HE is the leader—and founder—of the X-Men, an all-powerful, avuncular, noble telepath who fights for mutant equality from the confines of his wheelchair. His name is Professor Charles Xavier (a.k.a. Professor X).

In X-Men: First Class, we witness Xavier’s awakening, an event that leads to the foundation of the X-Men. To portray this emotional and physical sea change, director Matthew Vaughn turned to one of the most gifted young actors to emerge in recent years, the Scottish actor James McAvoy. The 31-year-old star of movies as diverse as Atonement and Wanted admits to being something of a geek, which makes this a perfect role for him in many ways. We spoke to him on set about not going bald, about Xavier’s ideology, and about filling the shoes of one of his favourite actors.

Famously, you’re something of a geek. So, is this a dream role for you?

Weirdly I was into the cartoon of X-Men when I was a kid, but not the comic. Comics weren’t really a thing in Scotland or Glasgow or among my friends when I was growing up. My friend and I used to watch the cartoon a lot and Gambit was my favorite character. He was just cool.

So Xavier was never on the horizon....

He’s a harder character for a young kid to identify with generally, I think. But I am a bit of a Star Trek fan and to play the young Patrick Stewart is great fun.

How much of him are you trying to incorporate?

To be honest, not much. The good thing about doing something like this is to see how they became who they were. I started off considering who he is in terms of the character as portrayed and devised by Bryan Singer and Patrick Stewart. That character’s a bit of a monk. He’s selfless, he’s like a saint. I think he’s a proper leader; he’s the headmaster and the leader of the X-Men. The idea to do something different comes from basically going to what’s at the opposite end of that.  Let’s not make him a monk.

So this Charles has a certain swagger?

There’s quite a lot of swagger. He’s quite pleased with himself, really. He’s quite ego-less in the other movies and to show him with an ego was quite interesting. He doesn’t abuse his powers but he does read the minds of women, if he thinks they like him. He will read the mind of a girl, get her favorite drink and then order it for her, that kind of stuff. He’s got his genetic mutation theory schtick that seems to work well on the young students of Oxford. You then start to see that ego break down a lot more.

And—for now at least—he’s not in a wheelchair.

That’s who he becomes. You have to treat him like a normal human being, as well as a mutant. He’ll have to deal with the fact that he’s not in possession of his full faculties, as well. He can’t walk any more and that’s going to be a huge factor.

He also has a full head of hair, which is another departure from the accepted Xavier mythology.

I was slightly disappointed when we did that. I had just come off a job where I had to shave my head and I quite liked it! I imagine that’ll come in sometime during the next movie, if we do one. We haven’t quite figured that yet.

So Charles is something of a playboy when we meet him in this movie. Does he have a purpose at this point?

He has the seeds of his purpose. Until he met Raven (Darkholme, played by Jennifer Lawrence, whom Xavier befriends as a child), I think he thought he was entirely on his own. And they don’t know there’s another two out there, let alone a race of mutants. So meeting her inspires him, I think. We suggest that he never meets any other mutants until he meets Erik. And when he uses Cerebro, he realizes that there are tens and thousands, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of mutants out there, and that they’re not all just well-balanced members of society. They’re really alone. That touches something in him. His power is that he can see everything in someone, all their weaknesses, all their potential and all their greatness; he doesn’t need to have empathy. He is walking empathy. He doesn’t have to imagine what it’s like to be someone else. He can feel what it’s like to be someone else, and I think Cerebro unlocks all of that connection. He feels that pain and that pathos, and that gives him his purpose. That makes him realize, “I know what I need to do now. I can help these poor individuals because genuinely they’re all scared and afraid.”

The first X-films were about the clash of ideologies between Charles and Erik. Does that start here?

Yeah. I think that Charles comes from a more pedestrian place. It’s not necessarily that it’s his mission to do good. He doesn’t necessarily see his job as integrating mutantdom with humanity. That’s something that he has to take on more as a reaction to the aggressive intentions of people like Shaw and, ultimately, Erik. In this film, Charles doesn’t see a distinction between himself and humanity all that much. Throughout his entire life, he thought he was a human with a special ability. Yes, it’s a mutation but would he call himself a mutant?  Probably not.  It’s a big leap and the fact that they start to call themselves mutants is about racial identity. That’s new to them.

In the original, the sense is that he founded the X-Men from a great ideal.

I think it comes together through necessity and by the end of the film, he finds that ideal. We don’t really feel like superheroes. I always felt that the X-Men were something slightly different.

They’re not fighting crime, necessarily

They seem to be fighting each other. It’s like a civil war! It really is nonstop. But I think that’s the thing I’m keen to get into, to show that these guys are not kick-ass superheroes. They’re in way over their heads, but there’s nobody else.

Does a younger Xavier mean a more physical Xavier?

He’s not got that many stunts, but I want to juxtapose that with who he becomes at the end of the film.

How did you get involved in this?

Out of the blue, I got called up by Matthew, just asking if I wanted to come and read the script? I read the first 40 pages and said, “Yeah, I’m keen to do it.” Largely because of what we were talking about earlier—Charles is so different from how he is in the earlier movies. I really responded to that and I’m willing to push it as far as we can go.

Are you looking ahead to more First Class movies?

Should they happen, and hopefully they will, then there’s an interesting progression. There’s an interesting place to go. On Wanted, I never really knew where my character would go in a sequel anyway, even if we did do one, but on this I totally know what I’d like to do with the character.

Would you like to see Xavier in a new decade?

I think the thinking is about putting the second one in the ’70s. I’d love to see the progression, though. What did they do in the summer of free love? (Laughs)

X-Men: First Class opens on June 2 in Philippine theaters from 20th Century Fox to be distributed by Warner Bros.