Alan Cumming recently said the second X-Men film “X2” was the “gayest film he’d ever worked on”— something that the movie’s writer David Hayter celebrated in a Pride Month interview with TMZ on Sunday. “It made me really happy,” Hayter said, “and I was so glad we had done right by him. He’s such an icon for gay rights.” The writer added that the writing on the film was “definitely done on purpose.”
He added that “X-Men” star Ian McKellen “recognized the allegory” of the stories “from the gay perspective” early on. “Our overall goal with the X-Men in general was just exclusion for anyone — anyone who faced hatred or exclusion or judgment still, and still felt compelled to do the right thing,” he continued.
Hayter cited other examples from the franchise, such as when Magneto paraphrased Malcolm X at the end of the first “X-Men” film.
“It’s really for anybody who feels exclusion, but, you know, we had a number of key creatives behind the camera and on camera who were gay, and so obviously that element was on our minds,” he said. “And so the fact that that came through [and] felt fulfilling for Alan really meant a lot to me personally.”
Hayter also referenced a line from the first “X-Men” film when Iceman’s mother asked, “Have you ever tried not being a mutant?” The moment “really illustrates what people go through when they’re facing bigotry in their own houses,” Hayter explained. “It’s like you cannot be what you are not, and the fact that people want you to be something that you’re not is so painful and so difficult to face.”
The writing was “definitely done on purpose,” he said. “The point of the X-Men is that we are all worthy of respect and we all have human value.”
After their release, the first two “X-Men” movies were tainted by allegations of sexual misconduct with underage boys against director Bryan Singer. In 2019, two men accused Singer of seducing them when they were underage and of rape.
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, “X-Men” star Hugh Jackman reflected on the allegations and the impact they might have had on the franchise. “You know, that’s a really, really complicated question,” he said. “There’s a lot of things at stake there. ‘X-Men’ was the turning point, I believe, in terms of comic-book movies and I think there’s a lot to be proud of.”
“And there’s certainly questions to be asked, and I think they should be asked. But I guess I don’t know how to elegantly answer that. I think it’s complex, and ultimately I look back with pride at what we’ve achieved and what momentum that started,” Jackman added.
Hayter has also shared his own experiences with harassment in Hollywood.
You can watch the TMZ interview with David Hayter in the video above.
The post The ‘Gay Perspective’ in ‘X-Men’ and ‘X2’ Was ‘Definitely Done on Purpose,’ Writer Says | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
