Rose Byrne Interviewed

NYC premiere video

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/05/26/x-men-first-class-nyc-premiere-in-photos-and-video/#/22

InStyle Magazine Interviews Rose Byrne

InStyle Magazine Interviews Rose Byrne: 
 

InStyle: How familiar were you with the X-Men universe?

Rose Byrne: Not really at all. I knew what a juggernaut of a film it was, but no, I’m not that savvy with my comic books. I’m not a comic book reader. It’s been really an education to learn all about it; I think I had seen the first one and that was it.

InStyle: How did the part come to you?

Rose Byrne: It came to me late. I think they approached me early on and I was working on another film at the time, so I came in really late in the process and it was all last minute. I didn’t really know how it would unfold. And I didn’t even read for Matthew – he wasn’t even down. Then I got the offer and then I was allowed to read the script. It was one of those jobs that was sorted within a week, which for something like this is pretty unusual. But I think Matthew works on instinct like that and makes up his mind quite quickly.

InStyle: How did you brush up on Moira MacTaggart?

Rose Byrne: We had an incredible expert who came in with a whole truckload of Moira stuff. It was awesome. And obviously when I got the role I did research online and stuff like that. This guy came in and gave me this whole binder of comics. It was actually quite exciting, reading it and seeing her, and I felt affection for her because I could see her on the page. I felt I had to really honour what was in the comic and I could see how exciting it is to bring her to screen. It’s like a character from a novel, bringing that person to life. You have a lot of responsibility in a way.

InStyle: Do you have to figure out how much of your own stamp to put on it?

Rose Byrne: Absolutely. We talked about that early on with Matthew too, in terms of how much the comics would be referenced, and it’s pretty loose. The backstories and the plots that the characters go through in the comic are mental and epic. But it was fun to have a read.

InStyle: How have you been finding this big beast of a comic book movie to experience?

Rose Byrne: I did a film called Troy, which was a similar big, huge tent-pole film for the studio, and it’s like organising an army – masses of people and schedules and money and timing. It’s a huge, huge undertaking. It had been years since I’d been on a film like this though. But it’s fine – at the end of the day it’s just you, the actor, and the camera. It’s the same thing. But it’s just the process of getting there is a bit different.

InStyle: How does the period come across?

Rose Byrne: I think there’ll be a few set pieces that are overtly 60s. We’re throwing in a few ideas. I don’t think they want to alienate the audience by making it too kitschy. It’s a fine balance, but Matthew Vaughn is very well aware of that. We’ve been in situations where, until we get sets or costumes right, we abandon it. He’s very aware of not making it too distracting as a period piece. But I think it adds a new element to it, and gives a new take on superheroes, which I personally would be interested in. It sets it in a different context.

InStyle: Do the politics of the time play a part?

Rose Byrne: Absolutely, that’s the really clever thing, the backdrop of the Cold War and JFK and really it’s a hotbed of history, that time. They’ve been really clever making it end up being about mutants! And it’s not confusing or anything, it’s pretty straightforward, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it before.

InStyle: How has the experience of working with Matthew Vaughn been?

Rose Byrne: What I love about Matthew is that he’s got this huge studio movie and so much pressure, and yet he couldn’t seem more ambivalent about how much pressure he’s under. I think you have to have that attitude when you have so many people conducting things. It’s like watching Wolfgang Petersen on TROY – they just keep a very level head. You need that. You need to have a certain amount of assertiveness and opinions and I think he picks his battles really well. I just admire that. I see that from afar. And he’s really kind to the actors and he’s sensitive to us. He has a huge task on his plate, but he just carries himself with a real confidence, which I think is very good.

InStyle: Matthew and Jane Goldman have always sought to bring something new to the projects they’ve done – is there a lot of that in this?

Rose Byrne: There is. It’s really clever what they’ve done, and they were really open, once we all got in and started rehearsing, to really developing ideas and fleshing things out. With a script like this, the plot is the star and it’s a big action movie, so it’s really up to us to make certain character choices and really try to imbue things with a little bit of heart. They were really open to all of that stuff. It was pretty collaborative, especially for a studio movie. That’s kind of a radical thing. That’s usually not the case.

InStyle: Are you signed up for sequels?

Rose Byrne: We are, but I’m in the same boat as you in the sense that I’ve no idea what the future films might hold. But that’s common practice to sign on for a bunch. From what I’ve heard of these things, sequels are a massive undertaking to come together, so we’ll see.

Do you ever worry that signing up to sequels might limit your options in the future?

