The Verge: Shawn Ashmore

You were also in The Ruins, which has some similarities with this film in that it’s a “young people trapped” story — although I’m sure The Ruins was a considerably warmer shoot. Did you find yourself playing any of the same emotional beats?
It was something I thought of at first, that I didn’t want to rehash an old role, but for me, the only similarity was that they both happen to be in a stranded situation. Ultimately, the characters I played in The Ruins and in Frozen were completely opposite guys as far as I was concerned. I wasn’t thinking about it like, “Oh, I need to find a new way in to this emotion” — it was about who these people were. In a way, I guess I learned from The Ruins about working on a contained set and how to take advantage of it. Frozen was that much more contained and that much more intense.

I was reading that you were cast in the upcoming re-do of Bonnie and Clyde…
To be completely honest, I’m not actually cast in that film. I know it’s on the internet and I’ve had conversations with the director, but I don’t know anything about actually shooting the film. I talked to Tanya, the director, last February when I was shooting Frozen, and since then I haven’t heard anything. I think it’s an interesting concept. It’s dangerous territory because it’s obviously a retelling of a classic story, but if they do it right, it could be interesting.

You are in the remake of Mother’s Day, though.
I am. That was a madhouse experience, a big ensemble cast. It’s a super intense film about these three band-robbing brothers who are on the run after a heist that’s gone wrong, and they go back to their mother’s house thinking they can hole up there. When they get there, they bust in with these guns and realize that their mother’s lost the house and there are all these people there having a party in the basement. I play this doctor names George who’s given the task of keeping the brother who’s been shot alive. It’s a really high tension situation, completely different from Frozen in the sense that there’s so many people. Darren Bousman, the director, was a real architect to put all these pieces together. My big scenes are with Rebecca DeMornay, I have some standoffs with her that are kind of incredible. I haven’t fully gotten over some of the emotional scenes we had together. Hopefully it turns out as good as it felt while we were shooting it.

As a veteran of three X-Men films, how do you feel about Bryan Singer returning to the franchise to direct X-Men: First Class?
I’m so excited. There was a weird transition between X-Men 2 and X-Men 3 because Bryan left and Brett Ratner came on. Ultimately it turned out to be a great thing, but it was kind of bizarre because Bryan had cast everyone and we’d all done two movies with him. It was bittersweet — it was nice to see Bryan go on and make Superman, and it was nice to have new blood and a new perspective from Brett coming in to work on the film. Bryan is clearly very, very passionate about the X-Men films and the characters, so you know he’s going to a good job with whatever the story’s going to be.

Are you bummed that it’ll be a prequel, since that means there probably won’t be any Iceman?
Yeah, yeah. Of course. Those films are always a blast to make, and working with Bryan is amazing. It’d be awesome to do another X-Men film, and it’s too bad that there probably won’t be a role for me, but who knows? The universe is huge and they keep making those films. You never know — hopefully, I’ll get the chance to play Iceman one more time.