May 2003
X2 (X-Men United) : An Interview with Rebecca Romijin-Stamos

Interviewed by Godfrey Powell

X2 (X-Men United): An Interview with Rebecca Romijin-Stamos

The 5’11 former supermodel Rebecca Romijin-Stamos is a statuesque beauty. Surprisingly she is very down to earth and refreshingly unpretentious. Married to former Full House star John Stamos, Rebecca sat down with blackfilm.com writer Godfrey Powell, Jr. to discuss her upcoming role as Mystique in X-Men 2.


GP: How irritating is putting on the blue makeup to become Mystique?

RS: Pretty bad. I don’t want to be a big whiner because it’s such a great thing to be a part of {X-Men 2} but it’s pretty grueling. It’s not only the time {9 hours for the first X-Men. 6 hours for the second X-Men} but the maintenance. It’s not easy having 5 women constantly in your personal space. You have tremendous mood swings. You go from being perfectly happy and having a nice time to being evil bitch woman. Having Alan {Alan Cumming who plays Nightcrawler} there on this one was definitely great. We were like an old bitchy blue married couple. No one else understood.


GP: I heard that you were so irritable at one point that Bryan Singer told you to, “Go drink a glass of white wine!”

RS: Yes, he did. He opened up the tent where literally I was getting my crack touched up. And I turned around and I said, “Don’t come in here Bryan! You don’t need to be seeing this!” He said, “Ewww, you need some white wine” {to calm her nerves} and handed me a glassful.


GP: Did you have to wear yellow contacts again?

RS: I didn’t have to wear contacts on this one. I did on the first one. I couldn’t see. It’s really hard to kick ass when you can’t see. This time they changed my eye color in post-production.


GP: You have a few scenes where you are out of costume….

RS: Oh! Those were my two favorite days of shooting. It was fun and written in for me. Wish there had been more.


GP: But to be in X-Men has to be exciting.

RS: Yes, it’s wonderful to be a part of a smart, superhero franchise that has a conscience, a message and well-made movies.


GP: Do you stay in touch with other cast members?

RS: Yeah, we’re all friends. Alan and I are taking a vacation together in a few weeks. Famke {Janssen who plays Jean Grey} and I get together for dinner occasionally.


GP: Well, that’s good that you and Alan are close because in X-Men 3 a future storyline might involve the fact that you are his mother. {Mystique is Nightcrawler’s mother}

RS: That’s right! And Alan didn’t even know. None of us went in with any knowledge of X-Men. Of course now we’re experts. I had to tell him. And he said, (she mockingly fakes his British accent) “Whaaat? How’s that then?”


GP: On the sequel, what made this one more enjoyable?

RS: I was glad that they gave my character more to do. They gave her more dimensions. You see more of her sexual side and her sense of humor. You kind of understand her more. And I was impressed that for such a huge cast they gave us great action, over the top stuff and also, good moments. Meaningful chunks of things to do.


GP: How did the studio prepare you for your role?

RS: Well, they send you over a stack of comics. We had meetings with Bryan and he gives us back story. You ask questions. The information sort of comes to you. Then people you know come out the woodwork as X-Men fans. I mean I have friends who go to ComicCon which I had no idea about until I got involved with X-Men.


GP: Tell me about working with Ian McKellan. I hear for every scene he needs to know Magneto’s motivation.

RS: He always needs to know his motivation and what it is he’s talking about. There was one day when we had been there for hours and we had gone way over. I’m in this lair doing computer stuff and he comes in and bursts the door down with all the other X-Men. He’s got to come in and say, “Have you found it?” And he didn’t know what it was. So he kept saying, “What is it? What is it that she’s found?” And we were like don’t ask, just say it or else it’s going to take an hour for them to come over and explain it all to you. Just say it!


GP: How do you decide which roles to take? Do you have a specific plan in mind?

RS: No. There’s no plan. It’s based on the individual material and whether I respond to it or not. Most of the parts that come my way are boring pretty girl roles. I’ve gone out of my way to avoid those. I’ve gone for the pretty girl roles that are broken and flawed. The pretty girl but then there’s something wrong with her. Like in Femme Fatale.


GP: What’s your next project?

RS: This movie called Godsend with Greg Kinnear and me. I play the mother of a little boy who dies and Robert DeNiro is a doctor who clones him. Then the clone becomes like a bad seed.


GP: Thank you for your time!

RS: Thank you.