Rose Byrne: I do and I don’t. I do a TV show called Damages, and there was a point where I had to sign on, before the pilot was even made, for seven years of my life. I remember I had a massive question of wondering what that would mean. You do think about it, but it’s so philosophical in the sense that you do the pilot and maybe it’ll get picked up and maybe it’ll go for a second season. The odds are always against you working, rather than for you. And I’m getting older. You think about it, but I’m just much more philosophical about the whole thing.

http://www.instyle.co.uk/news/exclusive-interview-with-rose-byrne-20-05-11

Yahoo Movies Interview Cast

From Yahoo's Movie Blog:

James McAvoy (Charles Xavier/Professor X) – "Erik’s is such a good power, but at the same time I’m not that impressed with a man that can bend metal. It doesn’t speak to me of drama. I’d love, love, love anything that was to do with flying. There’s not much else you can wish for in life if you can pop down to the shops and not get stopped by the traffic. And I’d quite like to be able to heal people as well, like Elixir. We nearly had Elixir in this film, but ultimately we chose not to. I think it made everything quite hard to have real drama and sense of impending fatality if somebody could just heal people."


Michael Fassbender (Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto) – "I think the power to speak different languages. Is that a superpower? A tail would be kind of cool. You can balance and stuff with a tail. Be like a monkey. Or just for climbing, you know. Flying’s pretty amazing, but you could fly with a tail… From tree to tree, like spider monkeys. Tail Man. Tail-linguist. Flying’s the obvious one - it’s like that thing of what animal you’d be if you could be any animal. It would be a bird, because flight is the one thing we can't do."

Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggart) – "I’d like a combination. I’d like Charles's power to read and to block people’s minds, but then I’d also love Angel Salvadore’s power to acid vomit! I think that’d be useful. You’re saying to the AD, "Where’s my cup of tea?" Boom! Your reputation might be a bit ruined. You might burn a few bridges. Literally. Maybe just the threat of it – just a side spew so they could see what you’ve got… But yeah, I think a combination of a few of them would be really cool."

Jason Flemyng (Azazel) – "It would be Maestro – which means I can charge up anyone’s credit card with the power of my mind. Or Oystro, for the tube. Or Alphabetico, which means it could be books or DVDs or music libraries, and I can just alphabetize them like that. Oystro – the lamest X-Men of all time. I just love the idea of lame superpowers. People can do amazing things like teleport and stuff, but with something like this it’s still a power, it’s just rubbish."


Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy/Beast) – "The one I have in the film's pretty cool. Even just to be able to have an opposable big toe and to be able to do things with your feet would be great. But this is a really difficult question. Obviously being invisible would be great. Flying would be great. But there are better ones, probably, than that. I’d like to be able to control people’s destinies… That kind of sounds like I want to be God, doesn’t it? I want to be God! There we go. I just spit that out and realised in hindsight that was a ridiculous thing to say! I’d quite like morphing – Mystique’s one – actually. That’s quite cool."


Jennifer Lawrence (Raven Darkholme/Mystique) - "Don’t I have to say shape shifting? I would love to be able to run up stairs without falling, but I don’t think that’s a superhero power. Every time I run up stairs I fall, it’s the weirdest thing ever. Basic human balance. Well, Zoe can fly. Flying would be awesome. But it has to be cooler than flying… Well, if I could fly it would solve my running up the stairs and tripping problem, because I could just fly up the stairs… So I’m sticking with that. And sharpening pencils with my eyes."


Edi Gathegi (Armando Muñoz/Darwin) – "I’ll tell you a story – I was an 'X-Men' fan growing up. I woke up every Saturday morning and I was glued to the TV when the 'X-Men' cartoon was on. And when the movie came out I loved it. It was the best superhero reimagining that I’d ever seen. I loved the 'X-Men' series. But Wolverine was the guy I loved when I was a kid. For some reason – the adamantium, the swagger, it was all about Wolverine. My character’s relatively new – he was created maybe five years ago – and if my character were around when I was a kid, he’d definitely be my favourite character. I tell you what the powers are and you go, ‘Wait a minute, that’s awesome.’ He wasn’t around when I was a kid, but if he were it’d be all about Darwin."

Zoe Kravitz (Angel Salvadore/Tempest) – "I think it’d be flying. I really think I have the best power. Doesn’t everyone want to fly? It’s like the coolest thing ever. And I projectile vomit acid!"


Lucas Till (Alex Summers/Havok) – "It’s a tossup. I think you would want something like Shaw’s power, where he can absorb kinetic energy and throw it back at something. That’s all-powerful. But you also want a little style with it, like Magneto. It’s not just all-powerful - he can bend metal and that’s it - but there’s a lot of things you can manipulate with that. I’ve always loved Magneto’s power."

