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Los Angeles -- When Patrick Stewart (Professor X) faces his nemesis Ian
McKellen (Magneto) in the widely-anticipated sci-fi/action film X-Men, it
won't be the first time the two actors have taken opposing sides of a dramatic
issue. They first crossed paths more than twenty years ago, as co-stars in the
Royal Shakespeare Company's premiere of Every
Good Boy Deserves Favour, the play by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in
Love). Set in a Soviet psychiatric hospital/prison, the drama depicts the
conflict between a doctor, played by Patrick Stewart, who is in charge of
"treatment", and his political prisoner/patient Alexander, played by
Ian McKellen.
In X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Apt
Pupil), they are leaders of two rival factions of
"mutants" with extraordinary powers who each face threats of
annihilation from the "normal" humans. As in Every Good Boy,
Stewart's character tries to operate within the rules of "the
system," while McKellen's character rebels. The resulting
conflict threatens the destruction of New York City.
How do two distinguished veterans of the British stage find themselves
co-starring in a major Hollywood movie based on comic books? Stewart, of
course, is famous for his portrayal of the Starship Enterprise's Captain
Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation; his pop culture credentials are unquestioned. For McKellen, the
transition from Shakespeare to the comics has been equally straightforward:
"I have no problems with being seen in a comic book movie. Dip in and
out of my Stage, Video and Film web pages (at mckellen.com) and you will
find more styles of plays and movies than the classics with which I am
most associated. I revere much popular culture: for instance, I sang with the Pet Shop Boys
on their "Heart" video; honoured stand-up comedy
(my solo show A
Knight Out); and a year ago even made it onto Late Night with
David Letterman."
Stewart and McKellen enjoyed reminiscing about their early acting days
in between filming scenes of X-MEN in Toronto. And, as McKellen
points out, the roots of their conflicts on stage and screen may run deep:
"Patrick Stewart was born in Yorkshire and I in Lancashire, making X-MEN
a rerun of the "Wars of the Roses" as in Shakespeare's history plays."
X-Men opens in theatres across the US on 14 July 2000, and in
the UK on 18 August 2000.
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