“American Horror Story” regular Evan Peters will appear as mutant speedster Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver in director Bryan Singers’ “X-Men: Days of Future Past.” In a recent interview, Peters discussed his character and the challenges which he and the other actors faced filming some of his scenes at 3600 frames-per-second.
What was it like to shoot Quicksilver’s scenes at 3600 frames-per-second?
“Bright. It was incredibly bright. A lot of the crew and Bryan, himself, got to wear sunglasses. And the actors had to keep their eyes open for a long, long time, with that bright light just blaring at you. It’s like the sun. It’s brighter than the sun. It’s right there in your eyes. But the end result is so worth it. You just power through it.”
Did it hurt?
“It does kind of hurt. I don’t know how safe that is? Keeping your eyes open for more than 20 seconds in that light. But yeah it does hurt. It’s really difficult to keep your eyes open.”
How big was the actual set? What did the footage look like when it was finished?
“It’s quite a big room. It’s super, super, super, super slomo. You can see raindrops frozen in the air. Stuff like that. It’s amazing how that camera works.”
Does filming at that frame rate impact the way you say your lines or throw a punch?
“You don’t do anything differently other than try to keep your eyes open in the bright light. And try to make it look cool, I guess.”
Will your character follow the look from the comic book and have silver hair?
“Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it’s cool.”
Looking in-depth at your character, do you think everybody else just seems slow and boring to Quicksilver?
“Yes! I read one of the comics where he says that it’s like waiting at an ATM, when the people in front of you don’t know how to use it. That’s how his whole life is, everybody is so slow to him. And he has the ability to go so fast, he’s just waiting for everybody to catch up. It’s pretty cool, that character trait.”
What was your working relationship like with Ian McKellen as your father, Magneto?
“No, I worked with Michael Fassbender. And he’s awesome. He’s amazing to work with. I worked with him and Hugh [Jackman] and James [McAvoy]. And… I won’t say any more. I worked with all of them. They are awesome. Seriously, the nicest people in the world, couldn’t have been more welcoming.”
What was your favorite article of 70s clothing that you got to wear?
“The jeans. And the jacket — I had a pretty sweet jacket.”
Here is the storyline for “X-Men: Days of Future Past:”
The storyline alternates between present day, in which the X-Men fight Mystique’s Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and a future timeline caused by the X-Men’s failure to prevent the Brotherhood from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. In this future universe, Sentinels (giant mutant-hunting robots) rule the United States, and mutants live in internment camps. The present-day X-Men are forewarned of the possible future by a future version of their teammate Kitty Pryde, whose mind traveled back in time and possessed her younger self to warn the X-Men. She succeeds in her mission and returns to the future, but despite her success, the future timeline still exists as an alternative timeline rather than as the actual future.
“X-Men: Days of Future Past” comes to theaters on July 18, 2014. The film stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Hugh Jackman, Anna Paquin, Ellen Page, Peter Dinklage, Halle Berry, Daniel Cudmore, Fan Bingbing, Booboo Stewart, Evan Peters and Omar Sy. Simon Kinberg and Matthew Vaughn wrote the screenplay, which is adapted from the comic book story written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. The film is directed by Bryan Singer.
Source: io9