X-Men: Apocalypse is one week away from official release, and the film sees the return of a few familiar characters from the original trilogy (albeit very much younger in age), including Cyclops, Nightcrawler, and Jean Grey, who is played by Sophie Turner. Turner is now the second actress to play the character in a full live-action role, the first being Famke Janssen. In an interview with Cinemablend, Turner said that Janssen's graceful portrayal of Jean was something she wanted to carry forward into the role, especially if they ever decided to adapt the famous Dark Phoenix Saga again. "What I took away from Famke’s performance was just how balletic she was. Even when she went into Dark Phoenix, it was just so beautiful and balletic. That’s just something that stuck with me for the future, if they ever want to explore that."
The X-Men comics also see Professor Xavier play the role of a mentor to Jean, given their shared ability of telepathy. The first three X-films never gave us an in-depth look at this relationship (outside of X-Men: The Last Stand), but Apocalypse looks to be exploring new ground in this respect. Turner admitted that she looked to James McAvoy's performance of Charles Xavier to influence her own. "I also took influence from James’ performance, because Xavier is a mentor to Jean, and she would emulate his mannerisms and such. And they share a similar power set! I just tried to put my own spin on it as well, because it’s such a different Jean from the Jean in the first three movies. It feels like we’re exploring new territory here."
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