You’ve put on your Wolverine t-shirt. You’ve run out to theater for opening weekend. You’ve bought the tickets. You’ve seen the movie. You may have even hit the chat rooms to praise or decry some of the shocking developments of X-Men: The Last Stand. If you haven’t done any of these things yet, go no further—there are plot spoilers aplenty lurking ahead that will hit you as hard as the Juggernaut.
Because now, and only now, is the time to probe the mind of Patrick Stewart, who returns as Professor Charles Xavier, the telepathic headmaster and mutant version of Dr. Martin Luther King. The similarities to that peaceful, tolerant and tragic leader just got even more pronounced, as Stewart,explains to Hollywood.com, and yet hope is also kept alive.
Hollywood.com: We hear you just got your first look at the finished film, with some pleasant surprises.
Patrick Stewart: I flew in from London and saw the movie last night for the first time. I had my own private screening. There were just five of us that watched the movie last night. I was very, very pleased. It is an exciting, intense, experience watching that movie. It was me and Jimmy Marsden from the movie, and my partner, and my son. We were all blown away by it. My son is an X-Men fan so I was getting the layman’s point of view, which was very positive.
HW: Did the plan call for Professor Xavier to die all through the checkered development of this film?
PS: When I saw the first draft of this script, which I think was the one that came with the second director, they said “Give us your response when you see it.” And in that, indeed Xavier dies, and so we began to talk about it then. The main concern, which was very much a Marvel concern, was: if this is going to be an ongoing franchise, you can’t kill off the leader of the X-Men. It is breaking the line of what the comic book story has been. Then when Brett was on aboard, his first response to this and the first phone conversation we had was “We can’t let Xavier die—it is just crazy. We cannot erase this man from the X-Men franchise.” So then the conversation became “Well, what do we do?”
HW: And as of now, even though you all went through with it, it looks pretty promising that Professor X may come back, in some way or another. Did you know that was part of the plan, too?
PS: Nobody had told me how this film ended. I was aware that there were three endings. There was an ending I had read in one script. There was an ending that I had filmed in the first days of production when we were out on Vancouver Island, which was never on the call sheets. There was no documentary evidence that this scene had ever been shot. We were also told “You don’t talk about this—you don’t talk about it to the rest of the cast,” since few people were in on the scene. This was the scene with the guy on the bed. Then Ian [McKellen] called me up a few weeks ago and said “You may be interested to hear that I am filming a scene in London. I am playing chess.’” And I said, “Okay, who are you playing with?” And he said “Well, they haven’t told me yet who I am playing with. I don’t know, and they say this is going to be the end of the movie.” So last night was somewhat a marvel experience, to sit down and watch a movie in which I had no idea whether the ending would or would not involve me. And we of course were all on our feet half way through the credits and managed to sit back down again for the end. What a surprise.
HW: How tricky was it, ultimately, to pull this film off, given the departures of Bryan Singer and then Matthew Vaughn before Brett Ratner came aboard as director.
PS: I, of course, talked to Bryan [Singer] because he is a good friend, and I knew quite a bit about what was happening there. Then he was gone, and unfortunately meetings kept being set up for me and Matthew Vaughn, but I was filming in Manchester. He was going to fly to me, I was supposed to go to him and then suddenly Matthew wasn’t there either. And then suddenly there was Brett [Ratner] on the phone, with his enthusiasm, his energy and determination. I was saying, “Can you do this? We start shooting, are they going to push?” “No, they aren’t.” And he was very convincing. He thought it could be done. Really the only subjects in advance that concerned us were what is going to happen to Xavier, and how much do we need to go into the background relationship with Jean.
HW: You have a very enigmatic smile on your face when Professor X has his death scene. What was he—or you—thinking?
PS: I think that was my input into the thing. [Due to script and scheduling issues,] I was not aware that around the time of confrontation between Jean and Xavier, Wolverine and Storm were fighting their way towards us. I thought that the scene was about us in that room and that is where we were and the whole scene played out there. I didn’t realize that we kept going out to this tumultuous battle, and nobody told me the whole house lifted off of its foundation. Then thank goodness Brett did say, “And just before the end, the last person who is witness to this—Magneto is in the kitchen and Jean is there in front of you—is Wolverine.” He manages to get to the room, he didn’t say that he was upside down on the ceiling and I said “Well, maybe after the last word to Jean, the last bit of advice, my thought was he lets go of such fighting.” He is accepting the inevitability of his fate, and says to her “Just try and keep in control of it, that is all I can say.” And then turning and saying goodbye to Wolverine, that is what the smile is about. It’s just saying goodbye.
HW: So now, with the door opened more than a crack for Professor X’s return, would you be up for another sequel?
PS: Oh, most certainly, yes. My working life has undergone something of a transformation in the last couple of years, and I have set out on a journey, which is in a sense a new journey but it is also a return to my roots. So I am now back working at the Royal Shakespeare Company. I am back in repertoire doing two plays and finding the work so profoundly satisfying, intellectually and emotionally. I am back on stage, which is my day job—that is what I do. This is where I feel myself to be so blessed as an actor, and I know that Ian feels the same way, too, because Ian is going to be doing the same thing. He is playing King Lear in the same season that I am in playing Anthony and Prospero. But we have this work which we wanted to do—it is why we became actors, to do these great dramas—and yet we are attached to these thrilling major projects like X-Men, which allow us to use all of the skills that we have from our backgrounds working with outstanding people, directors, technical staff and a cast of actors. You look around and think “My God, the talent that is here in this room.” So to find, as I am beginning to find now, a balance between all of that theater work and all of this marvelous film work is exactly what I want to do. So yes, indeed, the possibility of reconvening to find out might be happening to the X-Men is irresistible.
HW: Speaking of return engagements, the word is out that Star Trek is coming back, but with J.J. Abrams at the helm and possibly younger versions of Kirk and Spock in the leads. What did you think of that turn of events?
PS: I don’t know very much. I just got a call from L.A. saying, “The people are at Paramount are very interested in reviving the franchise, and Abrams is a huge fan of Star Trek.” Beyond that, I know nothing at all. Frankly I am astonished. But then the studio—the old regime at Paramount, Sherry [Lansing] and company—made it pretty clear that after Nemesis that was goodbye. I never quite knew why, because John Loganand Brent Spiner had already got an absolutely brilliant storyline for another movie, but they put us to sleep. I would just watch that space with interest, whether it involves me or any of The Next Generation cast—who knows? It is interesting to hear that there is strong enthusiasm for going down that path one more time.
