Q: All right Aaron we need to know, if you were attacked by mutants in real life would you back up your dog who bravely jumps in or would you run like a coward to the bathroom?

Aaron: I would back up my dog in a heartbeat.  That dog was a god damn hero. (laughs) He deserves to be supported.  The fact of the matter is, it was in the script, and actually the fact of the matter is I respect Alex’s decision in keeping it in the script.  I spoke to him about it, I went straight to him and said, “You know, everyone is going to hate this character in the moment he abandons his dog, I mean this dog just saved his ass and he’s turning his tail and running and barricading himself in the bathroom.”  And Alex said, “Yeah, I know that and I understand that people are not going to like him in that moment, but it’s real, it’s something that might happen in a moment of cowardice of a real person, someone in those extreme circumstances, you’re terrified and you do horrible things sometimes.”  I respect that he did that instead of following conventions and saying, ‘Oh we gotta love this guy!  We’re gonna want everyone to love this guy!’  He made the choice that this guy was a human being and he has flaws.

Q: Did Alex suggest that you watch Straw Dogs before this movie?

Aaron: He… I had seen Straw Dogs, what he did was he talked to me before the movie and said the two major influences I had before this film were Deliverance and Straw Dogs.  And The Hills Have Eyes obviously.  So, the end sequence and the arc of the character are very similar to Dustin Hoffman’s journey in Straw Dogs.  Obviously the long, drawn-out trailer scene in The Hills Have Eyes is similar to the horrendous rape scene in Deliverance.  Both scenes make you want to crawl under your skin and leave the theater.  So he told me these ideas going into it, and I thought, wow, that sounds fantastic, it sounds pretty lofty for a horror film, but when I actually saw the final product I did see the similarities.

Q: Did you do any basing on the Dustin Hoffman character at all?

Aaron: No, I was aware of it, and I respected that there were parallels, but I didn’t want to do Dustin Hoffman’s performance in Straw Dogs, nor did I want to do the original performance from the original The Hills Have Eyes.  I wanted to do something that was my own.

Q: Do you have a favorite scene in The Hills Have Eyes?

Aaron: Yeah, I love the whole village, the whole burned out nuclear village, it was great.  It was visually stunning, and that amazing fight scene between me and Pluto.  It took us five days to shoot that fight sequence.  I just think that’s an exciting part of the film, goes in the mountain, comes out the other side into this mythical wonderland of horror pretty much.  It’s great.

Q: You’re shooting something like that, is going back to X-Men just like, whatever?

Aaron: As far as physical demands?  Yeah, X-Men wasn’t anywhere near as physically demanding.  You get a lot of downtime.  I’m sure some of the characters in X-Men had a LOT of physically demanding stuff.  My character is pretty much stand and deliver, stand and throw fire at people, you know?  There’s no acrobatics or anything.  The Hills Have Eyes was very demanding, it was 115 degrees, we had to be running all over the place, and people were passing out from heatstroke.  It was pretty tough.

Q: Does your character change between X2 and X3?

Aaron: Yeah, he changes.  In X2, he was sort of ambivalent towards where his allegiances lie, he’s not sure where he’s going to go.  He’s obviously part of Xavier’s School for Gifted Children, but he’s also attracted to this other side, this Brotherhood he’s been hearing about.  He’s got friends with Professor X, but he’s really called by this Magneto who tells him that he’s a god among insects.  It’s a pretty attractive idea, and in X3 he’s totally surrendered to that.  He’s off the fence, he’s with the Brotherhood, dedicated and committed and because of that he’s really, just really allowed to let his powers rip and not hold back at all.

Q: Among such a huge cast, is it hard to get your parts in there, are you unsure about what’s going to be cut?

Aaron: It’s just part of being in X-Men.  There’s like twenty main characters, fifteen of them are household names, so obviously you’re happy for anything you can get.  I’m thrilled that I got as much screen time as I did.  They do actually follow through with the Pyro and Iceman story, they really bring it to a nice conclusion.  So I’m happy for what I have, I don’t know what they have cut out, I know we just did a re-shoot to put a scene back in that they cut before between myself and Bobby so I know for a fact that they decided they needed that to make the story work, so there’ll be more of me in there.

Q: Are you signed for more X-Men movies?

Aaron: Yes, I think I’m on for 4.  If they decide to make 4.  It’s only one more that I’m contracted for, but they’re billing this one as the conclusion to the trilogy, so I don’t know, although I don’t really believe it.

Q: How was the transition from Singer to Rattner?

Aaron: Pretty smooth.  Surprisingly smooth.  Brian Singer, we all knew it would be very difficult to replace him, he’s got a long history with the franchise, he’s a huge X-Men comic book fan, he knows the whole history.  We were very nervous about turning this over to someone else who didn’t have as much experience, but what Brett (Rattner) lacks in experience he really made up for in enthusiasm and energy.  The man is just the Energizer Bunny, he has boundless, boundless energy, he comes to set every day ready to rock, just asking, bringing everyone in for ideas, ‘What can we do with this?  What’s not working?’  He was just on top of it every minute of the day.  I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised.

