Matthew Vaughn cast then-relative unknown Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique in X-Men: First Class, putting a fresh spin on the character before passing the torch back to Bryan Singer. The X-Men director would go on to helm Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, but is alleged to have behaved poorly on both sets, no great surprise given his recent personal issues.
Singer's career appears to be at an end following some very troubling claims about sexual misconduct, and those who worked with him have heavily criticised the filmmaker in recent years.
Now, Lawrence can be counted among them.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter (via The Direct), the actress opened up on working with a female director on her new movie Causeway and reflected on some negative experiences from the past.
"It was incredible to not be around toxic masculinity, to get a little break from it. It did always just kind of make us laugh about how we are, you know, how we ended up with...you know, ‘Women shouldn’t be in roles like this, because we’re just so emotional."
"And I have seen...I mean, I’ve worked with Bryan Singer," Lawrence continues. "I’ve seen emotional men, I’ve seen the biggest hissy fits I’ve ever seen thrown on set. She’s, I think, my third female director and she’s..they are the calmest, best decision-makers I’ve ever worked with. I absolutely love working with female directors."
Based on this and previous comments from other X-Men cast members, Singer was an absolute nightmare to work with. He wasn't brought back for Dark Phoenix, and after a hugely negative response to the news he would helm Red Sonja (which resulted in his dismissal), we don't expect to see him step back behind the camera for the foreseeable future.
As for Lawrence, she seemed relieved to bid farewell to Mystique after Dark Phoenix. Unless the villain is brought to life with motion capture, we highly doubt the Oscar-winner will agree to reprise the role in Marvel Studios' planned X-Men reboot.
We sure would love to see some footage of one of those hissy fits, though...