Anna Paquin ‘Completely Understood’ Lost Screen Time In X-Men: DOFP
Anna Paquin (Rogue) could have had a lot more screen time had her sub-plot serviced the story in X-Men: Days Of Future Past. However, much of her work was ultimately left on the cutting room floor, according to a new report from UPI.
Luckily, Paquin, ever the consummate professional, “completely understood” her removal — at least, that’s what director Bryan Singer told Entertainment Weekly in an interview conducted last year.
“She completely understood,” Singer said of the actress’s reaction to getting cut out of one of the biggest films of the year. “It’s very disappointing, but she’s very professional and she knows that stuff happens, particularly with material you shoot early on in production. Films evolve.”
Fans are probably sweating it worse than Anna Paquin, but according to writer Simon Kinberg, they may still get a peek at what the scenes would have been like.
During a recent podcast with Empire, Kinberg said the subplot that Paquin shot for the X-Men film was “significant,” and, “it’ll end up on Blu-ray some way down the line.”
Kinberg admitted that the scene he’d written “didn’t service the story,” but still felt it was strong material.
“The Rogue subplot was originally there because I wanted a mission for the older Charles (Patrick Stewart) and Eric (Ian McKellen) to do, something like Unforgiven – two last gunslingers, Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman – that kind of a mission for them. I just loved the idea of that. Nothing in the story necessitated that, but just for a lark, I thought it would be a cool thing to see, because we may never see it again,” Kinberg said.
The scene would have lasted “about 10 minutes” and would have found Charles and Eric on a final mission to rescue Rogue from “some dark, scary place” in an effort to save Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page).
“I thought it would increase the urgency and the stakes of the plot in the future, but it actually does the opposite, because it makes you feel like there is an answer out there,” Kinberg said. “You think once Rogue gets here, we’ll have an unlimited amount of time. The ticking clock that we’d established with Kitty getting wounded and losing her powers… well, Rogue would show up and press stop on the clock. So for all of those narrative reasons, there was this ten-minute subplot that had to go.”
If you’re miffed that you didn’t get to see enough of Anna Paquin in X-Men: Days Of Future Past, fret not. You can still catch her in the latest season of True Blood.
[Image via Bing and Helga Esteb / Shutterstock.com]