Caleb Landry Jones (Sean Cassidy/Banshee) – "I wonder how many people have said teleportation… That’s probably the best, I think. I’d be rich; I’d have travelled the world, possibly space. I could do all sorts of things with it."

http://uk.movies.yahoo.com/blog/article/177226/the-x-men-speak-out-which-mutant-power-would-you-have.html

New Poster

New Cast Photo

New Images

New TotalFilm Images

http://www.superherohype.com/news/articles/165517-new-x-men-first-class-promo-shots

Oliver Platt and Rose Byrne interviewed on Facebook *SPOILERS*

Oliver Platt and Rose Byrne interviewed on Facebook:

*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*
*SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS* *SPOILERS*


Oliver Platt said: "The Man In Black runs a super-secret division of the CIA devoted to investigating the application of mental telepathy and paranormal power in military defense. He has long been a laughing stock of the Agency because of this. His department is known as Division X."

"When Charles and Mystique become ensnared with the Agency, the Man in Black diverts them to his division with a deft bureaucratic sleight of hand. Erik soon joins them and The X-Men flourish under MIB's protection."

Rose Byrne plays Dr Moira MacTaggert and says we won't be hearing MacTaggert's Scottish accent either: "No, [director] Matthew Vaughn was adamant she be American - despite James McAvoy's slight disappointment as he is Scottish."

But she did do her homework on the character's comic backstory and also on the period in which the film's story takes place: "I researched the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the CIA in 1962 as this is when the film is set. Production organised a brilliant X-Men expert to come and talk to us when we wanted. He came with a folder 20 pounds heavy with every comic and known fact on Moira McTaggert collated so I devoured that as well."

In a separate chat, Byrne told The Playlist a little more about her character: "She's kind of a collaborator. She's James McAvoy's love interest in the film. She's a doctor in the comics and she's a CIA agent [in the film].

"She's a real pioneer. It's in the 60s and it's a time when women did not work in the CIA. She's very smart, very ambitious, very forthright and really truly believes that humans and mutants can co-exist and in fact help one another."

http://blogs.coventrytelegraph.net/thegeekfiles/2011/03/oliver-platt-and-rose-byrne-ex-1.html

Rose Byrne Reveals More Details About Moira McTaggert

Interview with The Playlist:

On Whether The Production Of The Movie Was Too Rushed:
"No, on the contrary, [shooting] films [you] have so much time. I come from TV-land, I come from ‘Damages’ where you have no time. You have no preparation. You just get the scene the night before and you hope and pray you do a good job. To me, ‘X-Men’ felt luxurious."

On Whether She Was Familiar With The Comic Books Beforehand:
"I pretty much had to dive in. I knew a little bit, but not much. It’s not my world really. I’m not a comic [fan], I never read comics, I’ve never been hugely into comic book films. It was a whole new genre to discover."

On Moira McTaggert's Role In X-Men: First Class:
"She’s kind of a collaborator. She’s James McAvoy‘s love interest in the film. She’s a doctor in the comics and she’s a CIA agent [in the film]. She’s a real pioneer. It’s in the ‘60s and it’s a time when women did not work in the CIA. She’s very smart, very ambitious, very forthright and really truly believes that humans and mutants can co-exist and in fact help one another."

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/2011/03/28/rose_byrne_says_x-men_first_class_production_schedule_felt_luxurious/

Spoiler Filled Character Bios

Charles Xavier: The young Oxford graduate, a powerful telepath who can read and control minds, had long wondered if there were others out there like him. When Charles finally meets some fellow mutants, he recruits them and harnesses their unique abilities to try and stop the greatest threat the world has ever known.

Magneto: As a young man, Lehnsherr discovered, under horrific circumstances, his power to control magnetism. Now, he is determined to exact revenge on the monstrous evil who 'created' him. Erik and Charles form a fast and fateful friendship, which is tested in a battle upon which rests the fate of mankind.

Mystique: A close friend to Charles Xavier, Raven is a metamorph or shape-shifter who can assume the form of any humanoid creature she chooses. The mutant teen works hard to lead a 'normal' life and hide her gifts, but the battle between Xavier's mutants and Shaw's forces leads her on a different path.

Beast: Hank is a brilliant scientist with only a few mutant features until a serum unexpectedly unlocks the superhuman Beast within.

Darwin: Through 'reactive evolution,' Darwin can adapt to any situation or environment. Plunged underwater, he grows gills; in the dead of night, he gains night vision.

Banshee: Banshee's unique sonic blasts carry him into flight. Like other young mutants, Banshee's powers reach their full potential only under Charles Xavier's patient tutelage, and in a battle that will have global consequences.

Azazel: A demonic figure, Azazel can teleport by opening a portal into another dimension. He is a key player in Sebastian Shaw's plans to make sure that mutants inherit the planet.

