The penultimate installment in our X-Men 3 special centers on Professor Charles E. Xavier, played by british actor Patrick Stewart. In the past fifty years Stewart has attained a distinguished career in theatre where he has performed various characters in Shakespearian productions. He made a name for himself on television by playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation from 1987-1994 and in the Star Trek spin-off movies Star Trek: Generations (1994), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998) and Star Trek: Nemesis (2002).

Patrick Stewart (Charles E. Xavier/Professor X)

…on his interest in continuing on with X-Men
The first two movies were very good. And the ongoing story based on this franchise has a lot more mileage in it. And a lot of storylines both for individual characters as well as the overall world of mutants and mutation that I think has a lot of drama. I continue to find my character still fascinating and absorbing, and perhaps more than anything else, it’s the ensemble aspect of these films. I’ve always enjoyed that sense of company work and with this we’ve come back with fundamentally the same group of people.

…on his role
He’s still running the school, he’s still leading the X-Men, he is still fighting for mutant rights, still believes in the essential goodness of human nature that mutants will be accepted into society - unlike Magneto, who continues to believe that it’s only through force and the use of violence that mutation can be accepted in society.

…on the disagreement between Xavier and Magneto
There is one body of opinion, led by Magneto, that mutants must rule the Earth and they must do it through violence. And then Professor Xavier’s point of view which is that there should be acceptance and absorption of these mutants into general society.

…on Xavier’s conflict
Well, there’s a primary conflict for Xavier in this film, and it’s within himself. And it’s the conflict concerning his past treatment of Jean Grey, whom at the very beginning of their acquaintance he knew that he had someone of extraordinary power in his school. And as he became increasingly aware of that power, he sought to control it, to minimize it by applying to Jean Grey a series of what he calls “psychic blocks” that prevented her power from being fully expressed. He felt that this was the only way that she could be kept safe, as well as the rest of society, because of the potential for destruction that he felt existed within her.

…on Beast
I think the only character that I have any close contact with in this film is Beast, which is a delight for me because I happen to be a fan of the actor who plays that role, and who’s playing it magnificently. I’m speaking of course of Kelsey Grammer. Audiences are going to be stunned by their first sight of him and he has found a tone for the role which steps so delicately between a truly terrifying-appearing individual and the charming, intelligent, witty creature.

…on the meaning of the film
The one, perhaps dominant, quality which sets this apart from the other two is its intense emotion. Feelings are exploding all over this movie, partly because of the threat and the danger that is everywhere to our principal characters.

…on the end
Even now, being so accustomed to what can be achieved through technology and through computerization, I am so excited by some of the grand, climatic, epic effects with which this movie is going to end.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for our final update in our X-Men 3 special focusing on director Brett Ratner.

Official film synopsis: In X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, the final chapter in the “X-Men” motion picture trilogy, a “cure” for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test - triggering the war to end all wars

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