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Following a recent deluge of X-Men: First Class pics, James McAvoy has spoken to Screen Rant about the movie.
In particular, he discusses his portrayal of Charles Xavier, the future leader of the X-Men, who was played memorably by Patrick Stewart in the previous movies.
When asked about how Professor X would be trained in terms of combat, McAvoy responded: "He’s not too combat savvy in this film, it has to be said. He doesn’t do too much, he’s sort of a consultant with the combat guys."
"But he does get involved in a few little bits of fisticuffs, I wouldn’t say that he comes out well in any of them, but I wouldn’t say that he gets his ass kicked either. Yeah he’s not particularly combat ready."
On what he took from Patrick Stewart's portrayal of the character, he said: "I’ll tell you what I did take – I looked at all of the things that he did the hardest. I looked at all of the things that came out the strongest in his performance and we said we have to go the opposite way."
"Simply to validate why we were making this film, because if they were just the same there would be no reason to make it, we have to show how different he is. We have to show a journey – so he clearly has to start in a different place."
"So the main things that we looked into are the fact that he is ego-less, selfless, a very good person, he’s sexless – he’s sort of like a monk."
"We thought of what the opposite of all of those things would be – so now he drinks a lot, chases women quite a lot, and doesn’t mind sort of abusing his power to get ahead."
"He’s definitely got an ego, and he’s definitely a little bit selfish. So that’s where we start with him, and so he’s now got to grow towards –Sir Patrick."
McAvoy went on to add that the events of the film will help to shape the character into the Xavier we know.
When asked the question on every X-fans lips (namely, will he end up bald and in the chair in First Class ), the actor offered cryptically: "You’ll have to wait and see, you’ll have to wait and see."
"It’s actually quite satisfying when you get to say that: ‘I’m not allowed to say.’ Because nobody’s actually told you that you’re not allowed to say, but it’s sort of implied."
X-Men: First Class is set to be released in the UK on June 2nd this year.
