X-MEN News: Sabretooth at L.A. Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Monday, May 22, 2000

X-Fans got a treat at the Los Angles comic Book and Science Fiction Convention on Sunday May 21, when Tyler Mane (who plays Sabertooth in the highly anticipated film) showed up on stage to answer questions from the audience. Fliers for the event had implied that several cast members would appear, but the audience was far from disappointed when Mane turned out to be the only one. In fact, the former pro wrestler immediately one the crowd over with his opening statement, delivered with larger than life gusto appropriate from a comic book action star:

'I want you to know one thing: you are looking at the most important X-Man right now! When you see the movie, you will see, the Sabretooth kicks everybody's ass!' Pausing only briefly to let whoops of approval from the audience die down, he added, 'There were a lot of fliers around here saying how people couldn't be here: the X-Men weren't scared to meet you people; they didn't want to come here and see me again! How do you think that dude got into the wheelchair!'

The presentation, which included two versions of the trailer, was part of 20th Century Fox's promotional campaign for their two big fantasy oriented summer releases, Titan A.E. and X-Men. (Gary Goldman, who co-produced and co-directed had spoken earlier, and was well received, though not with quite the same wild enthusiasm that greeted Mane.) The two X-Men trailers included the one that has already been seen by most viewers, plus an expanded version that showcased more of the spectacular special effects and action, including a brief shot of Wolverine and Sabretooth squaring off atop the Statue of Liberty.

Asked how he had gotten the role, Mane said, 'To tell you the truth, they were looking at this other guy to play Sabretooth, and I'm very familiar with him, because I used to be his tag team partnerhis name's Kevin Nash.' After a round of booing from audience, Mane continued, 'But you know he got a little fat; he got a little out of shape. And he couldn't handle it, because Sabretooth is a mean dude. So I went in to talk to them, and the director was sitting there, very intent, writing on the script, trying to change it, trying to figure out how come Sabertooth is just tearing everybody a new...whatever. And then he looked up. And he saw Tyler Mane. And he said, 'Who was that other guy we were talking about? Kevin...? But anyhow...' HenceforthSabretooth.'

Mane answered audience questions for nearly an hour, alternating between his tough-guy, pro wrestling persona and a more light-hearted, even occasionally thoughtful approach. One way or the other, he was consistently entertaining, and the crowd loved every minute of it. As for working with the high-powered cast of talented actors, including the likes of Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, Mane said, 'Well, being six-foot-ten, I had to look down on all of them. But working with those people... I've got to tell you the truth: if I had known X-Men is as popular as it is (what, years or something like that, with the comic book?) I probably would have psyched myself completely out of this. To get prepared for the role, I got the X-Men comic book. I went to the comic book store and said, 'Do you guys got this comic X-men?' (You know, when you're on the road wrestling, you don't have much time to read comics.) He said, 'Which one do you want?' I said, 'I just want to take a look at it.' He said, 'There's about three aisles in this store; those two are X-Men, and that one's Sabretooth.' I said, 'Sabretooth! I didn't know he had his own comic?' So I went and got those comics; I read those comics. Then that prepared me to walk in there with Patrick Stewart and all these people and work with them. So luckily, I didn't psych myself out for this; otherwise, I'd probably still be wrestling or doing something like that.

'I might add that when this movie comes out July 14th, I want you to go the very, very, very first day, the matinee show, the afternoon, the evening show,' Mane added with enthusiasm. 'I want you to go the next dayfor the whole first week! Because I really prefer doing movies, because when you work on a movie set they like to feed you. So go every day for the first week, so I've got a reassured job that they'll do a sequel!'

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