James Marsden says the suits he and Hugh Jackman wore in X-MEN were impossible to wear; He thought they might be fired

THE X-Men the movies were pretty good, at least the first couple. We were introduced to an amazing group of mutant superheroes before we were inundated with movie and comic book heroes left and right. The first film, released in 2000, featured an all-star cast including classically trained actors such as Patrick Stewart AND Ian McKellanas well as Academy Award winners Halle Berry AND Anna Paquinand other big Hollywood stars Hugh Jackman, James Marsden, Rebecca Romijn, Famke Janssenand more. The movies were full of action and the characters looked really cool, but that aspect of the movie came at a price.

In a 2020 video interview with Vanity Fair (via /Film), actor James Marsden, who played Cyclops in the film, opened up about the restrictive costumes he and Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) had to wear, saying:

“Hugh and I put our suits on for the first time and it was these one-piece leather suits that didn’t have any side-to-side movement at the waist because it was all one piece, and we had to vault over this wall and none of us could climb over the wall because our suits were too stiff. Add to that I couldn’t see through these goggles or the face shield I was wearing. I’ve never felt less like a superhero. I think, at some point, we they were all afraid of losing their jobs in the first case.”

He went on to talk about how uncertain the cast was about making a superhero movie at the time:

“Throughout the process, nobody really felt like it was working. Like, it could be beautiful or it could be a disaster. And we had our premiere at Ellis Island, overlooking the Twin Towers with fireworks going off and it was just like, this is what I imagined as a kid, what Hollywood would be like, or success in Hollywood. It was pretty spectacular and a lot of fun to see it take off. And then even more fun going into the second one.”

It’s nice that the films have become beautiful and everything has worked out with the costumes. X-Men is available to stream on Starz and available to rent or buy on Amazon.