"X-Men 2" stars Famke Janssen (Jean Grey), Rebecca Romijn-Stamos (shape-shifting Mystique), and Kelly Hu (Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike) tell you why they can't believe they get paid for this acting lark...
Rebecca, how long did your blue makeup take to apply, and was it uncomfortable?
Rebecca Romijn-Stamos: It was about as comfortable as not wearing clothes, which is pretty comfortable. It is actually not just paint. It is about 100 different individual prosthetics made out of silicon. It is like a rubbery texture. Some pieces were thicker than others to add a little extra support, if you know what I mean. It took six hours on this film, which is better than the first film, which took nine hours. I had a midnight call time but this time it was a two in the morning call time. Which meant the rest of the cast would wander in at eight or nine with their coffee and breakfast taking their sweet time. I was like, "Hurry up, I've been here all night, let's work!" But yeah, it was a drag.
What are the main problems of working with special effects?
Famke Janssen: I did have to do a lot more green screen this time, which is a bit of a problem because you are acting on your own.
RRS: I though there would have been more green screen. For the most part, the set was actually there. Like the X-Jet was actually there and they were moving it around.
Famke, your character was quite dark in this film...
FJ: I love darkness. I am attracted to the dark side of life! I thought it was really interesting that Jean Grey went through some changes in this film. It was unexpected and fun to play. I thought Bryan did a great job adding some different elements to this movie, in terms of some emotion, some humour, and some love.
What were your reactions when you saw the film for the first time?
RRS: I loved it. I thought this one was over the top on every level. I think they did a really good job, with it being such a huge cast, of giving us a really good amount of screen time and a lot of over the top kick-ass action bits and also some 'moments' - chunks of meaningful things to do.
FJ: We didn't know what we were in for with the first film, because you just read all the special effects and you read the action sequences and you had no idea what it was going to look like in the end. They screened the first one for us and we all turned to each other and said, "It kinda worked out, didn't it." So this time, we all went back in with much more confidence and we knew what the tone of the movie was.
Kelly Hu: With the fight scenes, they would take a video camera and shoot alongside the camera so we would piece it together on the computer and had an extremely rough cut of what we were doing. It looked cool enough then and when I saw it for the first time on the screen, I was blown away. It was better than anything I had imagined.
RRS: What they did for us this time was to shoot every action sequence before we shot it so we would know what it was going to look like. It was just computer-generated, but it was nice.
Did anyone get any major injuries during filming?
KH: I did a lot of stunts in this one, and I was up on wires half the time. Just putting the harness on and being hoisted up gives you bruises across your stomach. So I was constantly injured, getting smashed into the ground, getting smashed into walls, breaking finger nails.
FJ: James Marsden [Cyclops] and I were shooting a scene where we have a lovers' quarrel. I had to fling myself onto this barrel as I was chasing James. Every single take, Bryan would look at the playback and go, "More butch!" I looked so girlie. Finally I flung myself into this barrel, completely hurting myself. And, of course, it never made it to the movie.
Have you all read the comics, and are you fans?
KH: I didn't even know who the X-Men were until the first movie came out. It wasn't until I got cast and I started research that I put my hands on some of the comics. But my character isn't really anything like the character in the comics. It is loosely based on my character from the comic book.
RRS: I used to watch the TV version when I was a kid, but still didn't know that much about them. When you start one of these movies, the information just comes to you. I have so many friends who are huge fans and they just shower you with information.
FJ: I had never heard of them at all but when I got cast, I did loads of research.
Did you ever step back and look at each other and think, This is not a job for grown adults?
RRS: Every day! Nothing about our job is a job for grown-ups, that's what's so great about it.
KH: Especially when I am in that harness flying around the room. I think, "I can't believe I get paid for this."
FJ: I think acting is just like that. There is something childish and fun about it.
