Anyone who thinks it’s easy to play a comic book superhero should give a listen to Lucas Till, who endured nerves, weird miming exercises and endless costume fittings to portray plasma-flinging mutant Havok in X-Men: First Class.
In the Wired.com video interview above, taped during Comic-Con International last month, Till says that even though his character was filled with “hormonal” anger, the Texas-born actor had to rein in the rage for director Matthew Vaughn.“I was so nervous doing my scene with James McAvoy,” Till said, “I did it once and Matthew said, ‘Take it down about 95 percent.’ So I had to act angry without yelling, and it came across really stupid. I stormed out of the room and looked more like a bratty little kid than a superhero.”
Till also discusses deleted scenes and offers his take on X-Men’s enduring appeal: “A lot of times, superheroes … are cast out because they’re different…. Everyone can relate to that. At some point in your life, you’ve had ill will harbored against you. I think that’s why everyone really responds to X-Men.”