Nicholas Hoult and Alex Gonzalez on filming X-Men: First Class.

X-MEN: FIRST CLASS actors Nicholas Hoult and Alex Gonzalez are featured in two new interviews with IGN Movies and Geek Syndicate, respectively. The two spoke about their characters, their powers and filming on set.

IGN: What goes into the Beast make-up?

Hoult: The costume is four hours. It’s a mask, which is stuck onto my face with a headpiece, and that takes the majority of the time, getting it to look right with the teeth and contact lenses. They’ve done a fantastic job creating this face that moves with my expressions. I have to make the performance bigger underneath it, but it moves a lot. They give me a muscle suit, obviously, and that’s pretty much the gist of it. Lots of fur, which I eat a lot of by accident.

IGN: How do you feel in the muscle suit?

Hoult: I feel like such a tart when I take it off! At the end of the day the muscle suit comes off and I look at myself in the mirror and say, ‘You’re pathetic.’ It’s really quite horrible.

IGN: Does Beast get any of that action?

Hoult: I get some very cool action. Azazel and I have a great fight at one point. So far the stunts that I’ve done I’ve been rubbish at. I took a big hit on my head, and a big hit on my foot so far. Spinning around on wires and stuff. There’s definitely some very cool action. I’m in the Beast suit for the final fight, which we’re about to shoot in Georgia, and that’s going to be very tricky negotiating the suit and the heat and everything.

Click here to read the full interview!

GS: How exciting is it to be a part of this big X-MEN world?

Gonzalez: It’s very exciting. For every actor who is starting his career, it’s very different to get a film like this one, but for Spanish actors, it’s a bit more difficult, especially for Spanish actors with my level of English!

But I’m very excited, because I’m an X-MEN fanatic and I’m very happy to be here. Today, I was watching the rehearsal, and sometimes I feel that I’m outside of it. It’s wonderful. I have to say, “Come on, I’m here, I’m working. I’m not the audience. I’m inside, not outside.” It’s really nice.

GS: Tell us about your character.

Gonzalez: “My character is Riptide. Riptide is not very popular as a villain, but in the beginning he started working with Mr. Sinister. In the movie he doesn’t have any relationship with Mr. Sinister, so it’s not like in the comic book. He’s working with Sebastian Shaw, played by Kevin Bacon. Basically, he can control the wind – he can throw gusts with his hand. But when he’s very angry, he can create a tornado around him. It’s fun, but it’s a little bit difficult to create in real life. I have to put myself on a spinning trailer, which spins very fast. So the first fifteen minutes it’s funny, but after that it’s a bit dangerous for other people. They need to carry umbrellas, because I feel like I’m about to throw up at any second! It’s very easy to get sick.”

GS: Is your character angry often?

Gonzalez: “Yes, he’s very dangerous. But, you know, he comes across very respectably and he’s very polite. For me, he’s just like a tornado. When you see a tornado from afar, it’s calm. The only thing that you can see is a kind of tube. But inside, up close, it’s very dangerous. Inside of Riptide everything is very fast and very angry. He looks like he’s under control, but in the moment that Mr. Shaw gives me the sign, I just blow it, because I’m looking forward to doing that and to showing everybody. He’s a bit egocentric and in the moment when he’s a tornado, he’s enjoying it all the time. We all feel a little bit of pain for our gift. These guys, right now they feel a little bit embarrassed to be mutants. But I really think everyone can recognise something in this movie, because at some point in all of our lives we’ve felt a little bit estranged. Then you discover yourself, and it’s nice.”

Click here to read the full interview!