Jennifer Lawrence is definitely not blue over being cast as Mystique in director Matthew Vaughn’s prequel X-Men: First Class, and SuperHeroHype caught a few revealing moments with the actress–who’s getting major awards buzz for her turn in the indie drama Winter’s Bone–to talk about slipping into the shapeshifter’s scales.
SuperHeroHype: How did you dig into the very, very dense X-Men world? Where was your starting point with the franchise?
Jennifer Lawrence: I didn’t really learn much about it until a few auditions in, and then I started doing that research right before I did the movie.
SHH: What was it that you found most appealing about the character and the project?
Lawrence: Honestly, I like anything, any character, any movie that has a beginning, a middle and an end, anything that goes through an arc and then there’s a change and then you end somewhere you weren’t in the beginning. That’s just what this movie is. It’s a prequel, and all of the characters and their relationships – they go through so much from the beginning. They change and there’s so much that happens in their lives. I just really thought that script was so good.
SHH: At this point, what can you reveal about about this film’s take on Mystique?
Lawrence: Gosh. I don’t know what I’m allowed to say! This is before she became the Mystique that we know her as, the mutant-and-proud, the tough girl. This is when she’s an insecure teenage girl – insecure about her hidden secret thing, a mutant, of being blue.
X-Men: First Class hits theaters on June 3, 2011.