THE NEW MUTANTS Star Blu Hunt Touches On Mirage's Trilogy Arc; Describes Epic Romance With Rahne - EXCLUSIVE

After three long years, a massive corporate merger, and a global pandemic, 20th Century Studios' X-Men swan song The New Mutants is finally open in theaters across the globe, albeit in an extremely limited capacity since a large portion of theaters across the United States remain closed, including in New York and California, which are arguably among the two biggest moviegoing markets on the planet.

Ahead of the film's release, I sat down with the film's leading lady Blu Hunt, who plays Dani Moonstar, a.k.a. Mirage, in the the film and spoke to her at length about landing her first big Hollywood role, the responsibility she felt playing a Native American superhero, what would've potentially happened with Dani throughout Josh Boone's planned trilogy, the epic romance between Dani and Rahne as well as her strong friendship with Maisie Williams, and which Marvel Studios superheroine she would love to team up with. 

Check out the full interview below:

ROHAN: I believe when you were cast in this part, you had just appeared in The Originals, and now are a more seasoned actress with more credits to your name. How would you tackle Dani differently now or was that time in your life the perfect window to play this character?

BLU HUNT: No, it was not the perfect time for me to take on a role that big. *laughs*

I think in a lot of ways, it was kind of perfect, because what I was going through as a person was what the character was going through too. Dani shows up somewhere, she’s intimidated, she’s confused, she’s going through changes, she’s completely overwhelmed, there’s things within herself that she hasn’t faced, but really needs to. She has her own demons and I was going through the same thing, just as Blu Hunt, so I think that parallel is there and I think that’s cool, but I definitely wish I could do it now or at least do it again, but better.

I would really love to do it again, I’m 25 now, so I’m still learning, but now that I know what making a movie is like, I can take a step back and understand how it works and what’s needed of you as an actor, psychologically, I wish I could come at it differently, but I try not to live my life with regrets.

ROHAN: I think it’s been a little understated in the trailers, but Dani is the lead, she’s the lead in the movie.

BLU: Yes!

ROHAN: As a Native American actress playing a Native American lead in a big budget superhero movie, which is something you don’t often get to see, what did you hope to bring to the part that would generally get overlooked?

BLU: I remember before I went to make the movie, right after I had been cast, actually maybe even during the audition process, I remember kind of sitting on Twitter - I don’t have a Twitter anymore, I deleted it a couple years ago - and I remember just sitting on Twitter and reading about what everybody was saying about me, like “Oh my God.”

It was really hitting me and I was feeling so honored and excited for myself, always knowing I was mixed-race and always knowing being honest about that. There was a lot of talk between me and the producers and Josh about my background and I just wanted to be really honest and transparent, like this is exactly what my background is, this is who I am and having to ask myself “Am I the right person to play Dani?”

Talking to other indigenous people, it was a really big decision for me, do I even take this role? Is it right for me to take this role as a mixed race actress? Then, realizing that so many native people are mixed and they thought it was okay and they approved of me in the role.

Showing up to set with that pressure though, wanting to do justice for how I represented her for the community was big for me, but to then realize that people I didn’t know didn’t like me or didn’t want me in the role. People that weren’t even Native American, it was mostly white people, which was kind of insane to me, and not because I hadn’t really acted in anything this big before, but people had never talked about me online anonymously before, so I didn’t really know how to deal with that. Now, I actually literally just do not care anymore.

I really just wanted to play Dani as myself, I remember when we did makeup and hair tests, I had short hair because I always have short hair, I just prefer it, but I remember really wanting to put extensions in and having the real long-haired Dani Moonstar look and Josh being like “No, we just want Dani to be you, who you are right now is fine,” and so I tried to approach it like that. If I’m just myself and I’m Native American and Dani’s Native American, and that will be what it is, if that makes any sense.

ROHAN: Josh has spoken at length about his plans for a trilogy, do you know what your role would’ve been moving forward into future films and about what would happen to Dani?

BLU: Yeah… I knew everything. *laughs* I don’t know if I can just tell you, but yeah, I knew what Dani’s trajectory was and where her relationship with Rahne would go and go and go and go because they’re the cutest couple, who would have faced some issues in the next two films.

There would’ve been new X-Men members coming in, I think people would’ve been really happy with the trilogy because they would’ve gotten to see a lot of New Mutants stuff that we sadly couldn’t fit into this movie. It just didn’t make sense for this movie because it had to be more contained, but I think people would’ve really liked the trilogy if it had happened.

Dani and Illyana’s roles would’ve kind of reversed by the end, what they do for each other as characters and as people. I think that would’ve been really, really cool to see.

ROHAN: Your romance with Maisie’s Rahne has been described as the heart of the film, and something that while often alluded to (e.g. Avengers: Endgame; Power Rangers) is rarely ever really seen in a superhero movie, what did that mean to you and how did that relationship help you further evolve your character?

BLU: Yeah, that was the most special part of it, doing scenes with Maisie was probably when I was the most relaxed, the most comfortable. For some reason, I just felt so comfortable in their relationship, and I just knew right away, I was able to bond with it right away and it immediately felt very emotional to me.

Maisie and I became really, really good friends while creating that relationship. It was never hard, never felt like a big deal. It was always exciting and I was always excited for the movie to come out and the LGBTQ community would get to see them together and I’m so excited for that. Doing it felt so normal and easy. It’s such an honor though, there’s so many parts of Dani that are just so cool. She’s female, she’s gay, she’s indigenous, and that’s just all so cool.

ROHAN: It became pretty clear early on that you and the cast have excellent chemistry. You already seem close with Maisie. Could you speak on how that came to be and what it’s been like being on this bizarre journey these past three years together. Did you all stay in touch?

BLU: Oh yeah, absolutely, Maisie and I have become super great friends. I had never been to a different country, I’d never even been to Canada yet, and I went to London to see her and I stayed at her place. That was so crazy because I had just grown up in this little suburb in California and I’d never been anywhere, I never even really thought that I’d ever go to New York, so going to London and staying with Maisie was unreal.

She’s been such a great friend to me and whenever she comes to LA, we hang out. I moved to New York last year and when she was in New York, we hung out. I still keep in touch with the rest of the cast too, but don’t get to see them as often, but we’re all still really great friends. If we ever did another New Mutants movie, five years later, five years older, I think there’d be an entirely new chemistry between all of us that would be a lot stronger and different and really evolved. It would be cool.

ROHAN: Dani is a character that has ties all over the Marvel universe, outside of her New Mutants connections, she does eventually become a member of the X-Force and X-Men and also has ties to the Valkyrie who we’ve seen in the Thor movies. Is there any path that you were hopeful to see Dani head down?

BLU: I would love to see her be a Valkyrie," Hunt tells us. "I remember when I saw Thor: Ragnarok, and saw that Tessa Thompson was a Valkyrie, I was like, “What!?! Dani has to be a Valkyrie!” Her fighting evil alongside Tessa Thompson, just as an actress getting to play that, would be like 'Wow.'

I could always see Dani doing that [joining the Valkyrie] and it would be fun because I’d actually get to wear a superhero costume! *laughs* Which we didn’t get to do and I’m kinda still sad about it, but yeah, that would be awesome.

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.