Why Jase is Matt's ace in X-Men: First Class

Jason Flemyng seems to be Matthew Vaughn's good luck charm having appeared in all four of the films he has helmed so far as well as a number of projects which he has produced.

The pair are reunited in X-Men: First Class, with the flame-haired Flemyng going red all over as Azazel, a devil-like figure who can teleport and is particularly deadly with his pointed tail.

We met up with the 44-year-old star of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and discovered why it was second time lucky for his metamorphosis into a mutant (his appearance as Jekyll/Hyde in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen notwithstanding)

How did you come to be involved in this project?

Matt had flirted with doing one of the other X-Men (The Last Stand) films early on so I was aware of them from before. They were actually auditioning me for Beast but that didn't happen (the role went to Kelsey Grammer)
So I could have been blue and hairy rather than red and slightly out of focus.

Have Matthew's working methods changed on this, his first big Hollywood film?

I don't think so. He has got good taste and he casts well. You have seen the results. He has managed to change genre and nail it each time.
Matthew is not very nomadic and he has his team of people who fluctuate through his movies. Unfortunately I have done them all because I am always available - unlike everyone else who seem to be a little more selective. It is an amazing thing to be on a movie this big and look out from the stage and see the same sound boys from Lock, Stock and some of the costume people from Lock, Stock.
The truth is that I was cast so that when he was annoyed with this lot (Kevin Bacon, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy) and couldn't say anything he could turn to me and say 'Flemyng! You're an idiot'. That was my job, I took the abuse.

This film deals with the mutants struggle to accept themselves in a world that is hostile to those who are different. Is there anything about yourself that you have ever wanted to change?

Some of this film is about prejudice, about how people are perceived and about self-hate. I am one of the unknown minority of ginger haired people - actually as I have got older it has faded which is very depressing - and my wife told me when she was asked about me after we first got together she'd say 'he is ginger but he is really lovely'. I think that is a real indication of how people judge people without really realising they are doing it. And that is part of this story really. 

What do you think would be the best/worst mutant powers to have?

We came up with Oystero, the power to top up your Oyster card. Or Alphabetico, an OCD mutant power. You look at your DVD collection and it would automatically arrange itself. They're pretty lame powers.

This has a 12A certificate. Do you think it is okay to take younger children to see it?

Stardust was a PG. That had some witches that had their heads cut off and that scared me. And I was in it! But I used to get scared by frogs.
Things that scare one kid don't scare another. My godson watched all of George Romero's zombie films when he was nine and wasn't disturbed by them at all.
 It just depends on the kid. You can't really make that decision until he either bursts into tears and storms out of the cinema or says 'that was a great movie'.