Patrick Stewart on X-Men (film)

“I wanted to get some of the history of the character of course, particularly with his relationship with Magneto, but also to feel how Stan Lee had got inside the mind of Xavier from the very beginning. That was valuable. But it's true, like Bryan, when we had the final draft of the shooting script that's what we worked on.”

“PS: Bryan set out to make a serious movie. That was his intention from the very beginning. Which also happens to be very exciting and very colorful, funny and so forth. It wasn't only Xavier, but having Magneto also as an individual of substance, of great strength and power was important. And who better than Sir Ian to do that. It was a very sensible idea.”