Right after Halle Berry won her Best Actress Oscar in 2002, you know what she did? First, she completed filming Die Another Day (Pierce Brosnan’s last James Bond film) and then she fulfilled her contractual obligation to costar in the sequel to the wildly successful X-Men movie, X2. I remember thinking back then – “Is this a smart career move or a really dumb one right after she wins an Oscar?” Looking back on it… those are probably two of Halle’s most beloved roles, as Jinx and Storm.
Where am I going with this? Ah, yes – Jennifer Lawrence. Jennifer just won the Best Actress Oscar, and what are her next career moves? Why, she’s wrapping up production on Catching Fire, a giant, popcorn-movie franchise that rests on her shoulders, and then she’s going to return as a young Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Is it wise for her to follow-up her Oscar win with two sequels? A question for another day. But according to Star, Jennifer is fine with coming back to do Days of Future Past (probably because of L’Fassdong), but she just wants her role to be bigger. Meatier. Maybe with some scenes of Magneto getting down and dirty with Mystique?
The stars of the new X-Men sequel, Days of Future Past, may be ready to suit up for filming, but Star has learned that the A-list cast is anything but united. Jennifer Lawrence is furious with director Bryan Singer for slashing her screen time in favor of Hugh Jackman and Anna Paquin – and she’s not alone in her ire.
“Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy are also victims of Bryan’s editing pen, and they’re just an annoyed as Jen is,” tattles the on-set source. “All three stars are earing $3 million for their roles. So they’ve decided to team up and make a plea to Bryan.”
But Jen’s managers are worried about her breaking rank this early in her career.
“Bryan Singer is not the sort of person you want to piss off,” warns the insider. “She should just shut up and get on with things.”
[From Star Magazine, print edition]
While I have trust in Bryan Singer, it does sound like he’s jamming a lot of stuff into this movie. Fassbender, McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Peter Dinklage, plus scores of the “original” cast members are rumored to return, like Anna Paquin, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman and on and on. Incidentally, there are no rumors involving the return of Zoe Kravitz or January Jones, both of whom gave horrible performances in First Class. For me, X-Men: First Class worked so well because we really got to know Eric and Xavier as young men/mutants, seeing how their personalities developed. So… I do hope we get more of that, because God knows I’ll only be going to this one because of FassVoy.
Here’s an alternate theory though – maybe all of these spectacular actors come together because these X-Men movies are kind of fun and they like Bryan Singer and none of them feel like the franchise is resting on their shoulders alone? Maybe it’s just a fun way to spend a few months, you know? Getting paid to hang out with Fassy, McAvoy, J-Law, McKellen, Jackman and Dinklage… that would be a hoot.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Halle was an AWFUL Storm, aesthetically and performance wise.
I found her okay. January Jones took the biscuit though. She just stood there and tried to act. Epic fail.
Yes, January! Worst X-men ever.
And I think she’s been good on Mad Men. That role was perfect for her. But man, she was the worst part of X-men.
I think she also did Catwoman after she won her Oscar. She took it with her when she accepted her Razzie.
PLEASE don’t bring back Halle or January. I can tolerate the rest.
They have a contract so I don’t know how much of this is true. I don’t see them causing problem. Maybe it’s more about caring about the characters. Fass, McAvoy, Stewart and McKellen are not lazy actors. The directors/writers need to stop trying to jam everything in to hit every target. Just make a decent movie. Use the talent you have and axe the garbage.
Those Marvel contracts are ironclad. They have the right to call you in for usually 5-6 movies, even just for a cameo, but you need to be there.
Halle supposedly did exactly what this article is implying when she got her Oscar. She plopped it on the director’s desk and said they better write Storm a better role. And I think she claims she got herself the better wig too. Maybe this is all conjecture but when I read it, it sounded like her.
