It was 20 years ago that the “X-Men” franchise ushered in a new era of superhero films, but it also came at the expense of making Bryan Singer a big name in Hollywood. Now, a new report exposes Singer’s behind-the-scenes behavior during the making of the first two films, and how he caused the main cast to nearly quit the film following a stunt gone horribly wrong.
A new article by The Hollywood Reporter recounts some of the many horror stories that “created a monster” in Singer. Per the report, “X2: X-Men United” producer Tom DeSanto called for a production shut down after a fight with Singer, alleging that Singer was incapacitated and that DeSanto was fearful “someone on set could be injured.” Regardless, Singer continued shooting, and even bumped up an action scene on the X-Jet that featured all of the main cast except for Ian McKellen by a day. Because of the change in schedule, no stunt coordinator was present that day. Singer’s decision to shoot anyway and ahead of schedule allegedly resulted in “a botched stunt that left [Hugh] Jackman bleeding on camera.”
The next day 20th Century Fox “appeared to side with Singer” and told DeSanto to leave the production and return to L.A. As THR reports “That prompted the main cast members, minus McKellen and [Rebecca Romijn] — all dressed in their full X-Men costumes — to converge in Singer’s trailer and confront him, threatening to quit if DeSanto left. That’s when Berry famously said to Singer, ‘You can kiss my Black ass,’ a line that has been oft-reported in the years since but never with the correct backstory.”
The report even has “X-Men” executives admit that allowing Singer to continue working with the franchise despite numerous incidents enabled him to continue acting erratically throughout his career.
“It’s a weird business, the film business,” producer Lauren Shuler Donner said. “We honor creativity and talent and we forgive the brilliant ones. Unconsciously, we probably do enable them by turning a blind eye to whatever they’re doing and taking their product and putting it out to the world.”
An anonymous “X-Men” executive also added, “His behavior was poor on the movie. We accommodated him on the first movie, and therefore we can accommodate him on the second movie. And on and on. And it created a monster.”
