Reflections : X-Men 2 featurette : CaptionKit HyperTranscript


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Reflections of X-Men (from the set of X2 : Interviews with producer and actors from the film X-Men 2
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Speaker	Caption
Lauren Donner
	Before we started the cameras even rolling
	I was getting calls from reporters, saying
	'aren't you afraid of doing a comic book movie',
	you know, 'nobodys gonna do a comic book movie, there have been a couple of dumb ones before'
	And I just said - well we've been given this story and created good characters.
	So while we're making the movie - you don't know, when you're making a movie -
	all you're trying to do is make the best movie possible.
	The problem was, at the end of it, we were so crunched for time
	and we had so many visual effects, that we were never able to preview the movie.
	We never had an audience say 'Oh, we love it', you know or 'Oh, we hate it' !
	or whatever - so, when it went out, we were all scared .. to .. death!
	Nobody knew. And then that opening weekend, it was so huge, its like -
	its was, it was such a fantastic feeling, because honestly, we didn't know.
Hugh Jackman
	Hugh Jackman ('Wolverine')
	I was straight off taking a couple of months off holiday, and I was a bit out of shape
	and I was straight to the gym.
	One of the first things that I did - I looked at that comic book, and I was like 'Oh my god'
	straight to the gym, right. This guy had guns to here, and I was like, uhh-oh.
	And, I'd never read them, and Brian didn't want me to read any of the comic books,
	because he didn't want me to come with some two-dimensional cartoony thing.
	You know, which I understood. So I just remember being all at sea.
	I think on the opening night, I looked around and I was like -
	aww shit, thank god I didn't know how big this character was, or how big - I mean,
	they'd just blown off a million dollars worth of fireworks on the whole thing
	and you know, I'd just come from Australian movies where
	you're your own stand in, you basically make your own sandwiches for lunch
	and you know, I think I was a little naive, which was good.
James Marsden
	James Marsden - Cyclops
	I didn't think it was gonna be good. I mean - I thought it was gonna be fine
	when we wrapped, we honestly were so exhausted after that first movie
	its was such a - I mean I think we saw it for five and a half months or something,
	almost six months, and, you know, it was in the winter of Toronto, it was miserably cold
	We were having to re-shoot everything. Its hard to gauge what the movie's gonna be like.
	or ah if its gonna be a good film.
	This type of movie, because you go in and shoot a quarter of a page a day.
	against a green screen or a blue screen or something.
	And you go - well, hopefully that'll cut together fine.
	Erm, but honestly, I wasn't expecting, I thought it was gonna be fine
	but there were so many things that reeked of 'this movie has problems'.
Ralph Winter
	Ralph Winter - Producer
	We were terrified. We were terrified that we had jumped into this world, and we liked it and loved it
	and everyone else would think we were complete nuts !
	that we were geeks, that - we were living on a different planet, what were you smoking ?
Patrick Stewart
	Patrick Stewart - Professor Xavier
	There was, for me with X-Men 1, I suppose about the same sort of pressure
	as there was fifteen years ago when I first walked on to the bridge of the Enterprise
	Er, perhaps a little bit more fifteen years ago because I was less experienced
	in the matters of film, and certainly much less confident in Hollywood.
	And, um, I was more aware of Star Trek than I had been of X-Men
	although I read comic books as a child, and over the years I have become quite enthusiastic.
	I had some unease about it.
	Partly because I, I felt that one big significant franchise
	and one iconic character in an actors lifetime ought to be enough.
	But it was the comic books initially that excited me. I enjoyed them so much.
	And the idea of these characters with these extraordinary mtant abilities
	that plus, finally, Brian Singers' terrific persuasive powers.
Tom Desanto
	Tom Desanto - Story / Executive producer
	You know, faith in the material, the source material and faith in Brian as a director
	and his film making abilities really proved out and er I think
	as we progressed with the film, went from you know the first cut to the second cut
	really the film started to take on a life of its own.
	By the time we got to the music and scoring, people were really, really excited.
	Themost amazing thing for me though, I think was opening day.
	And going out to the Ziegfield theatre in New York, and seeing the lines around the block.
	and myself and Brian just went up and down the line and just started talking to people.
	They didn't know who we were. And just the reaction and the anticipation
	of 'Jeez I hope they did it right' and of course then we get nervous
	And then when people came out of the theatre, and they were happy.
	and you always had the core X-Men fan who brought the eight other people to the movie.
	and not only was the core X-Men fan happy, but the eight other people were happy.
James Marsden
	I was blown away, I really was.
	I was extremely proud for this movie.
	Erm, I thought it was just the perfect blend of comic book and reality and
	er it made you care about these characters,
	and it was like 'that was the base of the movie', it was these characters in the story.
Hugh Jackman
	For three months after I finished X-Men, I was auditioning for films
	and not getting some, and I got one with Ashley Judd, and erm
	and I had to audition for it of course, like everybody else
	And, on Monday I turned up on set when X-Men was the fourth highest grossing movie -ever-
	And er, they were reall bloody happy he hur haha
	I wanted to re-negotiate but anyway they were happy and that was
	And I walked out, I walked out of my trailer that first day
	and there was about eight paperrazi sort of running down the street chasing me
	and thats when I though - oh, okay. It - I mean it surprised the hell out of me
	but that's when I realised my career had changed, you know ?
Ralph Winter
	X-Men is gonna last, its gonna endure.
	Because its about themes that are, that that have resonated for decades
	and will resonate about tolerance, about how we treat each other
	how we're gonna live. Those things don't go away.
Shawn Ashmore
	Shawn Ashmore - Iceman
	I never really, I had, I was never given any kind of clue that
	'You know, if we do this again, you might be in it'
	like I didn't really know, I assumed that
	actually I never really thought about it too much.
	until people were like 'Hey are they gonna make a sequel ?' and I was like
	- you know, right after the movie came out, and I was like - 'I don't really know'.
	'Oh, but you should be in it, because, you and Rogue had this thing
	'and you sent her off, but I think you should be nice to her again
	'you guys could be like a couple, or whatever'.
	So, erm a lot of people were kinda saying that to me, but I, and I was like 'Oh yeah'
	'that'd be kinda cool' but er, but I really had no idea, I did't know
	I mean I was hoping and thinking about it and like you know, it could definitely work.
	I was given no kind of kinda hint that it would happen, and then sort of
	wow this one kindof became the script and the rumours started going round
	thats when I started to hear like 'Oh yeah maybe you might be in this one'
	but first time around I had no idea. It was like 'if it does, you know if I'm in the second one'
	that'd be great, but if not, it was just a good time'.
Lauren Donner
	Lauren Donner - Producer : X-Men 2

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