Will you all get mad at me for saying this? I (and I say this shamefully) liked Halle Berry as Storm. I think Halle’s awesome, though of course her personal life makes me think shes cray cray, I still think she’s great. January on the other hand was like a plank of wood, SO annoying. I know she won’t be back but I wonder if they’ll get her character, because it *spoiler* ended with her joining Magneto. So if they do bring her character back who do ya’ll suggest should take over?
meh, I don’t buy it, think it’s crap. I’m sure it will be a fun set to work on.
as for the question of is it wise for Jennifer Lawerence to follow up her Oscar with 2 sequels? she’s young, and it’s totally fine.
Hmmm… I doubt that story. X Men reboot is primarily centered on the never-ending discord between protagonist/antagonist aka Charles X/Magneto and more like other heroes gravitating around them and also being developed, so it wouldn’t make sense they get less screen time, add to that Mystique being Magneto sidekick. That being said, being a sidekick doesn’t means to have equal screen time…
I believe most actors try to make the best of their post Oscar win, even though it doesn’t guarantee a long living career on the ups nor they do always make the smart choices. But Jennifer Lawrence is young fresh and the very “it” girl of the moment, so it’s fine.
Zoe Kravitz gave the performance that year for bagging Fassbender, I give her props on that one.
don’t buy it, I love Jackman so I don’t mind if I can see him 🙂
I would love working on the set with all these hot men.
Do you know if Halle Berry returns or not ? she’s totally Fassy type 🙂
Ha! I think that pairing might turn a lot of Fassydames here off him. But as fun as it might be I don’t see it happening. Halle likes her men pretty
I think the only part that’s seemingly is his type is her skin color. His past girlfriends have all seemed to be very low key down to earth drama free women.
I’m not gonna even go into the whole Lawrence Bender’s ex situation.
Please don’t mention them together…ug. The only chocholate he needs is me! 😉
Well, he did have that other crazy one so let us hope he doesn’t like the crazies. I mean, I can be crazy…late at night with the lights out.
Mystique is a major character in the series so..yes she should get more scenes.
Pet peeve of mine.. Jennifer doesn’t have the necessary “oomph!” factor mystique is supposed to have. Great actress but not really perfect for the role. Just my two cents..
Yep – something really big needs to happen to piss her off because the Mystique in the earlier movies was a genuine psychotic nutcase.
I thought I was alone. I found jennifer so boring and flat in the role.
I did not like her as Mystique either but it might have been how the movie was written. She had no depth and kind of spoke in a monotone for most of the movie. I thought Rebecca Romijn did a great job in the first movies but she had more action scenes where she was badass.
I agree. I totally get the JLaw love – she seems like a lovely and down to earth person- bit I don’t understand all the fuss over her as an actress. I just don’t think she’s that great.
@T.Fanty I agree, she seems lovely but as an actress, I still don’t get the hype.
Just about every female character in the X-men movies has been a disappointment.
Halle is a horrible Storm who can’t exude Storm’s regality,calm strength, or commanding nature.
January has made Emma the most lifeless cardboard cutout of a character when Emma is supposed to have way more bite and wit.
Anna made Rogue so weak and pathetic. That is not the sassy, tomboyish, sensitive/emotinally unstable, butt kicker that I know from the comics.
Did they even give Jean a personality? She was just a plot device.
Was Zoe Kravitz even acting? I don’t really care for the Angel character, but it seemed like Zoe was sleepwalking through the role.
Jennifer was so flat as Mystique, no edgy, no manipulations, no mindf*cking, what gives?
I could go on and maybe I’m being hard on some of these actresses. Maybe it was the scripts fault for their crappy portrayals, but ugh it’s so sad the way they did these characters.
I TOTALLY agree, for a series with such a history and a plethora of female characters they were all written and portrayed badly. They seem to feel the need to reduce most of these strong characters to how they are perceived by their male counterparts.
I always thought that for Storm, from a purely aesthetic stance, Iman or Naomi Campbell would have worked, someone statuesque.
The only bright spot was Rebecca Romjin as Mystique. None of the other women were even remotely fleshed out.
I agree. The women are terribly written. In X First Class, Jones was nothing more than a very dull sex object. She was always in her underwear or too tight outfits gettng drinks for Bacon’s character. After Angel crossed over, she got him drinks. Even the FBI agent ended up in her underwear in the early scene.
