The Wolverine Screening Q&A With Director James Mangold

In support of today’s Blu-ray release of The Wolverine: Unleashed Extended Edition, filmmaker James Mangold met with reporters for a special screening of the film last night on the Fox Lot.Below is a quick-and-dirty transcript of the Q&A that followed the screening. You can check out more on the event here.This is seven movies now for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, right? What do you think keeps him coming back?I think he’s phenomenal in the role. I made Kate and Leopold with Hugh after he’d made the first X-Men so to me it doesn’t seem like the same–he was part of an ensemble in that first film. I don’t think he had any idea, even after completing it, what was happening.It’s easy to look back and go, “He’s made seven movies; he’s been the Wolverine,” but in the beginning he was part of a crew. I think that the evolution of what’s happened with it is the natural evolution of a great character and a great actor. It’s one of those really rare moments where it’s an alignment of the right person for the right job and I think when that happens, Sean Connery Bond, I don’t think there’s any reason that should stop.Do you think fans are more forgiving of actors and less prone to typecast them than there used to be? Do you think it’s just the fact that the movies are so good that stops him from being typecast into a role like Chris Reeve or Leonard Nimoy?I wouldn’t credit the movies and I wouldn’t credit anything but just Hugh. I think that he’s an incredible, versatile……Leonard Nimoy can’t sing and dance, God love him. And he can’t do a romantic comedy with Meg Ryan. So there’s a reality to Hugh Jackman in terms of his own versatility that is really uniquely equipped to both eclipse and live within the world of the character he’s created.