Kevin Bacon loves being a mutant

Los Angeles - Kevin Bacon has said that he loved being a mutant for the first time in X-Men: First Class.

The 52-year-old actor - who plays bad guy Sebastian Shaw in the eagerly anticipated prequel, directed by Matthew Vaughn - thought it was "great" to play someone with special powers.

He said: "It was great. It's great to be a mutant. When you look at this movie, aside from all the powers and the mutations these characters have, they're extremely human in comparison to other comic book characters. They feel things, they get jealous, they hate and fear - I think that was the challenge from an actor's standpoint.

Billionaire playboy

"Forget about your powers - the powers will be there and that'll be taken care of, but we have to break it down to, 'Who am I on the inside?' I've never played a billionaire or playboy before, so that was cool."

The Golden Globe award-winning star also reveals he felt strongly about not letting fans of the Marvel franchise down through his performance.

He told BANG Showbiz: "A lot of people have asked me about my responsibility to the fans of the comic books, and I hope that there won't be too much disappointment. When I first read the script I went online and Googled 'X-Men' - and I just thought, 'I don't know how I'm going to do that!' A lot of research went into playing Sebastian Shaw."