CS Interview: Blu Hunt & Henry Zaga Talk The New Mutants

ComingSoon.net had the opportunity to chat with The New Mutants stars Blu Hunt (The Originals, Another Life) and Henry Zaga (The Stand, Looking for Alaska) about 20th Century Studios’ newly released horror thriller, which is now playing in theaters!

Directed by Josh Boone, The New Mutants finally releasing in theaters after being delayed and continuously pushed back is a “relief” to Hunt, who was more than ready for people to see the film and “for the waiting to be done” for the star’s “own piece of mind.” The project became a labor of love for the group, one that came with its own pressures for the largely younger cast.

“It was overwhelming, it felt like a lot,” said Hunt. “To be 21 years old and to have never really acted in film in my entire life was definitely a lot of pressure. It also felt like an incredible honor and I couldn’t believe I was there most of the time. Every day I woke up there it didn’t feel real, and I don’t know if it feels real yet. I just need the movie to come out for it to really happen.”

Being able to spend so much time together on and off set seemingly helped the young cast to not only bond but deal with the pressures of filming the Marvel movie. “We got really close really fast,” Zaga recalled. “Before Alice [Braga] arrived it was just the five of us for three weeks rehearsing with Josh. We were kind of in the middle of nowhere. Sorry, Norwood, Massachusetts, you’re lovely but there’s nothing really to do unless you’re really willing to. We’re just hanging out in a hotel hallway with one room next to each other, running lines together. We even watched Game of Thrones together, which was really strange.”

Hunt agrees that the main cast starting two weeks early “really helped” them, especially since they lived in the same hotel and were able to do many rehearsals: “We were bonding from the moment we showed up. Josh kept such a relaxed set. It was so chill, and when I was feeling the pressure and wanted to implode he kept being so easygoing that it was really easy for us to get along and take care of each other.”

Pick up a copy of the New Mutants Vol. 1 here!

Diving into their characters, Hunt, who plays Danielle Moonstar in the feature, feels that “Dani is pretty much straight from the comics,” noting that the differences between the character’s source material and the big-screen adaptation are “really minor.”

“Obviously in the comic Dani has a symbolic suicide, and that doesn’t happen in the movie,” said Hunt. “The first draft of the comic she did do it still, it was almost frame-for-frame the comic book, when she faces the bear in the snow. We changed it, and the way it is now is just as good, just different from the comic. She’s the same tough leader. It’s her really finding her voice.”

Zaga loved how adamant Boone was about casting the “roles really well,” including having proper representation on and off screen: “I am biracial Brazilian Latino guy. In LA sometimes you go, ‘Wait, there isn’t a Latino role, so…’ It was always a thing to me that I wanted to represent my country in a meaningful way, and these kids who are so in love with the X-Men universe… I see the outpouring of love on social media. I’m right there with you, and sometimes when I watch a Brazilian role not being played by a Brazilian guy I’m like, ‘That’s not really Portuguese.’

“Josh really wanted a Native American girl to play Dani, and these minority roles are really important to build this movie. This movie is about outcasts from different places in the world going through a self-discovery journey. It was an honor, to say the least.”

Zaga, who plays Roberto da Costa aka Sunspot in the movie, enjoyed bringing the character to life, including showcasing Roberto’s mutant abilities.

“My character absorbs and emanates solar energy in the form of strength, so he becomes incredibly strong,” said Zaga. “Later on he might learn new tricks too. I’ve never seen anything like Sunspot in the way we’ve done in our movie, or any of the Marvel movies. He has his own center of gravity and things floating around him, and lights up from inside out. It’s not just igniting. It’s total solar lava wonder!”

20th Century Studios in association with Marvel Entertainment presents The New Mutants, an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy (Split, The Witch) as Magik and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones, gen:LOCK) as Wolfsbane, with Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why) as Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar, and Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton as Cannonball.

The New Mutants adapts the monthly comic book series of the same name that launched in 1982. Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, The New Mutants follows on a group of teenage mutants as heroes in training in the Marvel Universe. The feature is expected to be a departure from the sci-fi-action spectacle of other X-Men films and is instead being described as a “Stephen King meets John Hughes”-style horror movie.