In the pilot episode of Suits, Harvey Specter conducts a hiring interview while Mike Ross storms in hiding from the cops, somehow talking his way into a job on the spot. Wonderful television. Real casting rooms rarely reward uninvited entrances with standing ovations.

Christopher Abbott learned that lesson before Girls and Poor Things put him on Hollywood's radar. He had ambition, no agent, and an optimistic interpretation of “audition invitation.” His attempt to slip into a room full of hopeful performers quickly turned into a public interrogation worthy of a courtroom drama.

Unfortunately, there was no Harvey Specter to save him.

During a Rolling Stone Studio interview, Christopher Abbott recalled slipping into a casting session and quietly trying to learn the lines. Around 20 other actors were present, presumably invited to perform. Then the casting director called his name.

“Who sent you?” she demanded, before asking, “Who are you with?”

Abbott had neither an agent nor anyone who had arranged an appointment. He asked what she meant, hoping the question might somehow disappear into the carpeting. It did not. The casting director wanted to know precisely who had put him on the list. Abbott moved toward her to lower the volume of the conversation, hoping to avoid becoming the day's main entertainment.

Picture twenty aspiring actors watching a stranger attempting to bluff his way past the industry's equivalent of an airport security checkpoint. No mutant telepathy, no invisibility cloak, and absolutely no backup plan. Whether Abbott ultimately performed remains unclear from the anecdote. His ambitious attempt at getting noticed had already become an exceptionally awkward lesson in Hollywood protocol.

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Ironically, the actor now has a job where entering people's minds is practically in the description.

Hollywood has awarded Abbott a considerably better invitation: a seat at the head of the X-Men. Marvel Studios confirmed at August's D23 presentation that Abbott will play Charles Xavier, the telepathic founder of the mutant team, in Jake Schreier's upcoming X-Men reboot. The movie is scheduled for May 5, 2028.

He joins Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, and Adam Driver as the sinister Nathaniel Milbury. Patrick Stewart and James McAvoy previously portrayed Xavier, whose classroom problems include psychic powers and world-ending threats.

Abbott's unsettling performances in Possessor and Wolf Man, alongside his Broadway work in Death of a Salesman, suggest an intriguing edge to the professor's usual composure. The casting marks another milestone for an actor whose career has included Girls, The Sinner, and several acclaimed stage productions.

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Would Christopher Abbott make a convincing Professor X? Let us know in the comments.