James Marsden: He Puts the X in Sexy

In fact, Marsden's theater teacher went a little crazy, sure that he had discovered the next James Dean. Nonetheless, Marsden went to college for a year and a half, but then, like millions before him, quit and came to Hollywood to see if he could make his way. (It helped that his father gave him enough money to live on for one year.) After appearing in a few TV movies (that was him in the miniseries "Bella Mafia"), Marsden got his break on the short-lived TV series "Second Noah." He went on to do small parts on TV and in film, almost got the Ed Norton role in Primal Fear, read for Starship Troopers and starred alongside Kate Hudson in Gossip. Then came X-Men, which Marsden says was "a fantastic adventure, along with a hell of a lot of hard work."

"When you went back to do X2, a lot had changed," I say. "The movie was a huge success, Hugh Jackman's face was everywhere, and Halle Berry had won an Oscar. Were people's attitudes different?"

Marsden thinks for a while. "I want to say that everyone's egos were out of control, that Hugh was impossible, that Halle demanded three trailers, but that wasn't the case at all. X-Men is an ensemble film, and everyone was just happy to be back in Vancouver doing this movie." Just like a Midwestern boy not to gossip, but Marsden's sincerity is endearing.

"If you could go anywhere in the world for a holiday, where would it be?" I ask.

"Hawaii," he says without hesitation, "because everything about it is beautiful and perfect. But wait, should I say the Bahamas or something like that?"

"I ask the questions," I remind Marsden. "Have you ever been to the Bahamas?"

"No, but it seems like it might be a cool place. OK, I'll stick with Hawaii," he says, as if this is a game show.

Now that Marsden has a decade in Hollywood behind him, a franchise under his belt (bet on an X3) and he's tried everything from comedy (the cheerleader heist flick Sugar and Spice and a season as a dreamboat on "Ally McBeal") to horror (he costarred with Katie Holmes in Disturbing Behavior), how does Marsden picture his future? His face lights up. "Having worked with both Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, I realized that when you get to be 70 or 80, you want someone to say, 'Who's James Marsden?' and then for someone else to say, 'Oh, James Marsden? He's been in everything.' That's my prayer."

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