Has Stan Lee Fucked Himself Out of X3?

Lee Talks X-Men 3 Cameo

from SciFi Wire

Comic-book creator and producer Stan Lee has finished shooting a cameo role in Brett Ratner's upcoming third X-Men film — and it involves him saying a word that can't be printed on a family Web site. Lee, who credits himself as the co-creator of several Marvel Comics superheroes, has made cameo appearances in many of the movies made from those creations, including Spider-Man and Fantastic Four.

In X3, Lee said, "It's not one of my biggest roles, I'm a little embarrassed to say. I'm a guy in the suburbs watering the lawn with a hose, and the water, as you can imagine, is coming out of the hose and going down on the lawn. Then one that has power to move things mentally" — Jean Grey, played by Famke Janssen — "she's driving, and she gestures at my house, and all of a sudden the water goes up instead of down. And remember Sunset Boulevard, where Gloria Swanson says, 'I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille'? Well, it's supposed to be a big closeup of my face. And I say, 'What the fuck?' And every time I say it, [director] Brett Ratner said, 'Make it lower, Stan.' And at the end, I whisper it. So I don't know if it will come out at all."

Having Lee's profanity too audible could jeopardize the sequel's rating, so it's unclear whether audiences will be able to hear him in the final cut. Indeed, Lee said, "what really bothers me is if the movie is three seconds too long, I'm not sure that it will make the cut. Even if they don't hear me, my lips are definitely saying it. But that's what Brett Ratner told me to say. I just do these cameos, and I'm a slave to what they tell me to do."

The third installment in the X-Men franchise is scheduled for a May 26, 2006, release.