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ACTION MAN: MUTANT X'S VICTOR WEBSTER
By Rob Allstetter/The Comics Continuum
TORONTO -- Don't you just hate it when you're watching a movie and the fight scene comes around, and it's clearly a poorly disguised stunt man throwing and taking the punches?
Victor Webster's with you there. And he wants you to know when you see his character, Brennan Mulwray, in Mutant X, that's actually him in those scenes performing all the high-flying martial arts maneuvers.
"I do all my own stunts as far all the wire work, all the fight scenes," Webster says. "I think the fans really appreciate when they see the actor's face spinning and it's not some guy covering his face. It's a very physically intense role, and I really enjoy it."
Webster, a huge action movie fan, can back it up. He's been training since he was a tyke and sported an undefeated record as a kick-boxer. Mutant X takes his physical nature to a new level, embellishing his own moves with wire work.
"We trained for three weeks of intensive wire work training, and stunt fight choreography and gymnastics - for three weeks before and we continually train now that we're shooting," Webster says.
Of course, one thing Webster isn't doing that his character does: shooting electricity with his mutant powers. But that's what special effects are for.
Webster was one of the first members of Mutant X cast, setting the tone for an athletic group.
"I met Victor before we even started the casting process," says Seth Howard of Tribune Entertainment, which produces Mutant X in association with Marvel Studios. "Talk about a no-brainer. He's a terrific actor, a martial artist, and after working with him for a year, I can tell you he's a great guy.
"Victor is one of those actors with true charisma. You can't take your eyes off him when he is on the screen. Not only does Victor bring a great physicality to Brennan but he also brings humanity. Brennan is not just a pretty face. He's a complex character with a shady past and the heart of a poet. Oh, and the female audience doesn't mind him either..."
Winding up on a comics-inspired show seems fitting for Webster. After an appearance by the cast of Mutant X at a comics convention in Toronto, he was the guy most intent on browsing through the rows of merchandise. Yeah, he's read some comic books.
"I loved the Green Lantern," Webster says. "There's a lot of characters in the Justice League of America that I really liked. I loved Batman because he was human. He's human, he's just trained himself to be that way. Spider-Man, I loved.
"And Blade was a great movie. I really have a lot of respect for Wesley Snipes and his ability and his martial arts techniques."
Webster, who played Nicholas Alamain on the NBC soap Days of Our Lives, calls Brennan the "rock 'n' roll bad boy" of Mutant X.
"Brennan is a smart-ass," Webster says. "He's very well bred and intelligent in a street sense. He's not a scholar, like an intellectual, university scholar, but he's extremely smart in the ways of the world. He's been a criminal and lived on his street smarts since he was out of high school."
And although Mutant X has a lot of action, Webster says there's a lot more going on.
"The cool thing about the writing and the scripts that we're doing is that from the beginning they had a chance to feel us out and put our characters on paper before we were even cast," he says. "And the very interesting thing was that when they cast us, how similar our personalities to our characters are. Now that they've seen us in action and seen us speak the words that they've written, we've really kind of melded and kind of gelled together with the characters, and we're really making them our own.
"That's what makes it so much fun. You get a sense of comedy. You get some one-liners, some smart-ass cracks here and there. You get some very intelligent dialogue. It's a mixture. You're not going to sit there and watch all technical jargon. And while there's a lot of action, you're going to get a little comedy thrown in and you're going to get some character-driven drama as well as you're going to get some relationships between characters. It brings a lot to the entire show."
Mutant X wrapped shooting its first season in February and new episodes from the first season end in May, but the show will be back for 22 more episodes starting in the fall.
Webster says he hopes to work during the hiatus, but he'll be back to Mutant X action soon.
"I don't want sound cocky in the fact that I am so happy to be part of this show, but there's no hoping or guessing for me: I know people are going to enjoy the show," he says. "I've been in the crowd. I've been watching action movies you've never heard of, comic books, everything since I was a kid. For me, this is a dream come true. And if I wasn't part of this show, I'd still be watching every single week."
