X-Men once recruited veteran actor Patrick Stewart to portray the powerful telepath Charles Xavier . And as successful as the original X-Men was, Stewart felt there were huge differences between X-Men and its sequel. Patrick Stewart felt the ‘X-Men’ sequel’ was a giant leap from the first film Professor X has become one of Stewart’s most popular roles, perhaps equally or more so than his role as Captain Picard in Star Trek .
But it nearly didn’t happen, as Stewart initially turned down the role as the mutant leader. In his memoir Making It So: A Memoir , Stewart confided that producer Lauren Donner initially brought the comic book character to his attention. But Stewart had no idea what to make of him.
“This conversation made about as much sense to me as the one I’d had with Steve Dontanville all those years ago in which he asked me why Gene Roddenberry wanted to meet me. Charles Xavier? The X-Men? I hadn’t a bloody clue what was going on,” Stewart recalled. Eventually, however, Stewart would get the gist of the character.
But that actually seemed to discourage him even further from adopting the role. “My thoughts at the time? No. No more fantasy.
No more sci-fi. No more telepaths. No more actors zipped into formfitting costumes.
I’m done with all that. Thanks for thinking of me, but — no, absolutely not,” he remembered saying. But after meeting the film’s director Bryan Singer, Stewart was sold on the role.
His praise for X-Men was only surpassed .