saying, ‘you’ve got to read with this actor, or this other actor’, and then when Michael came in, after twenty seconds of the two of them together I was like, ‘OK, I’ve found [Magneto]’.
On What He Thinks Of 3D And Why This Movie Wasn't Converted:
I’m sure if we’d had more time they might have brought it up. I’m not a big fan of 3D. I think Avatar works for 3D, because they really shot and designed it. It just doesn’t feel like they’ve designed every shot to be3D. Yeah, they have something coming towards the camera now and again, but what I love about Avatar [is that] they made it to give it more depth, and you can just tell that Cameron knows what 3D means, but the rest of these directors. – You know when they do this post-conversion shit, and then you can’t even – It cut’s too quick. They’ve cut it in 2D, and in 3D, you’ve got to slow it down. I find the glasses annoying, and my kids hate it as well, and they take the glasses off halfway through. I’m like, ‘no, you’ve got to watch it with them on’, and they don’t care. Maybe I should be more of a fan, but for me Avatar’s the only 3D movie where I became immersed in a world. Doesn’t Cameron call it Real-D or something? He’s right. I think Hollywood’s [frick]ing up 3D now as well. They’re cheapening the process so that people don’t care anymore.
On The Visual Style Of The Movie:
It’s funny, because people are always asking, ‘what’s your style as a filmmaker?’ and it’s very simple. I just want to tell a story, and every shot, keep that narrative drive moving on, and I don’t like throwing the camera around.. I see these movies where I have no idea who the [frick] is doing what to who, and what characters are meant to relate to. Because this is set in the 60s, I tried not to shoot it in a very modern style. I tried to go back to the Frankenheimer, very traditional framing, camera movement when it needs to move, not just throwing it around and whizz-bang. I tried to keep it as ‘classic’ as possible, and tell a story. The thing I like about this movie is there’s a good story and good characters, and that’s what traditionally has been missing in a lot of the superhero films;, it’s just like people blowing up buildings and flying around.
On The Costumes Of X-Men: First Class:
I love the X-Men world, so for me that was fun. It was fun to look at the comics, and see how the characters dressed, and give them to the costume designer and say, ‘take that blue and yellow thing and’ – The blue and yellow outfits, no offence to Fox, but they kept looking like Fantastic-[frick]ing-4, and we were like, ‘we can’t have that’. There’s a lot of great stuff in the early 60s X-Men comics., we had that everywhere, all the panels of how they looked, how they dressed. Sammy [Sheldon] is a brilliant costume designer, and she just managed to make it fit into the real world.
On The Reasons Behind The Inclusion Of The 'Take That' Song:
I think this movie, out of all the X-Men movies, and correct me if I’m wrong females in the room, I think there’s a lot for women to enjoy in this film, and we had the philosophy , remember Armageddon, the Aerosmith song, that got girls, who probably wouldn’t have originally gone to see Armageddon , they saw heard there was a love song, and were like ‘oh, maybe there is something in the film’. I bumped into Gary in LA, and we were just talking, and I said, ‘do you want to come and see a rough cut of it?’ and they came, and they wrote the song, and I listened to it, and I said, ‘I think it’ll be a hit’, and if we can do a video which gets girls more interested, and they’re going on tour, so they’re playing to one and a half million people who traditionally might not be interested in X-Men, and we might get them to come and watch it. So it’s pure commerce, to be blunt, and I want women to see this film.
X-Men: First Class is set to be released in the UK on June 1st and in the US on June 2nd.