We may not like him too much, but plenty of us know who Scott Summers aka Cyclops is in the X-Men movie universe. Enough about the “goody two-shoes,” let’s talk about his brother Alex Summers aka Havoc. He hasn’t been portrayed on the big screen up until this point in Matthew Vaughn’s “X-Men: First Class.” Now we have him in the flesh, played by the blossoming young actor Lucas Till. He’s still a bit uncomfortable with what cards life has dealt him but he’s still doing the best he can with his abilities in the new prequel.
Shortly after the Blu-ray presentation for “X-Men: First Class,” I got the great opportunity to chat with Lucas Till. Other than gabbing about his sneaky ways getting into Comic-Con, we talked about working with some of the more “respected” actors in his eyes, how much of the comics he’s read and the possibility of an “X-Men: First Class” seque.
ShockYa: I have to admit I really do like how far you’re going with your acting career because I remember seeing you at Comic-Con a couple of years ago for “Fear Clinic.”
Lucas Till: Oh yeah. Hey, “Fear Clinic” was a great project.
ShockYa: Oh no, it totally was! I’m not crapping on “Fear Clinic.”
Lucas Till: That’s crazy. You know, I didn’t even know that they had — that was my first Comic-Con that I showed up with no passes. We went to Kinkos, photo-copied a friend’s pass and got in.
ShockYa: Isn’t it so easy how you can fake a badge like that?
Lucas Till: Yeah, so easy. But then Robert (Hall), who directed my first movie when I was twelve and directed “Fear Clinic,” said ‘Dude, I know that you’re here so I’m going to get you into all the best parties and get you a free hotel room.’ It was the best Comic-Con ever. That was my first one but it’s crazy that you remember that.
ShockYa: Yeah, but this year has been really productive for you between “Battle: Los Angeles” and “X-Men: First Class.”
Lucas Till: Yeah… (Laughs)
ShockYa: I mean you can’t just forget “Battle: Los Angeles.”
Lucas Till: Yeah, but you can forget me in it if you blink! That’s why I made the laugh for a second there because I have three scenes where I’m like scared, scared, dead. That’s how I think of it, but I loved shooting that movie. I was there for four months, shooting everyday and going to boot camp, it was awesome.
ShockYa: Yeah, but we are here to talk about “First Class” so we should probably talk about that. (Laughs) This is probably a question you’ve been asked a million times but this is one I just want to know since I’m a fan of the comics: have you read the comics before or after the movie?
Lucas Till: Yeah, I do read them now but not before. I don’t think I’ve ever read one whole X-Men comic because I grew up with the animated series and that was all I really knew.
ShockYa: Yeah, I got weaned on X-Men with the animated series too in the nineties.
Lucas Till: Well my big thing was just that I didn’t like reading.
ShockYa: Read? Who needs to read!?
Lucas Till: I don’t need to read!
ShockYa: Yeah, you don’t need to read. You’re an actor, you just act. (Laughs)
Lucas Till: Yeah, someone tells me what to say and I don’t read scripts. I didn’t know what this was about before I did it. (Laughs) But yeah they did have somebdoy on set where it was his job to give us a thousand page binder of the comics to the main cast on their character. I have it in my house and I found it again yesterday.
ShockYa: Oh wow, and you buried it!
Lucas Till: No no no no! Well, underneath a bunch of clothes I did. But yeah I just found it yesterday and I have to finish it because I only got about 800 pages in. I’ll have to finish the rest.
ShockYa: When it comes to Havoc and being part of the X-crew, what was it like working with the rest of the cast on set? Also, how long did it take to shoot that particular training sequence montage? How much time did you get to spend with the whole group on set?
Lucas Till: The scene where we’re all getting to know each other, where we all come together for the first time, that took a long time to shoot, but the montage was shot on all different days during the course of filming. Mine only took two days to shoot my part of that but we all hung out all the time. It was such a good cast to work with and I was in the presence of people I really actually respect. Not that I haven’t had that in the past, but it’s not as often as I would like. I really have always looked up to a lot of people that I’m working with now. I’m making a movie with them and I’m thinking to myself ‘I don’t know how in the hell I snuck onto this set,’ it was awesome. I love being in this movie.
ShockYa: Are you looking forward to them making a sequel and hopefully having them one day reintroduce Cyclops back to the universe as your brother?
Lucas Till: Yeah, I think it’d be cool. I’ve always seen Cyclops as somebody who’s always got to be in the story, the anchor, but no one really likes him. Everybody likes Wolverine because he’s the rogue, the bad guy who you can identify with. Cyclops is just a follow-the-rules kind of guy. I’ve never really liked him.
ShockYa: And I can see why you are Havoc.
Lucas Till: Yeah. (Laughs) I’d be interested to see where they’d take us next.
“X-Men: First Class” arrives on DVD and Blu-ray everywhere on September 9th.