Riptide: Never far from the side of his leader, Sebastian Shaw, Riptide creates powerful whirlwinds that can demolish buildings and challenge even the most powerful mutants.

Havok: Alex can emit concentric rings of super-heated energy waves, causing his targets to burst into flame. The handsome, athletic mutant has difficulty with his impressive powers, until Charles Xavier teaches him how to harness them.

Angel Salvadore: The beautiful ex-dancer possesses a stunning tattoo of insect-like wings, which become actual wings growing from her back, giving her the gift of flight. Her arsenal is a deadly acid, which she projectile vomits in combat.

The Man In Black: The Man in Black, as his mysterious moniker suggests, works for a covert government agency whose mission is to guard, and when appropriate, exploit our most explosive secrets. He enlists the assistance of mutants - and finds himself at the vortex of a battle that will determine the fate of humankind.

Moira MacTaggert: A female CIA agent in the 1960s - a time when female operatives were very few in number. After Moira becomes among the first humans to witness the powers of mutants, she tracks down Charles Xavier, who helps Moira convince her superiors of the existence of mutants and the notion of working with them for the greater good.

Sebastian Shaw: Shaw, a force of incalculable evil, was a Nazi collaborator whose early research forever altered the life of a young Erik Lensherr. Shaw can absorb energy and re-channel it, and he will stop at nothing to start a war to ensure that mutants inherit the earth.

Emma Frost: Emma, a platinum haired beauty and close ally of Sebastian Shaw, is a telepath who possess a diamond-like skin that is indestructible. Like Charles Xavier, she can project her thoughts and will into another's mind.

http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/joshw24/news/?a=32470

Rose Byrne Explains Moira MacTaggert's CIA Connection

Rose Byrne spoke MTV News.

"She works for the CIA in this prequel and gets involved in the whole mutant community as it were,"

"I'm on [the mutants'] side, so that's the main thing," she explained. "She kind of joins forces with [Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr] to use mutants for good rather than evil."

"She really believes in them being able to coexist with humans," she added.


http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/03/15/x-men-first-class-rose-byrne-moira-mactaggert/

Minor Character Updates

On Caleb landry Jones as Banshee/Sean Cassidy..

An Irishman with a sonic scream in the comics, Jones' Cassidy is a young American here, the big lungs remain intact"

Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique..

Magneto's future accomplice starts off as Charles' BFF, shapeshifting into human form. "This is before her Rebecca Romijn mutant and proud days" laughs Lawrence

Rose Byrne as Dr Moira MacTaggert..

The only human in the group, Moira is the team's link with the CIA. "I love the idea of it being in the 60s" says Byrne. "It gives it a twinkle in the eye"

Nicholas Hoult as Beast/Hank McCoy..

The team's resident boffin, before his mutation later in the film as the big, blue bouncing Beast."He's very urbane and witty" says Hoult

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier..

"He's not a monk" says McAvoy, "He enjoys a drink, he's a sex pest! But you start to see his ego break down"

First image of Oliver Platt as The Man in Black

Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), James McAvoy (Charles Xavier), Oliver Platt (The Man In Black), Rose Byrne (Dr. Moira MacTaggert)

http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/MarvelFreshman/news/?a=28956

Cast Photos

 James McAvoy (Professor X) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto)

 

Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and Emma Frost (January Jones) 

Caleb Landry Jones (Sean Cassidy), Michael Fassbender (Magneto), Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Rose Byrne (Moira MacTaggert), Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy), James McAvoy (Professor X), Lucas Till (Alex Summers)

http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/01/19/x-menfirst-class-three-exclusive-photos-and-a-report-from-the-stressed-out-set/

Cast Photo - unauthorized

Michael Fassbender as Magneto, Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert, January Jones as Emma Frost, Jason Flemyng as Azazel, Nicholas Hoult as Beast, Lucas Till as Havok, Zoe Kravitz as Angel, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/rorschachsrants/news/?a=28247

**** UPDATE **** Photo is unauthorized **** UPDATE ****
Fox has indicated to MTV News that this is not an authorized image from the "X-Men: First Class" movie.

http://splashpage.mtv.com/2011/01/18/x-men-first-class-cast-image/

Who is Moira MacTaggert?

Born Moira Kinross, Moira MacTaggert became one of the world's leading authorities on genetic mutation, earning her a Nobel Prize for her work. She is the longest running human associate of the X-Men and is Professor Charles Xavier's colleague and confidante. She eventually created a Mutant Research Center on Muir Island, off the coast of Scotland, and helped in the founding of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and was the co-creator of Cerebro.


More details at Wikipedia

Moira MacTaggert in X-Men 3: The Last Stand (post-credit sequence)

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert.

James McAvoy as Charles Xavier, Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique and Rose Byrne as Moira MacTaggert.