FanExpo '13: Highlights From Shawn & Aaron Ashmore's Q&A Panel
After the jump, you can listen to this very fun, un-moderated Q&A panel with Shawn and Aaron Ashmore as they reminisce on their past and present projects like Smallville, X-Men: Days Of Future Past and much, much more.
Shawn and Aaron Ashmore treated us to a fun 45-minute long panel that didn't have a moderator, so it was fun to just ask them directly and have them choose you. Regardless, below are some highlights and we also have audio of the whole panel if you're interested in listening to it to find out some information about these two great actors.
- Shawn Ashmore on X-Men: Days Of Future Past: "I can't say too much, but I can honestly say I walked in on the first day of shooting and the sets were ten times bigger than anything we did in the first three movies. The cast is amazing. The stuff that I got to do, personally, I'd been wanting action-wise to have Bobby be able to do [some action scenes.] I love it. [...] It almost feels like a family reunion. We have Bryan Singer back who is probably the only person I trust to tell this story. I trust him with Days Of Future Past and I'm really stoked and I think you guys will love it."
- Aaron Ashmore: "It's like nothing ever changes [between the Smallville cast and I]. It's really cool to goto cons and bump into people you've worked with and it feels like two days have past."
- Shawn has gotten more Animorphs questions this weekend more than any in a while.
- Aaron almost didn't audition for Smallville because his twin brother previously played a villain. His manager pushed him to do it. They never addressed the fact that Jimmy looked like Shawn's villain. Forgot about the finale with Jimmy's twin brother. Aaron thought Shawn's leech episode was "one of the best".
- The biggest difference between working on a TV show like The Following and a franchise blockbuster like X-Men is the pace and budget. Shawn prefers the television pace and likes to work hard. Doesn't think Mike will die on The Following because of how much he gets hurt.
- Aaron thinks it's about time that there's a female incarnation of Jimmy Olsen and that it's a great idea. He loved Man Of Steel and thought the action was amazing but it missed a lot of the light-hearted and comedic elements from Superman.
- Aaron and Shawn are very competitive and audition for the same roles many times but they approach characters differently which creates a unique performance for both.
- In A Heartbeat was based on an actual program in the United States where teenagers were EMSes. Shawn Ashmore would spend nights with actual ambulance crews. Tells a story of how he witnessed an EMS crew reviving a woman from the dead.
- Aaron Ashmore wanted to be in the Veronica Mars film but wasn't asked to do it. He campaigned and asked fans to tweet Rob Thomas about it. But it just didn't happen. Hoping to be in a sequel.
- When cast in X-Men, Shawn was mostly excited to work with Bryan Singer because he loved The Unusual Suspects. He was doing In A Heartbeat in Toronto and heard that Bryan Singer would be making X-Men there. His first instance of Stage-Fright during his career was when we worked with Anna Paquin where Mystique was disguised as Bobby.
- Aaron Ashmore would like to create an adaptation of the graphic novel Locke & Key and saw the scrapped pilot.
- The Following will have a lot more character development this season.
- Aaron thinks that Jimmy Olsen not being quite developed was because Clark always needed to be the hero. Jokes how his big moment was killing Doomsday, only to be killed by Doomsday as well...
- Aaron Ashmore mentions that some fans suggested he should go out to apply for The Flash on Arrow. He'd love to do something like that but doesn't know if he should go out for it.