Is it possible that having the original X-Men movie actors returning for Avengers: Doomsday is just one big prank? First, Rebecca Romijn, who is reprising her role as Mystique, told reporters at San Diego Comic-Con that they hadn’t finished the script for the movie, three months into production. And now in a new interview with Alan Cumming, he is returning to the role of Nightcrawler from X2: X-Men United, the Traitors host has revealed that he was seemingly on set with…Nobody else.
“I did the entire film in isolation,” Cumming said in an interview with Gold Derby. “Lots of green screen, face replacement. They even gave characters fake names. I don’t know who I was acting with half the time. I broke the internet by mentioning something once, but honestly, I might have got it wrong.”
The “break the internet” moment Cumming is referring to was from an interview with Buzzfeed UK, where he revealed that he was “hitting Pedro Pascal against the head or something.” The implication here is that the X-Men are fighting the Fantastic Four (Pascal plays Mister Fantastic in Fantastic Four: First Steps, and in Doomsday), but some editorialization here, I think we need to raise our standards for when “break the internet” is used for. If you’re completely stunned that the X-Men and Fantastic Four are fighting in a movie where they are definitely going to fight, wait until I tell you what’s going to happen with the Avengers!
Anyway, back to the main quote. The process Cumming describes above is nothing new for Marvel, which has been filming actors alone on a green screen for a long time now, to preserve plot points, as well as allow for options in the edit. In fact, it’s a big part of blockbuster filming in general… Ian McKellen, who returns as Magneto in Doomsday, was famously open about his frustration with the process after filming The Hobbit movies.
“I was miserable. It may be my impression but I don’t remember a green screen on The Lord of the Rings,” McKellen told Time Out in 2018. “If Gandalf was on top of a mountain, I’d be there on the mountain. The technology was being invented while we were making the film. [In The Lord of the Rings] I wasn’t involved in any of that, I was away acting on a mountain. I tend not to remember the bad times, but I don’t think there were any. I think I enjoyed every single moment of making those films.”
Here’s the thing: yes, it’s part of the process nowadays, but it’s not a good part of the process. Acting is reacting, and while a good actor like Cumming or McKellen can craft a performance working off of nothing, it leads to a better performance if you’re in a place, reacting to someone else. Extra alarming is that Marvel has been knocked for this, multiple times — most notably for the Illuminati scenes in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which featured actors on a “team” together, but never in the studio at the same time. And frankly, that was apparent to the audience too in these lifeless parade of cameos scenes.
Given there are even more actors involved in Avengers: Doomsday, it was to be expected that schedules would prevent all 60 (or however many) stars from being in the same place at the same time. But that Cumming is back as Nightcrawler, but likely prancing around a blue screen studio bopping imaginary Pedro Pascal’s on the head? That’s not a great way to make an emotionally thrilling movie. It is, however, a great way to make some hilarious behind-the-scenes featurettes. So release the blue screen cut, Marvel. And while you’re at it, let actors act off each other. Thanks.
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