This being your last X-Men movie, what is the one aspect of the franchise you will miss most?
I’m going to miss being on the sets with people like Patrick Stewart. When I began in 1999, I admit I was a little star-struck. I’d seen John Barton’s Playing Shakespeare so many times and I dreamt that I would do Shakespeare with Stewart one day… to think I would be on the same sets as Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart. The sets of X-Men , much like theatre, were such that we all became really close, but I realised that it is not the case with all films. I like to believe there is such a thing as the ‘Art of Living’. If there’s someone who has perfected that, it is Patrick Stewart. It’s the people I’m going to miss the most. But Logan will always be a part of me.
How do you see Logan’s character has evolved in these years?
Logan is a radical departure for my character. I think the world of the film is very different from the other X-Men films. The director wanted to make the film smaller. I remember a chat with one of my earliest drama teachers. I asked him, when we do a show eight times a week, was I meant to make it different each time? He said, ‘It’s not different, but it is deeper.’ We’ve gone deeper With Logan... the script has allowed that.
By making a film as gritty and real as the R-rated Logan, have the X-Men films ‘grown up’?
The sole purpose of Logan was to get into the real essence of what we thought the character was all about. And the studio said yes immediately. There is one rule in the world today: ‘the average, fails’. If you’re not giving people a reason to go to the theatre, then no marketing campaign will work. By 7 pm on the Friday you’ve opened, you know if your film’s dead. You can’t just say ‘It’s an X-Men movie and it will run’.
When did you first think you should stop playing Wolverine?
I was having dinner with Jerry Seinfeld and I asked him why he ended his supremely successful show at the time he did. He said that creatively, it is important that we don’t run ourselves dry. He didn’t say that you need to be on top, but if you leave when you still have ideas, it would propel your next endeavour. As he said this, I knew it was time.
How does it feel to be bidding farewell to a franchise you’ve been a part of for 17 years?
Even as I was doing the film, I knew it mattered a lot to me. I was fully aware, this being my last one, it should end without any regrets… knowing there isn’t anything more we could have done. I was a pain to the director because of this. But, when I finally watched the film in Berlin with Patrick, I grabbed his hand, and I felt so much emotion. It felt gratifying, relieving and satisfying. It just felt right.
Someone asked me today how it felt like to leave. We’re not leaving. We’ll still be at the table having dinner. Just that we don’t have to cook any more.
