On Saturday at 1PM, the Marriott Imperial Ballroom hosted the “X-Men ’97 Guests” panel for the voice actors of X-Men ’97. Joey Davila moderated and the guests of honor included Gui Augustini, who plays Sunspot, Ross Marquand, who plays both Professor Xavier and Apocalypse, Alison Sealy-Smith, who plays Storm in this and in X-Men: The Animated Series, and Matthew Waterson, who plays Magneto. They were hilarious, authentic, and enthusiastic about discussing the show and in their interactions with the audience.
Davila posed the first question for the cast, “If you could have any X-Men power in real life, which one would it be?” Augustini replied that he would want Nightcrawler’s teleportation so that he could get places in an instant. For Sealy-Smith, it was a tie between Wolverine’s healing powers or Morph’s shapeshifting. Marquand, who is the comedian of the group, joked that he wanted the power to become “as small as humanly possible.” While he wasn’t being serious, anyone who has seen Ant-Man knows that this power has the potential to be terrifying in the wrong hands. Waterson said that although he enjoys being the Master of Magnetism, he would also love to have Storm’s powers to control the weather.
The first audience question was about if they bring a physicality to their performance in the sound booth while recording their lines. Sealy-Smith is a Shakespearean stage actress, and she said she has been bringing that theatricality to Storm in her voice and in her body for 30 years. She said that she couldn’t summon any arctic winds without flinging her arms out just as Storm does. Marquand made the audience laugh again when he told the story of how he cannot perform certain lines of Xavier’s without putting his fingers to his temple like he’s using telepathy, even though he’s been told by his director that he really doesn’t need to do that. He said that he even finds himself doing it sometimes outside of the sound booth. Both live action actors for Xavier, Sir Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy, have said in interviews that they catch themselves doing it, too.
The panel turned very poignant when an audience member asked what elements of the X-Men franchise resonates with the viewers the most and keeps it relevant decades later. Marquand said that X-Men is ultimately about chosen family first and foremost. He pointed out that everyone was here at Dragon Con seeking that very thing. He said events like this are so important because that finding your community, a group where you feel like you belong, is essential to combat loneliness and for your mental health. Without it, people tend to stray away from the rest of their society, and this does not always end so well. What X-Men does better than any other show is give everyone a group to belong in.
He made many in the room cry when he talked about how this universe resonated with him from childhood for that very reason. He was bullied for being the smart, nerdy kid in theater and chess club. He echoed what every fan of X-Men feels, that it is his refuge. He connected most with Wolverine and his feelings of anger and isolation, of not feeling like he fit in anywhere. When Wolverine was taken in by Xavier and the rest of the team, that was when he started feeling better about himself. This was also what inspired him to want to play Professor Xavier in the first place. He’s someone that can empathize with the disenfranchised outcasts of society and offers them a place to belong.
Sealy-Smith added that she knew she was doing her job right when fans came up to her with tears in their eyes and told her how much this meant to them.
Just like last year’s X-Men panel, this was a highlight of my Dragon Con so far and of all the fandoms I celebrate here, this one is the most special by far. Not only for how strongly the show, its themes, and its characters resonate with me, but because the actors who portray them are as much a part of this community of outcasts as their fans. Every member of the cast I’ve seen on the stage thus far has gone out of their way to truly make everyone that comes to see them feel like part of one big, chaotic, geeky family. And that’s what this wonderful convention is all about!
