Making Logan Was A Hugely Emotional Experience For Patrick Stewart And Hugh Jackman
In terms of their narrative structure, superhero stories and soap operas are nearly identical. In both formats, writers strain for literally decades to keep the same characters active and interesting. Characters die and return. Rivalries last for years, are settled, and then rekindled anew. Evil twins appear and disappear with regularity. They marry, divorce, marry, divorce, and marry again. In both soaps and superhero comics, it's vitally important to keep the story going indefinitely. The same approach has been taken with superhero movies, as characters enter a universe where they are expected to be crimefighters in perpetuity. "Batman would never retire" is such a sad phrase, indicating that Batman will be eternally trapped in an endless cycle of violence. No one is allowed to have a third act.
James Mangold's 2017 superhero film "Logan" — one of the best of its genre — gave audiences something they rarely see for a costumed vigilante: an end. "Logan" is about the dying days of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Professor X (Patrick Stewart), long after the X-Men disbanded and the world fell into an impoverished wasteland. It seems that living by a code of superhero violence will merely lead to eventual death and destitution, not triumph and retirement. Professor X is living in a disused storage tank of some kind and Logan, his powers fading, drives a limo to make ends meet. Everyone is unhappy. It's a beautiful film.
Stewart got particularly emotional when making "Logan." It was the sixth time he had played Charles Xavier, and the entire experience was a fond farewell. In his new autobiography "Making It So: A Memoir," Stewart speaks candidly about making "Logan," and the touching moment he shared with Hugh Jackman at the film's premiere.
Returning to Charles
When Stewart was to play Charles Xavier for the first time back in 2000, he didn't even know who the X-Men were (as he describes elsewhere in his book). In 2016, having played the part in six movies, Stewart admitted that he didn't want to play Charles Xavier yet again in 2016, but he was lured by an opportunity to work with James Mangold, a director he admired. He also liked the new premise of the script, writing:
"I started reading. Whoa. The year is 2029. The X-Men themselves are in steep decline, and no mutants have been born for twenty-five years. James and his co-writers, Scott Frank and Michael Green, were exploring the idea of superhero entropy — what happens when they get clapped out and old, their powers waning, the general public indifferent to them?"
Charles, in addition to living in a tank, is dealing from dementia. He babbles, misremembers things, and occasionally has superpowered mental aneurysms that unwittingly cause earthquakes and bodily damage. Filming with his co-stars was also a wonderful experience for Stewart, not just with Jackman, but with the young Dafne Keen, who plays a character named Laura, a semi-feral mutant child with Wolverine's powers. Stewart admired the 11-year-old's passion, writing:
"We started filming in May 2016. Being back on a set with Hugh was thrilling and invigorating. We were joined by Stephen Merchant as the mutant Caliban ... and child actress Dafne Keen, the most extraordinary juvenile performer with whom I have ever worked. [...] Dafne's focus and seriousness were something to behold when we were rehearsing and shooting — she reminded me of myself in my younger 'We are not here to have fun' days."
Stewart said, though, that when the cameras stopped rolling, Keen became kind and genial.
That's a wrap
Wrapping filming proved to be hard on Stewart, who didn't have the time to really say goodbye; he was too busy to hang around on set. He wrote:
"James directed the movie with such care and sensitivity, accepting creative input from the actors and heightening our performances with his own input. I want to work with him again, and I was desolate when my time on Logan was up. I had another commitment to dash off to, so all of my scenes were completed early in the shoot. Saying goodbye to James, Hugh, Stephen, and Dafne was hard."
Stewart says that he and Jackman finally had a moment to reunite during the film's premiere in February of 2017. It was the first time the actors had seen the completed film, and they wasn't prepared for how they might react. It seems that Jackman became a little overwhelmed, leading to a sweet bonding moment between him and Stewart. From the book:
"I had not yet seen the film and was unprepared for the impact it had on me — and on Hugh. After ... Charles Xavier dies, during a scene in which Logan and Laura stand by the pile of earth that marks his grave, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Hugh had lifted a hand to his cheek to wipe a tear away. There was nothing I could do except take his hand in mine. He smiled at me, and we held hands until the credits ran."
Stewart would return to play Charles Xavier one last time in a film called "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but that was a parallel universe version of the character with no emotional connection to the titular "Doctor."