Good news for X-Men fans who really want Bryan Singer's new X-Men movie to adhere to the comics: Quicksilver will appear on film with his trademark silver locks. We spoke with the new Quicksilver, Evan Peters, about life as a 1970s mutant. He told us about filming in Singer's crazy new 3600 frame-per-second cameras.
Bryan singer tweeted a picture of the set where he's filming your scenes at Quicksilver, and it's set up to film at 3600 frames per second. Holy cow. What it like shooting in that?
Evan Peters: 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.
Does 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.
I only saw a part of the set in Singer's photo — how big is the actual set? What does the footage look like when it's all done?
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.
How does that change the way you deliver 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 actually have silver hair?
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool.
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 it like working 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 piece of 70s clothing that you got to wear?
The jeans. And the jacket — I had a pretty sweet jacket.