Lawrence’s character went from flirting with X, to Beast to undressing for Magneto. She was just so confused–“I don’t like being blue” to “mutant and proud” without any explanation for the transformation. What?!? But I loved McAvoy, my favorite in the film.
@Miss Kiki: It would be great if the could get someone that looks like either one of those two and could act to play Storm. But seeing as they couldn’t even be bothered to make Halle wear blue contacts in the movie I don’t think the moviemakers care about actors physically resembling the characters (ex. Jackman the giant playing traditionally tiny Wolverine).
@Jane: Exactly. There was no character development for any of the female characters, which is sad because they all (maybe not so much Angel) have such a rich history in the comics that you would think it would be easy to make them interesting, but apparently the movie writers didn’t care enough to do the research and write them correctly.
I hate they way they took Rogue – even to the extent of giving her the wrong accent.
Let’s not forget my girl Kitty Pride. Ellen Page, possibly the spunkiest of spunks, took the life right out of her.
But, and everyone knows how I feel about her, I give Famke kudos for Jean Grey/Dark Phoenix.
I have to agree, as much as I liked First Class, sadly all the female characters were terrible.
Thank you all SO much for your comments! I have to admit that as a fan of the comics I was really hoping the reboot would follow the comic more closely, especially with Rogue/Gambit, they are my favorite and totally got shafted in the first series. Unfortunately it looks like now that Bryan Singer is back, we’re back to crap again.
@Marty I loved Gambit and rogue together, that’s one of the reasons I was so disappointed in how Rogue was written n the first set of X men films and don’t eve get me started on Gambit or the Wolverine film overall.
@Marty: They will never do Rogue/Gambit justice based off the fact that despite being one of the most beloved/popular Xmen, Remy always gets shafted. That useless cameo in the Wolverine movie was beyond lame and was utterly pointless. They just needed a mutant with showy powers to be in the movie.
I agree and I hope Bryan brings back Rebecca Romijn. Since Anna is coming back perhaps they’re disregarding the whole cure thing and the only reference to Last Stand are the characters.
I don’t think they are disregarding the cure thing. If I remember correctly, the ending of the movie alluded to the idea that the cure didn’t work permanently because magneto was able to knock over the metal chess piece without touching it. It is very likely the cure ended up being temporary.
Also, the time-travel story will allow for character personality flaws to be corrected (leading to hopefully much more awesome female characters).
If they are trying to create a better adaption of the comics with this movie and correct the problems, then the characters are from a much more distant future than the 3rd movie left off. Lots can happen between then. I’m really hoping for the best, and am going to see the movie for the entire cast, excluding Halle, because she was probably the most terrible [recurring] character to happen to the series, imo. Hopefully they correct her personality for this installment.
I’m hoping the cure was temporary. I don’t see a transition that is believable happening between Jennifer as mystique and Rebecca as mystique. I loved Rebecca. They seem like two totally different characters. It will take a lot to convince me.
FassVoy… sigh… we need at least one movie a year featuring these two.
I’m so mad Michael Fassbender couldn’t do Trance. They would have starred in that one together too :–(
Hopefully this story is not true. Still, I get annoyed when actors get this ridiculous, you are there to serve a storyline, not to show how beautiful you are. If you want a meatier role, go do an indie.
“Bryan Singer is not the sort of person you want to piss off,” warns the insider. “She should just shut up and get on with things.”
Yes SHE not THEY. FFS. Hey Hollywood, when are you going to learn that woman have a voice and they’re entitled to use it? Twats.
Well, Mystique is not a central character in the saga so I don’t get Jennifer’s complaints. While I could understand Micheal and James, since they’re the main characters.
Anyway Anna Paquin and Hugh Jackman will return? Holy shit, this makes me SO much excited!
If it is true then it just shows how unfamiliar she is with the comic storyline.
