25 Years Of X-Men: Tyler Mane Shares Sabretooth Stories
X-Men was a groundbreaking film for the 21st century. It took itself seriously, and the visual effects and talented cast paved the way for superhero movies to break into mainstream pop culture. I remember watching it as a little kid, in awe, seeing Wolverine battling villains like Magneto, Mystique, and Sabretooth.
To celebrate X-Men's milestone, I asked Tyler Mane if he would share his favorite memories and behind-the-scenes stories of the villainous Sabretooth.
We hopped on Zoom to chat all about the fond (and not-so-fond) memories of portraying Magneto's animalistic henchman, reuniting with Hugh Jackman in Deadpool & Wolverine, and more!Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Filming Sabretooth's first scene, where he attacks Wolverine in the snow, was absolutely freezing.
Tyler: It was the coldest day in Canada, in Pickering, Ontario. I think it was like minus 40 below, and we didn't have enough snow, and we were on this road. They kept shooting potato flakes at me to make it look like snow, so my mouth was full of potato flakes. I was freezing! Sweat would accumulate underneath my prosthetics when I was in the trailer. My hands were frozen. I'm trying to swing this huge log, and it was crazy. The things we do for our art!I did everything up to the log swing, and then the part where Sabretooth escapes into the woods was done by Troy Brennan, my stuntman. They just hooked up the ratchet to Troy and jerked him into the trees.(Check out the full scene on YouTube!)
Sabretooth struggles against a wave of potato flakes!
Tyler's background in wrestling allowed the part to come naturally to him.
Tyler: I came from a background of pro wrestling, and I guess they originally wanted to talk to me for the stunts. Luckily, the stunt coordinator said to Bryan Singer [director], "Hey, you should look at this guy for Sabretooth!" And he did! And that was it, and then I had my own stunt double. I'd never done stunts in a movie before — I was just a pro wrestler. Some could say that's pretty good training to do stunts and fight scenes, but I went straight into acting. The whole shoot took around six months. I was there the whole time, and even a little bit before doing fight rehearsals and stunt choreography.
Sabretooth's costume took hours to put on.
Tyler: It took about two and a half hours, three hours to get ready. I had those big sclerals [contact lenses] that they'd put on, and after that, you can't really see anything, and you're wandering around. I had long hair back then, and a Fu Manchu mustache, but they definitely added quite a bit of the hair.I would bring Rebecca [Rebecca Romijn, who played Mystique] cookies when she was getting ready. She'd be about eight hours into her costume, and I'd bring her a bag of her favorite cookies. Her costume process was horrible, and when she was done, everything was blue in the trailer!
Rebecca Romijn as Mystique.
Tyler had to go to the hospital after accidentally keeping the sclerals in his eyes for too long.
Tyler: I still have a few props from the set. I have some of the little claws. I have the dog tags that Sabretooth takes from Wolverine.BuzzFeed: No way! That's amazing!Tyler: I think I even have a pair of those damn sclerals somewhere. A story about those — I once had them in for like 12 hours. You're not supposed to wear them that long, and in the middle of the night, they kind of stuck to my eyeballs, and I couldn't get them off. It felt like railway spikes in my eyes. So they had to get me to the eye doctor's office really quickly. The doctor had to cut them off my eyes with scalpels and peel them off. She's like, "How long did you have these on for?" So I had about two weeks where I couldn't wear the contacts while my eyes healed.
The Statue of Liberty fight took place on a sound stage in Toronto.
Tyler: You walk into a sound stage in Toronto, Ontario, and you're looking at the Statue of Liberty, the head from about the shoulders up, 30 feet in the air. It was so cool to be able to do that, and we rehearsed for quite a while to get that fight scene right.The hard part of the fight was that Sabretooth's claws didn't really attach very well. So every time I took a swipe or something, one or two of the claws would go flying off and be 30 feet down. So there'd always have to be somebody there with extra claws sticking them on!We had so much fun. It was crazy just to be a part of something like that. Luckily, I didn't know how big it was at the time, because we were just having a great time filming and getting the fight scenes right. No one really knew how big it was going to be and how it was going to turn out.Check out behind-the-scenes of the Statue of Liberty!
Sabretooth and Toad were originally supposed to appear in X2.
Tyler: I was in the second one, and so was Ray [Ray Park played Toad], until just about a month before, and they realized that I had a full contract. I guess they realized that they only needed me for a little bit, and didn't want to pay the whole contract or whatever. I don't know what it was, but yeah, it would have been great to come back. But, you know, the powers that be saw differently, and luckily, they gave me a call 24 years later for Deadpool & Wolverine.
In 2024, Tyler reunited with Hugh Jackman for Deadpool & Wolverine.
Tyler: We were shooting out in a rock quarry, and we're about, I don't know, 20, 30, feet away, and I saw him. He saw me. We just kind of ran to each other and hugged each other like no time had passed. I was like, "Oh man, this is so cool!"BuzzFeed: That's really wholesome, thinking of Sabretooth and Wolverine just running to give each other a hug!
X-Men's story resonates with Tyler, and he had a great time working with the cast.
Tyler: X-Men tells the story of a person who is feeling like an outcast. It resonated with me because I was a tall, skinny kid with glasses and braces. I was picked on in school all the time — I still remember getting picked on for my reading disability.BuzzFeed: I can imagine it was a surreal experience getting to tell this story, with so many iconic actors!Tyler: Everyone was such a sweetheart on there; it was just so much fun to be a part of that movie. That was my first real step into acting and in a major feature like that. Just working with Hugh, working with Halle [Halle Berry, who played Storm], working with Ian McKellen [Magneto] — it was just so fantastic. I remember Ian McKellen giving me some acting advice, (imitates Ian) "Less is more, dear boy, less is more." It was just unbelievable to be around all those guys.
Currently, Tyler is working on a project raising awareness to put an end to human trafficking.
Tyler: We are doing a graphic novel called The Last Spartan: Red Tape. It deals with human trafficking and human trafficking awareness. We've teamed up with deliverfund.org, an organization that helps law enforcement put an end to human trafficking with technology. We have that graphic novel out, and we have a new issue coming out at the end of this year or the beginning of next year called The Last Spartan: Lone Wolf. What we're hoping to do, if we can get enough eyes on it, is turn it into a TV series where we can keep raising awareness and help put an end to human trafficking. Human trafficking is a despicable thing, and every time I go to a convention, I'm talking to multiple people that has been affected personally by it. It's something that needs to be addressed.
Thank you, Tyler, for sharing your incredible memories! Keep up with Tyler on Instagram, Facebook, and his official website. Make sure to check out The Last Spartan, available now. (I just started reading it, and I love the art style and character-building!)
Have any favorite X-Men memories? Feel free to share in the comments below!
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