BY DAVID SERVER | OK, heres the next batch of interviews: Kelly Hu (a.k.a Deathstrike), James Marsden, (a.k.a. Cyclops) and Famke Janssen (a.k.a Jean Grey)!

Q: That was a pretty convincing fight scene you had with Hugh Jackman!

Hu: Yeah, yeah. I really enjoyed it too. It was really hard! It was hard work! We spent I think a couple weeks straight just shooting the fight scene. Months and months just to prepare learning the wirework and stuff like that. As they were shooting it, we would see it being put together very sloppily on the computer that we were using as a monitor, and then Id go to the editing room and I would watch them piece it together, and I was really impressed with it then before all of the wires were taken out and the effects were done and everything. After seeing it for the first time a couple of days ago, it went so beyond what I had ever expected out of this film. Im so pleased with the end result.

Q: Did you have any input into the way you looked?

Hu: I actually did a little bit, because the actual character does come from the comic book, but shes not really taken directly from the comic book the way some of these others are. Shes sort of a combination of a couple of different characters. Yuriko Oyama/Deathstrike, who is mostly from the Wolverine comics as I understand it, is not actually a mutant at all, shes a cyborg which is like a whole thing that they havent even explored in this film yet, and shes huge. Shes this big woman with muscles, she looks more like the Rock than like me. And shes got these enormous hands that shes supposed to fight with. Well, we couldnt do that in this film, they would have cast Chyna I suppose if they were going to go that way (laughs). So we had to sort of create this character and the whole look of her. So I wanted her to be very sleek, and very clean, and always have like perfect hair, even when she was fighting she never had a hair out of place. The claws, of course, were their idea because they wanted her to be connected to Wolverine in that sense. And they wanted her to be the sleeker, quicker, faster version of him. And I get 5 claws, one coming out of each fingertip, which gives me more dexterity whereas his is all coming out of his knuckles when he fights, so he fights more like a street fighter, whereas I sort of get to use my hands and be much more graceful with it. The first day that I got to put on the claws, it just all came to life, it was awesome. They fitted me for them and they put me in front of the camera to get the camera tests and get the whole look of the character down and I just loved it. It just completed me.

Q: How was working with Hugh?

Hu: Oh my God, such a pleasure. I have worked with a bunch of people who have worked with him before, and people had these wonderful stories about him about how he was so nice, and the nicest actor that they had worked with, and he would walk into the room and everything would just light up, and it was all true. I was like nobody could possibly be that nice. And it was just really true, he was just absolutely amazing, and then not only is he one of the sexiest men in Hollywood, but hes a husband and a father and this real human being. He was absolutely amazing to just be around.

CountingDown: Are you contracted for another X-Men film?

Hu: Yeah, yeah. I guess they make you sign on for it just in case. But I dont think they really wrote my full story until we started shooting and after I got cast, so I dont know if they knew where they were going with my character, or if they knew but didnt tell methey dont tell you a lot of stuff on this film.

Heres Janssen and Marsden

Q: What differences did you see in Bryan as a director this time and what impresses you about him as a director?

Marsden: I think we all felt a bit more relaxed the second time around, I think it was very obvious that Bryan felt a bit more relaxed, I think we was a bit more nervous on the first film. That was the first time he had ever directed a big budget studio film. And this time with that success under his belt he was absolutely more relaxed and you also saw his creative juices flowing at a much more rapid pace.

Q: Did he direct you guys a lot or a little?

Marsden: Depends on the scene youre working on, some scenes are more technical, he spends a little more time with that, and some scenes are more about the emotion and he addresses that properly. He knows where the focus is regardless of what youre working on.

Janssen: Hes really into details. He always knows exactly what the scene needs and what exactly the moment is. Her can figure it out in a second.

Q: How difficult was it to not have so much to do in this film James, and Famke, for you to have so much more this time?

Janssen: We didnt know, we were shooting and it just changed, we never really knew what the storyline would be or what the focus was going to be. We all knew there were going to be a lot of different characters in addition to the characters we had in the first one.

Marsden: Yeah, it was constantly in a state of flux, the script was changed day by day and sometimes the ending would be one thing, sometimes the ending would be another thing. But I knew early on that we were introducing four or five new characters and I was a little worried that it would focus on one thing and not anything else. But I think Bryans done an excellent job of really spreading it out over everybody. It is tough, because its spreading it out over 14 characters and cast within 2 hours and really giving everyone their proper character development, but I think thats also why this movie is an episode of the X-Men, focus can shift from character to character depending on which episode of the saga youre doing. So maybe Ill do more on number 3.

CountingDown: This was one of your first fight scenes in this movie, was that fun to shoot?

Marsden: Yeah that was good, it was actually my idea. It was the first day of shooting I came back and said nows the time to catch Bryan, it would be great to breathe some life into this character, show some more dimension, prove that these people are trained to do more than just harness their powers, that theyre actually trained to defend themselves. So it was great because he was very open to it and he told me to go work on something with the stunt coordinator and Ill see if we can work it in.

Q: This one is a bit darker than the first, isnt it?

Marsden: I think it took every element to the extreme a bit more, I think it was larger in scope, action, special effects, romance, all of itcharacters. And I dont think all movies should end on a happy note. I think thats what separates the X-Men from a lot of the other comic book movies, that we dont feel the need to follow this formula of the good guys leap over the building and catch the guy with the dollar sign on his shirt and throw him over his shoulder and yippy skippy. I think thats what always separated the X-Men from all those kids of movies, is that is does explore the human frailties in these characters. And these are very flawed characters, and thats people migrate towards this sort of comic book movie.

Q: Could you talk about the love triangle and how its in the middle of this big action filled film?

Janssen: I think thats what is great about it, it does have this romantic side of the story, and it has some emotional beats, and it makes this sort of action or sci-fi movie more interesting to me. And I thought it was great because we sort of touched upon it in the first one and we take it a step further, theres some sort of resolution.

Marsden: Bryan has always been very candid about telling people that believes first and foremost in human relationships in a film, and characters, and any special effects or action sequences that take place need to be secondary to that.

CountingDown: James, youve said in the first film it was very difficult to emote with the visor covering your eyes, and in this film you actually have some more emotional scenes. Did you figure out some tactics of how to act around having the visor covering your face?

Marsden: Yeah, well part of it was the nature of the content, I think it is easier to emote when you push it to the extreme that its pushed in the film. So I was very happy to see that, I felt kind of handicapped in the first film with the visor. I really learned how much you use your eyes to communicate with not only your other actors but with the audience. And it was tough at times but now Ive learned some tricks.

Q: Could both of you talk a little bit about working with Hugh Jackman?

Janssen: Yeah, hes great. Theres not one bad thing you can say about Hugh. Great to work with, very generous as an actor.

Marsden: Whats funny is that he really is the antithesis of the character, hes really nice, you want to hate him cause hes so nice. But hes so easy to work with, and he takes the burden of carrying the load of most of the physically demanding action in the movie. But the cast in general is tremendous, everyone is very giving and very patient and fun to be around, everybody has a sense of humor thank God. And Hugh just is the epitome of all that.