NEW MUTANTS Star Henry Zaga Talks Playing Sunspot & Differentiating Him From DAYS OF FUTURE PAST - EXCLUSIVE

Ahead of tomorrow's long-awaited theatrical debut of The New Mutants, we were recently granted an exclusive opportunity to get on a Zoom call with star Henry Zaga, who plays Roberto de Costa, a.k.a. Sunspot, in the final chapter of 20th Century Fox's X-Men saga.

Unlike his co-stars, Zaga wasn't the first actor to portray Sunspot as Adan Canto had previously played the part in the critically acclaimed X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014. But since he really only appeared in what could be considered a glorified cameo and with this film basically starting from the ground floor, Zaga never felt the need to reach out to Canto and instead wanted to forge his own path. 

He elaborates, "I had watched the movie a long time ago and I loved it. I really respect everyone that did it, their takes on their characters, but I find it more rewarding to go to the comics and to go to our script. Also, to draw from personal experiences, from people that I’ve known over the years that have had similar things happen to them and just like Roberto, I've seen them also use a sort of fake confidence to hide their heart, putting up a shield to live under the radar, and maybe showing off too much, you know? But, really, they actually have this secret, and a very sensitive side. So, I didn’t really draw from other performances, just mostly from the source material."

Him drawing from the source material is actually a bit understated, as he actually completely immersed himself in X-Men comics to learn as much about the character as he could. Co-star Charlie Heaton even revealed that outside of director Josh Boone, Zaga was a key source to finding research material as he had nearly every relevant comic in his room while they were making the movie. 

"I have all of the - I have 98 issues that are original, the vintage ones, and I just dove in. I really wanted to know as much as I could about him and choose what to draw from and what not to.

Ultimately, we were telling the story of the script and what Josh had envisioned for the story, but if the material was available to me, I couldn’t just leave it, I had to go and read it. I totally geeked out and it was so refreshing, it was a really different take on mutants who are so young and incredibly powerful and have these crazy powers, so I was always really curious to how Josh was translating everything from the comic for the screen."

As for conveying the more arrogant and cocky side of Roberto's personality, Zaga stresses that he's really not like his character in person and had to dig deep to bring out the real, for lack of a better word, "dickish" Sunspot fans know and love from the comics. 

"I can be a bit extroverted at times, but mostly, I’m pretty quiet, more reserved, and like to do my own thing, so to me, playing that side of Roberto was more fun and challenging. To play him, you have to be the loudest guy in class, always kind of making jokes at other people’s expense.

At his core though, he is tragically funny. You sort of laugh at him when he’s trying to make you laugh at his jokes, so that to me, was really exciting to play when people are going through a hard time at a mental institution, Roberto is tanning outside and everyone’s like “okay.” *laughs*"

Stay tuned for more exclusive The New Mutants coverage!

20th Century Fox 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.