Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Pelphrey confirmed that he was in the running for the iconic role of Professor X, previously played by Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy.<\/p>\n STEVE DIETL\/NETFLIX<\/p>\n Related: Best streaming services<\/a> <\/p>\n Asked before the casting of Abbott was announced how he felt about being a contender for the role, Pelphrey said: “When it comes to opportunities like [Professor X], I am always of two minds. I am always a little torn in half.<\/p>\n “That\u2019s a very long, serious commitment, and that makes me genuinely nervous because a lot of things can change in that time.”<\/p>\n He continued: “So half of me thinks an experience like that could be cool and exciting, while the other half of me is a little worried about what could happen. But to be in the conversation for those kinds of roles, regardless of the specifics or how it plays out or why, it\u2019s incredible.”<\/p>\n Describing his journey from an unknown actor to auditioning for one of Hollywood’s most coveted roles, Pelphrey said he can “see everything with a perspective” and feels “grateful” despite not landing the role. <\/p>\n He added: “If something doesn\u2019t work out and it isn\u2019t perfect for everyone involved, great, because it\u2019s probably perfect for someone else. That just means there\u2019s something more perfect coming for me.” <\/p>\n STEVE DIETL\/NETFLIX<\/p>\n Related: Marvel’s X-Men reboot shouldn’t include Wolverine<\/a><\/p>\n Elsewhere in the interview, Pelphrey joked about not having to shave his head to play Professor X. <\/p>\n “I\u2019ve also got a fat head. I have a watermelon,” he said. “I was like, ‘If we\u2019re even going to have this conversation, go into your AI image generator and look at me with a shaved head. That alone could be horrifying enough.’<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not kidding. The only hat I can wear is a fitted size eight. It is empirically a big fat head, and I don\u2019t know if we want to see it shaved.”<\/p>\n X-Men is released in cinemas on 5 May 2028.<\/p>\n Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n The new edition of Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Ariana Grande, is here! Buy Ariana Grande in newsagents or online<\/a>. Reporter, Digital Spy<\/p>\n Harriet is a freelance news writer specialising in TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> at Digital Spy.\u00a0<\/p>\n A horror enthusiast, she joined Digital Spy after working on her own horror website, reviewing films and focusing largely on feminism in the genre.\u00a0<\/p>\n In her spare time, Harriet paints and produces mixed-media art. She graduated from the University of Kingston with a BA in fine art, where she specialised in painting. She also has an MA in journalism from Birkbeck University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ozark star Tom Pelphrey has confirmed that he auditioned for the role of Charles Xavier in Marvel Studios’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[147950,171638,379,247481,381,96,190731,1156,2839,247480,223205,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-749010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-x-men","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-14e72fd1-3d92-4b32-8c72-704d833e14de","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-movies","tag-shorttitle-ozark-star-confirms-that-he-did-audition-for-x-men-role","tag-sponsored-false","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"julia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/62155136-b858-4ae3-9add-689f98dd51a7.jpg\" "\\"Julia")
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