Brian Cox addresses Bryan Singer's behavior on the 'X2' set: 'He was under a lot of strain'

Back in 2003 when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was only a gleam in Marvel Studio president Kevin Feige's eye, 20th Century Fox's nascent X-Men universe took a major leap forward with the release of X2: X-Men United. Three years earlier, director Bryan Singer had shepherded the first feature film starring Marvel's band of mutants to the big screen and the success of that film — along with Wesley Snipes's popular Blade pictures — proved that there was still life left in comic book movies after high-profile flops like Batman & Robin and Spawn.

X-Men's nearly $300 million worldwide gross awarded Singer more creative freedom (and a bigger budget) on X2, and he used it to expand the franchise's scope. The sequel introduced new mutants and new mythology, as well as bigger action set-pieces and a final scene that directly set up an adaptation of the most famous X-Men storyline ever: the Dark Phoenix Saga. (Singer ultimately didn't direct the third X-Men film, instead moving over to Warner Bros. to helm 2006's poorly-received Superman Returns. He returned to the franchise with 2014's Days of Future Past.)

Released on May 2, 2003, X2 was widely hailed as one of the best comic book movies ever and solidified the foundation for a superhero franchise that ran for another seventeen years and nine movies. "I'm biased, but I think of all the X-Men movies, that's probably the best one," Brian Cox — who played X2's non-mutant antagonist, William Stryker — tells Yahoo Entertainment two decades later. "It's my favorite of those films."

In recent years, though, Singer's public fall from grace amid reports of predatory behavior and on-set meltdowns has complicated the legacy of his X-Men installments. In his 2021 memoir, Baggage, Alan Cumming — who played Nightcrawler in X2 — described the cast staging an on-set intervention for Singer over his use of painkillers that ended with Halle Berry, who played Storm in the first three X-Men films as well as Days of Future Past, telling the director to "kiss my Black a**."

Berry herself addressed her working relationship with the director in a 2020 interview with Variety, saying: "Bryan's not the easiest dude to work with. I mean, everybody's heard the stories — I don't have to repeat them — and heard of his challenges, and what he struggles with... I got into a few fights with him, said a few cuss words out of sheer frustration... 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."

More recently, Hugh Jackman — who rocketed to fame when he took on the role of fan favorite Wolverine in the 2000 original, and is set to pick up the claws again in Deadpool 3 — called the situation with Singer "complicated" in an interview with The Guardian. "I don't know how to elegantly answer that. I think it's complex and ultimately I look back with pride at what we’ve achieved and what momentum that started."

"I think there are some ways of being on set that would not happen now," Jackman continued, without mentioning Singer directly. "And I think that things have changed for the better."

Asked about Berry and Jackman's comments and whether they reflected his own experience collaborating with Singer, Cox says that the director was "under a lot of strain" during X2's complicated production. That strain sometimes manifested itself in last-minute changes when the cast arrived on set. "One of his great things was that when he came to a new set, he would have to rethink it," Cox recalls. "He'd have a thought, and then have to rethink [the scene]. So that was always a difficult transition for him. But once he cracked it, he cracked it very quickly and was able to get on with it."

"I think he's an extraordinary director — really, really gifted" Cox continues. "Certainly I will always be grateful to him because he had confidence in me and got me the role. I played a waiting game and it worked."

According to Cox, 20th Century Fox had other actors in mind for Stryker, but Singer was committed to casting the veteran Scottish character actor based on two of his performances in particular: serial killer Hannibal Lecter in 1986's Manhunter, Michael Mann's adaptation of Thomas Harris's blockbuster novel, and as a pedophile in the 2001 indie drama L.I.E. opposite a young Paul Dano. "Bryan summoned me to Vancouver where they were filming and said, 'Look, I want you to be in this, but I have to play the waiting game with Fox, because they want me to employ this guy or that guy,' I trusted him, and finally he got his way."

Looking back on X2 now, Cox is most impressed by the allegorical themes that Singer brought out of the X-Men comics and into the movie "There's real allegory in that film, and it serves a lot of purpose," he says. "That's why I love Bryan's view on it, because he sees it very much as those who are out of the norm as it were. It's very much an allegory film for him as well." (Singer came out as bisexual in 2014, and has discussed how the comics resonated with him growing up.)

The X-Men universe officially ended in 2020 with the belated release of The New Mutants, a long-delayed spin-off that was distributed by the Walt Disney Company after the studio acquired Fox in 2019. Since then, all eyes have been on Kevin Feige as fans wait to see how mutants make their way into the MCU. Besides Jackman's Deadpool 3 appearance, Patrick Stewart reprised his role as Professor X in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness earlier this year.

For the record, Cox — who is currently a late-in-life TV superstar thanks to his Emmy-winning role on the beloved HBO series Succession — says that he's open to bringing Stryker back in a Marvel movie as well... provided they can figure out the fate of his alter ego. "The last time I played him I was tied up to a wall waiting for a huge flood to come, so I don't remember where he is now," he says, laughing. "I'm either floating around somewhere in Canada or I'm dead! So I could come back as a ghost or as a somewhat washed-out William Stryker."

X2: X-Men United is currently streaming on Disney+