Signing on to the Role of Magneto: McKellen says the opportunity to work with Bryan Singer influenced his decision to take part in the X-Men movies in the first place. “Yes and, well, it’s always with me. It's never just the part,” explained McKellen. “It's who is going to direct it and how well the part is written and all sorts of things. But I had to take X-Men: The Last Stand on trust because I didn't know Brett, and I didn't know much of his work either. I was pretty well committed to doing the film beforehand. He arrived very late in the day, eight weeks before we started shooting on a very, very, very difficult job. I felt very sorry for him, really, because you need eight months to prepare a movie like this.”
Bryan Singer, Brett Ratner and the X-Men Film Series: “[Singer] had, no more than I, known about X-Men until a friend showed him and introduced him to the comic, and then he got, as I did, very excited about the idea of the story. So we were all, not alarmed, but interested in what new direction Brett Ratner's arrival would take the films. There was no worry because Brett was so in love with the first two films that he wanted to make a third that looked as if it had been directed by Bryan Singer - his own words, in fact. We'll see whether he's achieved that or not.
I think that the plot is more interesting than the previous two so it's fair to say that it'll be at least as exciting. Magneto gets to do an awful lot in this film, which he didn't in the second one, so I'm very happy about it. It's not going to be a change of direction. It's not like Tim Burton is suddenly coming in and doing his stuff. Brett Ratner is doing basically what Bryan did.”
On the X-Men: The Last Stand Set with Director Brett Ratner in Control: “I've often said that the way of defining a good director – you can't be a good director unless you can hold a good party. At a good party you have a group of people that you've specifically brought together because you think that they'll get on, and then your job is to make them get on. Your job is not to have a good time. It's to make sure that they have a good time. You treat each of them differently and make sure that they have the right drink in their hand. You say the right words of encouragement, you introduce people… You're the facilitator and that's what Brett’s brilliant at. Absolutely brilliant.
Bryan isn't very good at that. I've never been to a party at Bryan's. I dread to think what it would be like. Bryan is much more internal and self-obsessed and neurotic, and that comes out in the films that he makes, doesn't it? It's part of what he does. Brett is a party animal and he wants everyone to have a good time. If they're enjoying themselves, then so is he. Well, that's a very, very good atmosphere for a movie of this sort where there are long, long waits while things are being setup. Where the scenes aren't that intense. You can't really get lost in the dialogue of an X-Men movie. It's very good to have the leader keeping everyone's spirits up and that's what he does.”
Was it a happier set under the leadership of Ratner? McKellen said, “It was just different. Who knows what it would've been like with Bryan this time because we all know what we're doing because we've done it now for three films. It wasn't new territory. We didn't have to go out into the jungle beating aside the dangerous paths that were trying to strangle us. It was plain sailing really and it probably would've been the same if Bryan was directing this time as well.”
Acting and CGI: One of the big scenes in the film finds McKellen as Magneto throwing cars off of the Golden Gate Bridge. McKellen explained how that scene was set up: “Well, we had the Golden Gate Bridge there. It was built in Vancouver, Canada – the remnants of it. It was the bridge after it landed on Alcatraz. So you didn't have to use your imagination, there it was.
The actual flying through the air, yeah, you have to use your imagination, but we were on a bit of metalized road and there were lights and there was a breeze. The wind was blowing in our hair and our cloaks, and it felt as if you were flying a bit. They just have to tell you what it's going to be like, what it is that you're doing, and then they report as to whether it looks convincing on the monitor as you're waving your arms around. There is a lot of the filming that is of that sort and you just have to take it on trust, but that's all right. You understand that the magic of filming is often after the actors have long since vanished, when everything else is put together.”
