X-Men Cast Reportedly Threatened to Quit Sequel Due to Bryan Singer’s Behavior

Over the past few years, Bryan Singer‘s erratic on-set behavior during the filming of his original X-Men trilogy has been well-documented. Friday morning, a scathing new report surfaced (via THR) that detailed the problematic atmosphere the filmmaker created for the cast and crew working on the franchise. It got to a point, in fact, the main cast confronted the director in his trailer and threatened to drop out of the franchise altogether. It was at this makeshift intervention where Halle Berry told the director to kiss her “Black ass.”

“His behavior was poor on the movie,” one unnamed producer told the trade. “We accommodated him on the first movie, and therefore we can accommodate him on the second movie. And on and on. And it created a monster.”

Long-time Hollywood A-lister Lauren Shuler Donner added, “It’s a weird business, the film business. We honor creativity and talent and we forgive the brilliant ones. Unconsciously, we probably do enable them by turning a blind eye to whatever they’re doing and taking their product and putting it out to the world.”

As the report puts it, the production eventually assigned someone to make sure Singer stayed in line and got the film done on time. That person turns out to be Kevin Feige, current Chief Creative Officer of Marvel Entertainment and the primary architect behind Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the time, he had been serving as a production assistant to Shuler Donner.

Since his X-Men trilogy has been released, Singer has been accused of sexual assault. In a fiery panel held last year, X-Men star Ian McKellen spoke to the accusations.

“With the couple of names you’ve mentioned, people I’ve worked with, both of them were in the closet,” the actor explained. “And hence all their problems as people and their relationships with other people, if they had been able to be open about themselves and their desires, they wouldn’t have started abusing people in the way they’ve been accused.”

“Whether they should be forced to stop working, that’s debatable,” McKellen added. “I rather think that’s up to the public. Do you want to see someone who has been accused of something that you don’t approve of again? If the answer’s no, then you won’t buy a ticket, you won’t turn on the television. But there may be others for who that’s not a consideration. And it’s difficult to be exactly black and white.”

Cover photo by Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images