James Marsden often plays the third wheel
Source: post-gazette.com

By Sharon Eberson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

NEW YORK -- James Marsden had precious little to do in "X-Men: The Last Stand," but he wasn't complaining while promoting the first of the summer superhero movies. He had a lot more screen time in the second one, "Superman Returns," opening tonight and tomorrow.

Marsden, as the mutant Cyclops/Scott Summers, husband of Jean Grey, has a few highly charged emotional scenes in "X-3" before his character is dispatched.

His next acting assignment is Richard White, nephew of Perry and boyfriend of Lois Lane, in "Superman Returns."

In both films, Marsden is involved in awkward love triangles. And in moving between films, he does his own version of a superhero and his alter ego -- going from the visor-wearing mutant Cyclops to uncovering those baby blues to play the very human Richard.

"The characters are pretty different. Scott Summers, he's a very straitlaced, do-the-right-thing ... a very measured character. And Richard, he's more like a Kennedy. Great guy, good sense of humor. He's a pilot. So it's like, Lois couldn't have someone that didn't fly," he says, joking easily, as he does often during the interview.

He adds that Richard and Scott are "very different tonally."

Marsden's road from X-Men to Superman is a tale of two directors: He followed Bryan Singer, director of the first two "X-Men" films, to "Superman Returns." But he also worked for "X-3's" Brett Ratner, too.

Reuniting with Singer was a no-brainer for Marsden, who said the director kept his focus on "Superman Returns," even while he was aware Ratner was wrapping up "X-3."

Singer, Marsden said, "was never catty. Brett and Bryan are friends; he wants to see ['X-3'] succeed. He wants to see it complement his first two films. So, it wasn't like, 'Tell me about the script, tell me this ..' Bryan just sort of wished them well."

However, there was a moment when Singer, in his subtle way, showed a twinge of regret. "When that first trailer for 'X-Men' came out, I saw his heart just sort of ..." Marsden takes in a deep breath. "But he [kept] his eye on the prize while filming 'Superman.' "

Much has been made of the differences in Singer and Ratner's styles. Comparing them, Marsden said, "Bryan is a genius in the way he pulls the strings and ... he bottles things up and builds suspense. And what Brett's doing [on 'X-Men'] is taking that energy that Bryan created and letting it explode."

Marsden said the vision he will take away from "Superman Returns" is "seeing Bryan hunched over this microphone, he has this cape on the microphone."

He swears he's not kidding about the cape as the room erupts in laughter.

Marsden, a boyish 32-year-old who started his acting career as Jimmy (which is what most everyone still calls him), was in Pittsburgh in 2004 for a starring role in "10th & Wolf." These days, he's filming the fantasy "Enchanted," in which he plays a prince opposite co-stars Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey -- once again holding down the nice-guy corner in an attractive triangle.