Jackman reveals bits and pieces of X-men

By Azad April 28, 2000 9:37 AM

Hugh Jackman, who plays the character of Wolverine in the upcoming movie X-men, talks a little bit about his character during a celebrity chat session in Yahoo in the latter days of April. He tells fans that Wolverine will be the main character of the movie.

"Through his eyes the audience enters the world of mutants," Jackman said. "The X-Men are together at the beginning of the film, and Wolverine comes into the fold. As does Rogue. ... He's not an X-Man at the beginning. I'm not even sure if they call him one at the end of the film, actually. But I definitely can't say any more than that."

Brian Singer is the director of the film, which is based on the Marvel Comics series. I believe that he also directed The Usual Suspects, definitely another one of my all time favorite movies. And for the X-men film, Singer gets a lot of praise from the cast. "Bryan was just fantastic," Jackman said. "He's something of a genius. Very exact about what he wants. Very smart and intellectual, and he never compromised the integrity of the script and series. The film is never two-dimensional. It's never stereotypical. The characters are well thought out, and he insisted on 150 percent commitment and development. It had to be that way. And he pushed every one of us. He was wonderful to work with."

And of course, the praise factor between the cast members was quite high. Jackman also mentioned his praise to co-star Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who plays the shape-shifter Mystique. There is also a major fight scene between Jackman and Romijn-Stamos.

Throughout the film, Rebecca appears to wear nothing more but blue makeup (sweet). "At times it was a little nerve wracking," Jackman described. "I definitely didn't want to miss with any of my punches or kicks. And of course, obviously a little distracting. ... But as a professional, I could handle it. Her first day was outside, and she was pretty much naked, as you say, and she had to hold her breath to hide the steam in her mouth, and it was about -20 degrees wind chill! Her makeup took about 10 hours to put on. She would have a pickup at 2 a.m., so she could be ready for after lunch! When she worked, she put in almost 24 hours. 17-19 hour days. She was quite a trooper, and she was fantastic as Mystique. As you see in the trailer, we have quite a fight together."

As in any film of this nature, the team is very confident of the success of the film. And if the level of success manages to take on higher ground, Jackman said that he would be eager to do a sequel. "Sequels are solely dependent on the success of the first movie. And I know they are really hoping that will happen, as are we. So until July 20th or so, no one will really know."

Look out for X-men to be opening in theatres on July 14.