The pathos is something I saw so clearly this time around and it extended to the relationships with all the supporting characters. I think even more so than the violence, the elements that really stood out were the characters and their relationships with each other.
James Mangold: They’re all sophisticated or real. What I said to everyone, myself included, was just make a movie like you’re not making one of these movies. I was just making it like I was making Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line or 3:10 to Yuma.
You really have two choices as far as fans are concerned. I’ve always sensed they’re yearning for a movie like the one we made but I also sense they’re always yearning for a movie that seamlessly splices unto the last one so that there’s perfect continuity of tone and plot and they’re mutually exclusive. If you want a filmmaker to reach deep and go for something then it’s not like they abandon what’s come before, but you have to give them a little room.
My example of it and I was thinking the other day about how to put this into words, is when we go to sleep at night we move the pillows around. We adjust the covers until we feel comfortable and then we can dream. For a filmmaker with these kinds of movies, if you walk into it and you’re not allowed to touch that pillow, “Don’t move that! No, no, no. That stays where it is.” Then at some point you don’t dream, you just perform a duty. The ability to put yourself into the movie and find your creative self in the world involves some shifts, some pushing and pulling.
At any point, was there the idea of maybe throwing some other characters in there? Like Deadpool?
James Mangold: I mean, it’s hard because I don’t want to give away what does and doesn’t happen, but there were times I played with there being an underground railroad where there were a couple of other older mutants that Logan met along the journey.
It always seemed to detract from the loneliness of the story and became a kind of cameo, though. There was always this curiosity about doing it, but I’m so cautious about it despite how much fans want to see it happen. You know in biopics there are these scenes that you have to do because they’re historically important. If you were editing the movie and this were really a movie and not a true life story you’d cut that scene out because no one cares about that moment.
But you find there are these moments where you’re trying to please people and write these scenes where they’ll bump into somebody and it always seems like an awkward cameo unless you can make it fit and the character is integral to the story. Otherwise, it’s kind of just this tip of the hat in some way.
Would you want to make another Wolverine film if you could or do you feel like this is a closed book?
James Mangold: I don’t even think that way. Honestly, I would not want in any form to make another X-Men themed movie next. I can tell you that. I want to get back to all the other things I do. On another level, I definitely know that Hugh and I are going to work together again. I don’t know that we’ll be visiting this world again.
I think Dafne is incredible in the film and I would love to see another film about that character and that’s certainly something I’d be involved in. For me that was one of the big additions I brought to the table, this decision to try to make the film about family and to try to insert Laura and the pressures that would put and the idea about Charles ailing.
I think for Hugh, part of the power of what we did is the finality of what we did. At least at this point, talking about going back on it without knowing why or for what reason…I don’t know, if some brilliant thing came along, appearing as a memory in someone else’s movie, who knows what it could be. [Laughs]
That concludes our interview, but we’d like to thank James Mangold very much for his time. Be sure to catch Logan when it opens in theaters nationwide on March 3!