James McAvoy played the young Professor X in the more recent X-Men films. In preparation for his role, he accidentally shaved his hair too early. Then he got some glued on again.
James McAvoy played the young Charles Xavier aka Professor X in the new X-Men films X-Men: First Class (2011) to X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019).
Thinking that his character in the second film in the new X-Man series X-Men Days of Future Past (2014) had already lost his hair, the actor shaved his hair short – but it was too early for him told GQ in December 2022.
German trailer for the Marvel film “X-Men: Days of Future Past”
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“We do hair extensions and I get real 70’s hair“
In preparation for his role as Professor X in X-Men Days of Future Past, James McAvoy figured it would be good if he shaved off his hair this time.
He was convinced that by then his character already had the iconic bald head seen in the comics and the earlier incarnation of Sir Patrick Stewart.
So the actor got a buzz cut that kept the sides very short and only a little hair left on the top of his head.
You can see the YouTube video of the interview itself here. For the hair story, skip to 6:50:
via YouTube
“I’ll shave it off some more when I get there [ans Set] come“, James McAvoy planned. Arriving on set, however, the reaction to the new haircut was different than expected:
But when I got on the set, they said, “No, no, no, no, no, no.”[…] I get the script and I see it’s set in the 70’s and I say: “Okay, we do hair extensions and I get real 70’s hair.“
James McAvoy via YouTube
The actor was assured that it could be done without the hair extensions. But James McAvoy denied this with the words: “No, you really can’t do that.“
Especially when James McAvoy found out he was starring in the film with Sir Patrick Stewart and thought about how the other actor played the character, the decision to have the hair lengthened was finally made:
The actor wanted to have long hair and look like he was on drugs, “alone to show how long the journey [für Charles] must be until he becomes Sir Patrick Steward.”
In another interview, the actor opened up about why he thinks the new X-Men movies have been getting worse and worse, as you can read about with our fellow Movie Starters here.
The actor reached out to the film’s main hair supervisor and asked if someone could rush in to do Professor X’s hair extensions.
In fact, someone was found who could use extensions to turn the actor’s short-shaved hair into a long shaggy mane.
It took James McAvoy a full 18 hours to get the hairstyle that you see in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
Another member of the X-Men could also have become an iconic secret agent, however the actor turned down the offer:
Because of this, Wolverine had no interest in playing James Bond