X-Men: Apocalypse Interview - James McAvoy (2016) - Action Movie HD

I really love playing Charles. The main reason I love playing Charles is because he has empathy, and he has this huge capacity to care for others, and for love, really. And what's fun is when you challenge that, so by the end of this movie that is definitely challenged. Him and Hank together run this school for gifted, not just children, but gifted people, but generally children. And really, him and Hank are this odd couple that run this amazing old building that we're in just now. And I think if Eric didn't come along, if Apocalypse didn't come along, if Raven didn't come sashaying back into their lives, I think they'd be happy to live out the rest of their days being teachers and nurturing these young minds and souls. And that sounds like a good thing. However, the real world doesn't let them do that, and they've got to tool up, I suppose. He's still got long hair for some of the movie, and we're trying to shoot all the stuff with hair now before we shave it all off later. And he's not a junkie anymore, and he's accepted his ability and his power again. I think the thing that he couldn't deal with in the last movie was not just the fact that the voices were overwhelming, but the voices and their sadness and their happiness and stuff reminded him of his own loss. He's gotten beyond that now, and he's in a really optimistic place. Quite often in X-Men movies, we're fighting ourselves, and we're fighting politics, and we're fighting discrimination and oppression and misunderstanding of different people from different backgrounds and things like that. And that's what I love about X-Men. We've still got all that in this movie, because we are still fighting ourselves. We're still fighting our nature, and we're still fighting to accept ourselves, never mind the mutant next to us or the human next to us or how they feel about us. Apocalypse has lived for a gazillion years, and he has rejuvenated himself throughout that time by taking the bodies of others. So he doesn't live all that time. He puts his consciousness and abilities into the body of another mutant as his old body is dying. And each time he does that, he absorbs the power of that mutant. So he's done this a billion times, so he's got a billion different superpowers. The one power he's never come across is mind control. And for a megalomaniac who wants to dominate the entire world, it's a pretty attractive prospect. No, she can't even remember me, because at the end of first class, I wiped her memory. So she's got no recollection of me whatsoever. She has, in the interim, found out about me and found out about the school, and she's fascinated by it, because she has this burning desire to find out about mutants, whether that's because that's just who she is, and I suspect it is, or whether it's because there's some little germ of knowledge inside her that is bursting to try and grow and remind her of all the things that I took from her. Anyway, I have to go to her. She's gotten on to something in downtown Cairo that is going to lead to the emergence of apocalypse and all that kind of stuff. And I find this out, so I decide I need to go and see her. After what happened in Washington in Days of Future Past, she became the poster girl for a whole new species. She became the heroine and the hero of that moment, and literally became the poster girl on posters all over the world, saying she is the hero, the heroine, she is the one that saved the president, she's the one who's introduced us to this whole brand new world, filled with people with powers and stuff like that. And she lived that role for a couple of years, but then saw through that facade and actually thought people are still being abused and hurt and torn away from their families simply because they're mutants. So she decided to throw off that cloak and reject that mantle, really, and go back to being the littlest hobo and travelling incognito and helping where she could on a smaller scale. And what brings her out of that is when she finds out what's happened to Eric. We've got two of the best producers I've ever worked with, and one of them is the writer-producer as well, and the most collaborative and present and industrious and conscientious of producers. Added to that, you've got a great visionary in Brian, who I think understands not only what we're trying to do now, but everything that came before because he was the father of it, and so a lot of it's second nature to him as well, you know. And it's territory he's tread, and it's territory that he's constantly trying to re-imagine and keep vibrant and vigorous and exciting. Simon always says something really nice. Simon Kinberg always says, like, nobody understands these characters like you guys do. And that's something that I hope the new cast will come to have as well, and maybe two or three movies' time they'll have that feeling where you really do understand who the character is, and not only who he is as written, but where he needs to go, and where is it going to be exciting and fun for him to go, or her to go. And that's, I don't know, it's just such a... I'm proud to work with those guys because they're so good, but yet they seem to think we're good too, and it makes me feel good. Because the thing about X-Men that I think separates it from a lot of the other superhero movies is the emotional drive and the emotional content that is to be found within the relationships of the movie. And I think they're often quite adult and mature relationships, even when it's the younger cast members that are playing those characters. It's quite often quite mature and real world stuff that they're dealing with. So hopefully they're going to get some good bang for their buck and some good summer blockbuster action good fun, which I love too.