Yesterday, we brought you the, um, interesting first official look at the cast of Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class. Well it appears that the marketing campaign is gearing up, as two new interviews with stars Kevin Bacon and Michael Fassbender have popped up online today. Bacon plays villain Sebastian Shaw in the film, while Fassbender portrays Magneto.  With the film taking place in the 1960’s, Bacon revealed the historical significance of the plot:

The backdrop is the Cuban Missile Crisis, so it's a little earlier than the Civil Rights era. I don't think JFK is a character in the movie, but the idea of the possibility of thermonuclear war in our own backyard is there. And also the fallout from the Holocaust is still there, which you'll remember is in the first film.

For more from Bacon, and to hear what Fassbender had to say, hit the jump.

When asked by Moviefone to talk about his character, Bacon seemed more than forthcoming:

You don't see much [of his backstory] in the movie, but he's kind of a self-made man. He lost his father as a young man, made his first million by the time he was 30 and first billion by time he was 40. He's a very powerful billionaire and also, as it turns out, a mutant. He's the leader of the Hellfire Club, which is a nightclub for the rich and extremely powerful. And he has a plot to take over the world, so that's really fun. He's incredibly good at manipulating people and at taking whatever kind of energy or ability they have and using it to his advantage, like if he's talking to a German, he's fluent in German. He's very charming and able to get whatever he wants.

Bacon also talked about how the look of Sebastian Shaw is quite different from that of the comic books:

My look is very different from the guy in the comic books. We decided pretty early on that that was not going to translate to film. But there's a certain kind of style to the suits that I wear, but I don't have anything extreme in the makeup department. When you first meet me -- I don't want to spoil it -- but when you first meet me, I look a little different.

In speaking with MSN, Michael Fassbender talked about how in this film most of the mutants are unaware of the existence of other mutants:

The cool thing about this movie is that I think it does deal with each individual mutant, and the ones they've chosen are all very much individuals and unique personalities with unique gifts. What's interesting is that we've gone back to a period where the mutants don't know that there are other people out there like them. They just think they're freaks and outcasts from society ... all of these new characters are fearful of their gifts and uncomfortable and misplaced in society, so hopefully when they all sort of come together and realize they're not alone and feel more comfortable in their own skin, that's a discovery for all the characters that you experience.

Fassbender also talked about how difficult it was to get the costumes right:

As for our costumes, we went back and forth on so many things. We added things that worked in the comics, took them away again, and stripped them down again. ... When it came to the Magneto suit, you know, there's various stages of what has been done with it, but you will have something that is traditional to the comics.

Check out the full interviews at Moviefone and MSN for more from Bacon and Fassbender. X-Men: First Class stars Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt and Kevin Bacon. The film will hit theaters on June 3rd.