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Nicholas Hoult talks the Beast and X-Men: Days of Future Past
IGN visits the set of the film to talk to the brains behind Professor X's team.
Posted Feb. 27, 2014, 11:10 a.m.
And our X-Men: Days of Future Past set visit coverage continues today as we chat with the ever agile Beast himself, Nicholas Hoult.
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Hoult of course played Hank McCoy, a.k.a. the Beast, in X-Men: First Class three years ago, and he returns to the X-Mansion for director Bryan Singer's time-travel tale Days. Unfortunately, the day I was on set, Hoult was not in his blue and furry make-up, despite the events of First Class that saw him transformed into his full beastly self. But the actor explains the (occasional) lack of blue in the interview below. Read on for all things Beast…
On being blue, or not, as the case may be.
Do people know I'm going back and forth? O.K., yeah. Obviously Hank is very intelligent and in the last film there was a serum that he developed to help control his mutation. There's a similar thing in this where… it's still the kind of thing where there's a Jekyll and Hyde aspect to it. But he does switch between the two [looks].
How the Beast make-up has changed since the last film.
Yeah, the Beast look is different. It's a different make-up team doing it this time around. Bryan wanted a slightly different thing, which is working well. I've only been in it for a couple of days so far, but it's fun. It's nice to play a character with two very different aspects to play and very different physical appearances. … He state is slightly different. The Beast is, uh -- he's trying to learn how to control it and be at peace with it but if he gets worked up, it's something that can be unleashed.
How Beast's relationship with Xavier has evolved since First Class.
I guess in the last 10 years or whatever Charles has kind of been in a downward spiral in many ways, mentally and physically, and I've been kind of looking after him. We've been rolling around in the mansion together, which is nice. I mean me and James [McAvoy] -- we're having fun playing that relationship as well.
Is it just Charles and Hank in the mansion when we first meet them?
Yeah. Uh… [laughs to change the subject]
Hank is based in the 1970s story, but does he also figure in the future segments?
The future is kind of resting upon what happens… it's so difficult because I'm not entirely sure what I can say and what I can't.
On his character's relationship with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine.
Yeah, their relationship starts off slightly on the wrong foot, but then Logan is obviously coming back from the future and has to rally us and explain to us in the past what has been going on, which is quite a lot for us to take onboard and he can be quite an intense character, Logan. A lot to take in. But it's obviously very important that we figure out what to do.
Whether or not his relationship with Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique will continue from First Class.
Yeah, her whole relationship with all the characters was involved. Obviously Charles took her in and looked after her and was very much a brother/father figure to her. And there was also a relationship with Magneto at the end of the film, where she believed more in his way of thinking of the mutants and human divide. And in this film, it's a similar thing, where all of us have a bit of a relationship with her and care for her. So there are definitely still aspects of that. You know Hank was left at the end of the last film with Charles and she joined Magneto's clan.
On the humor in the film.
Hopefully [there is] and that's particularly something for the '70s part of the film that we really do want to try to keep in there. That's the important part of films, no matter how intense the situation gets and how much the people are struggling, you still want to see them having fun and catch a lighter side of things. Because then you feel more endeared to them.
The differences between Bryan Singer and First Class director Matthew Vaughn.
I guess the main difference is with the first one, everyone is getting to grips with their characters and figuring stuff out, but with this one, everyone has got into their stride and figured it out very quickly. Bryan having previously shot X-Men films as well and being a part of the last one, it's all clicked very quickly. It's pretty easy so far.
Read on for more of our chat with Hoult...
Does Hank still have issues with the fact that he is a mutant?
Hank is still someone who -- he doesn't like the attention and it brings him a lot of shame. We shot a scene last week where he transforms into Beast in a public venue and he's ashamed of it. He doesn't want people staring at him and pointing fingers. So he's still battling that and he's not at peace with his appearance in that form.
On the scene being shot today.
This is the climax of the film. It's the final third where it all kicks off where Nixon is about to give a speech with [the villain] Trask, and Professor X and Logan turn up to try and change what might happen in the future.
So they're trying to stop someone from getting killed, like in the comics?
Maybe. [Laughs] … There will be something very dramatic happening. It's all going to happen. But at the moment all we've done so far is just arrived. [laughs] So we've just walked in and we're preparing for something potentially dramatic to happen.
In First Class we saw the Cuban Missile Crisis. How have real world events affected Hank in the 10 years since that film?
It's affected his and Charles' world completely. Because in those 10 years, they've built the house, the lab, the school, and this has all been happening and a lot of the teachers and students have been recruited and drafted for the war, so that kind of made the situation regress a little bit. And Charles retreated into himself even more and then Hank has to be more of a support for him. So that's all linking in, and that's the brilliant thing. We have to mingle and slightly change history inside these films and have fun with it, with events where everyone knows how they actually happen but kind of play with those and affect them slightly with mutants being in the mix.
On preparing for the role physically.
Physically for this I had to gain a lot of weight because I dropped a lot of weight for Mad Max, so I was really skinny. So I ate a lot, basically. And then once you're in the Beast costume, it's kind of restrictive on your movements, so I had to train a little bit to be strong enough to move around in that. Apart from that, I have a brilliant stunt guy who's a gymnast and has been doing Parkour all his life and all these things, and he makes me look very cool. Because I'm always one for trying to do all my own stunts as much as possible, and I turned up and I was like, "What can I do?" And then they showed me videos of what he was doing and I was like, "O.K., I can't do anything near that, so carry on…"
The process of applying the Beast make-up.
It's about three and a half hours. … We just kind of chat, me and the makeup guys. We sit there and talk and listen to music. And then they tell me to look up occasionally and close my mouth and stop fidgeting and that's about it. [laughs]
How playing the Beast is freeing as an actor.
It is very freeing because Hank is quite… it's one of those things when someone has something they're trying to contain, they're quite controlled and clear on what they're doing and self-possessed in a way. So it's fun to suddenly be able to break loose from that. And also when you're wearing the makeup, it's interesting to see how people respond differently to you. And you can perform big -- you can roar at people. If I roar at someone like this, it's funny, but if you roar at someone like that it's scary. So you get to have two very different … techniques, performances.
On the fan response to his character.
The feedback that I've had has been great. I think people really enjoyed what we did with the first one. And with this one, I think the fact that we can merge the casts from our film with the previous cast, I think the fans are really going to love it.
Check back tomorrow for more from our X-Men: Days of Future Past set visit!
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