James McAvoy reveals X-Men nerves
James McAvoy The star is Charles Xavier in X-Men: First Class, which is a prequel to the other movies in the franchise and set in the 60s. It follows Charles and Erik Lehnsherr as they begin to realise they have special powers and create an army of mutants.
In the previous movies Sir Patrick Stewart plays Charles, something which attracted James to the part. He has also been a fan of the legendary actor, but feared he wouldn’t live up to expectations.
“Stepping into the X-Men franchise was quite scary I’ve got to admit. I was a fan of the cartoon growing up and not only a fan of the first couple of movies but I’m a fan of Patrick Stewart as well. From his X-Men work but also from his other work,” he explained to ET. “So it was a big, big weight of responsibility and I was very aware of it. This wasn’t just a sequel and I wasn’t just one of the new guys in amongst the old cast and if the film failed I could hide in amongst the shared failure.”
A host of big names appear in the picture, including January Jones and Kevin Bacon. He is super villain Sebastian Shaw, who has the ability to appropriate energy used against him. Kevin loves his character, but would prefer another superpower in real life.
“Invisibility would be a sort of fun power to have to see what it was like to move through the world and not be looked at,” he mused.