I’m not going to complain over more Magneto/Mystique scenes! They were my favorite characters in XMFC 🙂
“While I have trust in Bryan Singer, it does sound like he’s jamming a lot of stuff into this movie.”
I don’t have trust in him at all…he’s bringing all his people in on top of the newbies and it sounds like a sh*t show. Plus, Halle is now joining up as well. First Class was great because it was a new group.
He’s trying to redeem himself for Superman Returns.
That will never happen. I am still mad about that movie! I think I fell asleep six or seven times. I still have never been able to sit and watch it the whole way through. Christopher Reeves is probably going to be known as the only Superman for a couple more years until a Bale like actor comes along and makes that role his own like Bale did with Batman.
About the other commenters comments about the female actors playing X-Men. Yes they have ALL been awful. I get J-LAW won an Oscar but I thought she sucked in First Class. The best part of the movie was the bromance/hooyah between Magneto and Charles X.
I too worry about him bringing back the older characters, especailly Wolverine. Singer made the other X-men movies he did all about Wolverine with the other X-men characters development and story line as an afterthought. I really don’t want that to happen in these movies. Ugh Wolverine fanboys ruin everything.
I just hope that all these stars egos don’t get in the way of what could be a good movie.The only 3 people I want to see are Micheal Fassbender, James McAvoy and Ian MCKellan.I think everyone else should just do cameos. And they should introduce some new mutant characters.
And I hope to God Fassbender is smart enough to stay away from the crazy train of Halle Berry.Jeez does he have to date every black woman he meets on a movie set?I hope he knows better than to get involved with someone like her.
It’s not like she’s gonna win another Oscar for X-Men, so I doubt she’s “furious” with her director, although I do think getting your part cut in half when you’re so hot at the moment gotta suck.
Aww man id think less of her if I knew that to be true but I don’t think it is. She’s getting 20mil for Catching Fire and she gets another bump for Mockingjay plus residuals from the movie/Merch. Plus, my feeling is she wants to stick with indies which pays a lot less than 3 mil. I’m pretty sure Hugh and Halle’s salary would be the highest and this movie already sounds like its gonna cost a crap ton to make.
Lord catch me! Thank you for that shot of The Mac. When it came on my screen, it was like putting the paddles to my chest and giving my heart a jumpstart.
Yep I’m also only in for the Fassavoy. And may I thank you for choosing a pic with the Scottish bulge? Yummm
Is McAvoy wearing a jock cup?
I’m in it for mcavoy. he’s so lovely. sigh
this movie is getting sketchy. seems to be relying heavily on star power. makes me wonder about script/storyline quality
but anything for mcavoy
Michael Fassbender and Jlaw are both SOOOOO sexy, I would love for the movie to just be about them getting hot and heavy with each other the whole time, with maybe one or two action sequences but the rest of it just be Fassbender and Jlaw <3
Ummm..or not??
I adored XMFC but Mystique/Magneto fell so flat for me. No excitement or sexiness between them. I gotta admit ZI didn’t care for Jens portrayal of Mystique. She came off kinda dull and whiney. And Jen is SOOO pretty but I found her kinda unattractive as Mystique. I don’t think she wears the paint/make up well. Certainly not like Rebecca did.
You’re right Reese I didn’t see any chemistry with Fassy and JLaw either.But maybe that’s because I want to be the only one with Fassy and don’t like to see him with anyone else.lol Her face was very puffy as Mystique in X Men did anyone notice that? But either way I hope they introduce some new chracters in this one.
I hated Anna Paquin’s character in every X Men movie. Rogue was so awful and boring. But still she got so much screen time.
It’s Star so, more than likely it’s BS….I really doubt the whole “furious” bit. More likely, it is just another attempt to try to put Jennifer Lawrence in a negative light. Lawrence is now an Oscar winner…so the tabloids will try the old “since she won her Oscar, she has become a
diva!” baloney. Remember, Star also claimed that Lawrence and Hutcherson fought and weren’t speaking to each other on set—even though filming hadn’t even begun! (LOL).
@Amanda: I second that!.
Seriously? Star?
Obviously fabricated nonsense.