There's no shortage of horror stories associated with acclaimed director Bryan Singer. While Bryan is still dealing with what are deemed allegations, there's no doubt that he has been wrapped up in some full-on scandals. And some of these scandals are quite disturbing. But even Bryan's on-set reputation hasn't been stellar. While Bryan is responsible for some of the best (and worst) entries in the X-Men universe prior to them joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he has rubbed some of the cast members the wrong way.
Whether it was because of his lack of work ethic (attributed to his alleged addiction issues) or his general attitude, Bryan has run afoul of a couple of X-Men's biggest stars. Of course, the X-Men movies have one of the most impressive rosters of A-list talent in the entire business. While many A-listers try and keep quiet about their true feelings about their colleagues, Bryan has inspired a few of the mutant superheroes and villains to speak out publicly about him. Here's what they've said.
Bryan Singer's On-Set Behaviour Led To The Cast Revealing Their True Thoughts
Currently, the press is having a field day with reports that Halle Berry (Storm) had major conflicts with her X-Men director. Most famously, according to People, Halle was among the cast members who confronted Bryan on the set of X-Men 2: X-Men United after Bryan was absent for a chunk of filming. In Alan Cumming's latest autobiography, the Nightcrawler actors claimed that he, Halle, and a number of their castmates, including Sir Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, and Famke Janssen, confronted Bryan in his trailer while shooting the snowy Alkali lake sequence.
However, this story has actually been circulating for a few years. It was particularly popular when Bryan Singer's abuse allegations first came to light. While the cast and crew of the X-Men movies claim they didn't know about Bryan's alleged and illegal activities off the set, they did know that he was ultimately destructive onset.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, producer Tom DeSanto claimed that Bryan was totally incapacitated after taking a narcotic while filming the climax of X2. Turns out, a few of the crew members took the drug with the director and this ended up in a stunt gone wrong that injured Hugh Jackman. Clearly, this contributed to Hugh's mixed feelings about making the X-Men movies.
This is also what caused most of the main cast (except for Sir Ian McKellan and Rebecca Romijn, who weren't onset) to confront Bryan in his dressing room. According to Alan, they all threatened to quit if he didn't shape up. Bryan's response was allegedly vicious as he claimed that none of them had made a good movie prior to being involved with him. Halle got so mad at this that she screamed, "I've heard enough! You can kiss my Black a**!" and left the trailer.
Because Bryan was making the studio a lot of money they constantly let him off the hook and gave him more chances than perhaps he deserved. At least, this is the thought of X-Men producer Lauren Shuler Donner in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Of course, despite the story coming from multiple sources, Bryan's representation claimed that it never happened.
To clarify the story further, Halle Berry told Variety in 2020 that Bryan Singer is definitely "not the easiest" to work for. "I mean, everybody's heard the stories — I don't have to repeat them — and heard of his challenges, and what he struggles with," Halle explained. "I would sometimes be very angry with him. I got into a few fights with him, said a few cuss words out of sheer frustration. When I work, I'm serious about that. And when that gets compromised, I get a little nutty. But at the same time, I have a lot of compassion for people who are struggling with whatever they're struggling with, and Bryan struggles."
Bryan Singer Caused Issues On The Later X-Men Films
While this could have been an isolated incident, it turns out Bryan was causing more trouble on set years after making the first two X-Men. When he was brought back to make two of the prequel films, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, he was still acting unprofessionally. According to Olivia Munn (Psylocke) in a 2020 interview with People, Bryan actually vanished from the set for 10 days.
"He was gone for about 10 days is my recollection. And he said, 'Continue. Keep filming.' And he texted to the actors, 'Hey guys. I’m busy right now. But just go ahead and start filming without me.' And we’d be like, 'OK.' And I never thought any of it was normal, but I didn’t realize that other people also thought it wasn’t normal."
While Olivia made some decent money from X-Men, clearly it was a challenging job or reasons she didn't expect.
Bryan's representation claimed that he was dealing with a medical issue and that he only missed two days of work and not ten, but clearly, his actors remember things differently. Additionally, Sophie Turner (young Jean Grey) also recalled her experience working with Bryan as "unpleasant".
It seems that multiple X-Men cast members had issues with Bryan. But it's actually quite surprising that so many of them have remained silent when his allegations first came to light. Here's hoping we hear more in the near future.
