Cast News – Edi Gathegi in X-Men & Bryce Dallas Howard intvs Xavier Samuel

Interview Magazine had Bryce Dallas Howard interviewing Xavier Samuel.

BRYCE DALLAS HOWARD: So now that you’re almost on the other side with Eclipse, how has everything been for you? It’s all been a little wild, right?

XAVIER SAMUEL: Yeah, it has. It’s kind of like being struck by lightning in a way, because it all seems so improbable.

HOWARD: Eclipse is your first American film.

SAMUEL: It is. I’ve been doing American auditions for a while, and it always felt sort of like sending these audition tapes off into the ether. So just hearing anything back from anyone was kind of startling.

HOWARD: When we were shooting Eclipse, it was amazing for me to see how the girls all went berserk over you. These girls were totally losing their minds—and much like everyone else in the cast who experiences those sorts of things, you dealt with it really graciously and wonderfully. Were you at all startled by that?

SAMUEL: I mean, it’s kind of bizarre, isn’t it? Having that kind of attention. I’m not under the microscope in the same fashion that a lot of the other cast members are, so I think I can slide under the radar a little bit more, but getting any attention at all is completely new for me.

HOWARD: Well, it’s been interesting to see how these young women have responded to you and your hair and your accent.

SAMUEL: My hair and my accent are sort of my main assets.

HOWARD: So many great actors come from Australia—I just had the great pleasure of working with one recently who you’ve worked with, Mia Wasikowska. Do you find that Australian actors are sort of like a little tribe?

SAMUEL: Yes. We hold these secret meetings, like a cult.

HOWARD: Where you talk about how you’re going to take over Hollywood? I wouldn’t be surprised—that’s exactly what’s happening.

SAMUEL: I don’t know that many Australian actors in Los Angeles, but there are a few of us. I mean, we kind of get together occasionally, but I wouldn’t say it’s an alliance or anything like that.

HOWARD: I’ve found, just from working with Australians like you and Mia and Sam Worthington—actually Gus Van Sant, who directed the film [Restless] I worked on with Mia, also noticed this with Nicole Kidman—that you guys have such a sturdiness. I don’t know if it’s just the terrain in Australia or the kind of training you do or the way acting is taught over there, but there’s a sturdiness that we as Americans could definitely learn something from. There’s also a sense of gratitude.

SAMUEL: Well, I think it’s the training coupled with the fact that the films that get made are so few and far between. In Australia, getting an audition can be a rarity. There just aren’t as many opportunities. So I guess the mentality is that you kind of give your all whenever you get a chance to work. When you put that in the American context, where you’re getting a substantial number of auditions a week by comparison, I guess your strike rate is a bit better, in a way. I mean, being in a film like Eclipse is such a great opportunity—and there’s a massive fan base with these Twilight movies that you need to respect. So I don’t think I could sleep at night if I didn’t give it my best shot.

Read the rest of the interview at InterviewMagazine.com

Deadline.com has this great news about Edi Gathegi!

EXCLUSIVE: Edi Gathegi, who played a chillingly evil vampire in Twilight and Twilight Saga: New Moon, is joining X-Men: First Class in the role of Darwin. That character, the first bi-racial mutant (in the comic series), has the power of “reactive evolution,” which allows him to adapt to any situation or environment. Plunged underwater, he’ll grow gills, he’ll gain night vision in pitch black and his skin grows fire retardant when burned.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS is a prequel to the X-Men Series -

Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-MEN.

(From IMDB Written by Twentieth Century Fox)