New TV Spot and Beast-Centric Clip from X-Men: First Class; Plus Nicholas Hoult Talks Beast Makeup, Action Scenes, More
Posted 05.19.11 by Ryan
The first preview clip for director Matthew Vaughn's X-Men prequel, X-Men: First Class, involved
Professor X (James McAvoy), Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne), and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) try to convince the CIA and The Man in Black (Oliver Platt) of the existence of mutants.
The latest preview clip again sees Professor X teaching The Man in Black about mutants, as he reveals that Henry "Hank" McCoy — aka Beast (Nicholas Hoult), who has been working for as a research assistant for the government — is also a mutant. The scene is the longer version of the footage shown in the Beast character video.
At some point in the movie, Beast transforms into the blue, furry creature he becomes in the comic book. In a recently released, on-set interview with IGN, Hoult described the effect the transformation has on his character.
It's fascinating to see the difference, when he becomes the Beast, from this very animalistic and scary-looking character. The Beast we've got is very different to Kelsey Grammer's Beast. People are quite intimidated by it, and it's great to have that with the contradiction of the character with somebody who's not that comfortable with himself.
Hoult revealed that the Beast make-up is no picnic to apply.
The costume is four hours. It's a mask, which is stuck onto my face with a headpiece, and that takes the majority of the time, getting it to look right with the teeth and contact lenses. They've done a fantastic job creating this face that moves with my expressions. I have to make the performance bigger underneath it, but it moves a lot. They give me a muscle suit, obviously, and that's pretty much the gist of it. Lots of fur, which I eat a lot of by accident.
While Beast has not been shown in much action — outside of flying the X-Jet — but Hoult says that Beast will get involved in "some very cool action."
Azazel (Jason Flemyng) and I have a great fight at one point. So far the stunts that I've done I've been rubbish at. I took a big hit on my head, and a big hit on my foot so far. Spinning around on wires and stuff. There's definitely some very cool action. I'm in the Beast suit for the final fight, which we're about to shoot in Georgia, and that's going to be very tricky negotiating the suit and the heat and everything.
And, since it wouldn't be a new day without a new TV spot for First Class, here's the latest below.
Next Showing: X-Men: First Class opens June 3