Shawn Ashmore talks Iceman in X2: X-Men United

X2: X-Men United (X2) will easily be one of the biggest films of the year. The film has the stars, the mind-blowing special effects, and thanks to Bryan Singer and his team, it’s has a fantastic story that is nothing like your average comic book movie.

The film also features Shawn Ashmore, the rising Canadian actor, as Iceman, and he’s one of the most down-to-earth people I’ve ever met. Even though he’s standing on the edge of what could be his first year in the spotlight, he also still seems a bit shocked at the scale of the project.

“I felt really lucky,” he said, “just to be asked to come back and work with the amazing filmmakers and actors again.”

Just getting the script for the film was surprising. “I got a call saying, ‘They want to send you the script, but you have to sign a confidentiality agreement before you can even see it.’ So, yeah – I just said, ‘Okay, I’ll sign whatever, I want to see the script.'”

The fact that he doesn’t get killed off somewhere in the film was a huge shock to Ashmore, he admitted. “I was like flipping through, ‘Okay, I’m still alive, still alive, I’m in this scene. Holy crap, I made it, I made it, I made it!’ Umm, and then at the end, you know, I read my last scene I was like, ‘Okay, I survived, so it’s cool.'”

That’s probably an understatement, considering he plays Bobby Drake, better known as Iceman, a mutant who can freeze anything around him. A central theme of the film is a kind of hostile friendship with another mutant named John (Aaron Stanford), better known as Pyro–a firebug who can control flames.

Which might make you wonder what the future holds for these two “friends.” If Ashmore has his way, maybe the two could face off down the road.

“[I]t’s heading that way–that Pyro and Iceman may come in for a battle. That’s what I want to see in the third one… I’d love to see a Pyro and Iceman battle–he did blow up my front yard–and a continuing relationship with Rogue [Anna Paquin]. I think I like the tension that they have. It’s sort of a sweet relationship, because they really can’t be physical, and it’s not a normal teen ‘everything’s going to work out’ kind of thing.”

That’s not to say that Ashmore thinks a third film is definitely going to happen though. “I think it’s sort of premature to say that, you know, there’s going to be an ‘X3’… it’s a big film, but it’s also a big summer for movies.”

For anyone catching up still from the first film, X-Men set up this big cast of characters, a group of mutants with special powers and abilities trying to fight off a group of evil mutants. The story is based on Marvel comic’s hugely successful series, created by Stan Lee, and with X2, there’s a lot more room to explore the prejudice and hatred in society. Specifically, the fear of people who are “different.”

In Shawn’s own words, this all brings events to a head very quickly in the sequel.

“Essentially, the war that is promised by Magneto [Ian McKellen] in the first film happens, so the stakes are higher, there’s an attack on the mansion, and the characters are on the run and it goes back to Wolverine’s origin. [With] some of the relationships, love triangles, romance.”

And as Ashmore said, “I don’t think the film takes itself too seriously. There’s definitely some good laughs.”

Ashmore was also full of praise for the actors, like McKellen and Patrick Stewart, who plays the iconic Professor Xavier.

“In a way, this is a fantasy film, and if you don’t take the characters seriously, the audience isn’t going to take it seriously, [so] it was nice to see their commitment to these roles, and I think it set the tone for everyone else.”

“They approached the characters as if they were doing Hamlet, or Shakespeare, or Macbeth… and that was important for everyone to see because they’re the guys you look up to.”

“I think from day one, X-Men’s been an ensemble cast… but that’s the thing, there’s so many characters and there’s so much to sort of cram into [a] 2-hour movie, and I think Bryan Singer did an amazing job and Dan Harris and Mike Dougherty, who are the screen writers, made a story that was complicated and twisting, but every character had their beats and their moments.”

Ashmore worked on-set alongside stars Halle Berry, who plays storm, and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, who stars as the blue Mystique.

So how does his family feel about all the buzz for X2, and seeing Iceman everywhere?

“I think they were a little freaked out when they started realizing that my face was going to be on buses and at movie theatres. You know what I mean? You don’t think about that until you’re eating lunch somewhere and you’re looking at yourself on a bus and you’re like, ‘Oh my God.’ So, I think that’s the part they don’t really like, it’s the whole sort of recognition factor, but as for me like, working and enjoying what I’m doing, they love it.”

X2 opens in theatres on May 2, 2003.