James McAvoy has revealed that he portrayed Professor X as differently as possible from Patrick Stewart's version the past movies and felt
"liberated" when Fox told him that there was no need to shave his head, and that he had free reign to act the part differently.
"It started off with the fact that we were going to shave my hair and the studio said, 'Don't shave your hair,' so immediately I said, 'Well f**k it, I'm liberated then.' So, I mean, that's a pretty big marker, so right away you're going a different path. Also, I always felt there's no point doing a film set in the past as a prequel that just shows them being the same people, especially Magneto and Professor X. They're the big two that we really, really get to know well in the other movies that are in our movie."
The actor went on to talk about the character of Charles Xavier, giving us another insight into the version we'll see in
X-Men: First Class.
"You look at the kind of main, defining characteristics of Professor X, of Charlie Boy, and you go, 'Alright, he's selfless. He's a saint. He's sexless, it seems. He's egoless. He's all about other people. He's all about bettering the world and mutantkind and humankind.' And so you kind of try and flip that on its head."
"You don't make him an evil person, or anything like that, but you make him ego-driven, women-chasing, he likes a good drink. He's not the reluctant leader that you kind of want all heroes to be. He actually kind of wants to be in charge, you know what I mean? And all of those things, just to kind of show a journey."
X-Men: First Class is set to be released on June 3, later this year!