Q: I heard you’re getting an action figure out of this one, is that true?

Aaron: You know more than me, I know nothing about it.  I didn’t last time.  I did have to give approval for my likeness in the video game, but not for the action figure yet.

Q: How’d that turn out?

Aaron: This one was good.  The first one was horrible.  I sent it back, they told me it was a rough sketch, I was sent back something much better.

Q: Is that exciting to you, or just kind of eh?

Aaron: Well, you know it’s kind of cool, but you don’t get involved in acting because you want an action figure, and if you do you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Q: Will you be doing the voice for Pyro in the video game?

Aaron: They haven’t asked me.  Probably not.  I bet it would cost them more money, so… I don’t know.  They haven’t said anything about it.

Q: Was your involvement in the X-Men franchise your introduction to the series, or did you know the comics beforehand?

Aaron: I knew the comics.  I wasn’t like a die-hard X-Men fan, but I think I read a lot of the Wolverine/Logan series.  I didn’t know a lot about Pyro, so I had to research that.  He’s a very different character in the comics, he’s older, he’s Australian, he’s a professional romance novelist and criminal, just a lot of really interesting stuff.  I would love it if they had pursued the storyline of the Legacy Virus, that’s really cool stuff.  But you know there’s always going to be differences in the comic book to movie.  Obviously I’m a lot younger; they decided not to make him Australian, not my choice, their choice.  Seriously, I said, “Doug, you want Australian?”  They said it was too much trouble.  They tried it before with someone else and they didn’t like it.  What I did do for this one, I changed his look a little bit, because in the comic book Pyro has flaming, fiery-blonde hair in the shape of a flame.  There’s no way in hell I’m doing that.  I was online enough to know people were upset that I wasn’t blonde, so I decided that we’ll chop it down, dye it blonde, make it this blonde Sid Vicious sort of look, make it more similar to the character.

Q: Do you have the orange and yellow Pyro jumpsuit in the film?

Aaron: They steered clear of stuff like that.  Anything brightly colored or spandex I think they know is death in comic book films at this point.  I do have like a darker costume, but what I do have is that they brought in the igniter.  It’s slightly different in the comics where he has these big igniters which are hooked up to tubes going to his back.  It’s not like that, very utilitarian, it’s strapped to his wrist and this small little pilot light shoots out, which is all he needs.  He can turn that into whatever he wants.  That was a cool addition this time.

Q: Do you have a preference for larger or small films?  You talk about the X-Men, but then there’s films like The Hills Have Eyes or Tadpole, is there something you prefer to do?

Aaron: I like to think all over the map.  I like to have as many different experiences as I can.  All these different kinds of films, if they’re massive, big budget blockbusters or small little indie films, they all have something to offer, and I’ll be happy to keep mixing it up as long as I can.

Q: Do you have anything that’s lined up next?

Aaron: I got something that’s doing the festival circuit right now called Live Free or Die which is this comedy about two wannabe criminals in New Hampshire which I think is pretty funny.  It’s South By Southwest right now, and it’s going to close out the Genart Film Festival.  I’m also shooting a pilot for ABC in New York City right now.  David Nutter’s directing it, it’s called Traveler, it’s about three young guys who graduate from Yale who decide to take a cross country trip, one last hurrah before getting jobs and growing up, and about ten minutes into the episode something very, very unexpected happens, and I’m not allowed to say what it is.  Basically the show is about friendship, domestic terrorism and political intrigue.

Q: There’s sort of an industry conventional wisdom that David Nutter pilots get picked up, so are you looking forward to the possibility of that kind of commitment?

Aaron: Yes, because I love the material.  I wouldn’t agree to do it if I didn’t think it was something special.  I think that the script is fantastic, the cast is great, the two young actors with me are trained actors from New York and very serious about what they do, so I’m very excited about it.

Q: So if this show is picked up, will they shoot it all over the country?

Aaron: I have no idea.  I don’t know how this stuff works.  This is my first real experience with TV.  I did a couple episodes of a show a long time ago, but that was it.

Q: When you shoot a pilot like this, do you automatically commit to a certain number of seasons, or do they wait until it’s picked up?

Aaron: They have your balls in a sling. (laughs) You sign it all away.  They’ve got me for six, standard television set, though it’s very rare if they go that long.

Q: So the films we’ve been talking about, The Hills Have Eyes and X-Men, where you’re playing these characters who right on the surface between good and evil, the baser instincts, were those fun for you to play?

Aaron: Yeah, I think it’s more interesting, I think it’s more human.  It’s like I said before, exploring people’s flaws and their weaknesses and what makes them human.  Along with that you find this guy’s weaknesses, but then he also finds his strengths, he has his moments of cowardice but in the end when he really has to pull it out, he does.  I just think it’s good not to ignore that side of me, that side of people that is sometimes weak and flawed that’s a part of all of us.

Q: Some of the other actors earlier talked a lot about bonding on the set of The Hills Have Eyes, and considering that your character is a bit of an outsider to the Carter family, did any of that translate to the offscreen?

Aaron: No, no, no, we all bonded.  Even though my character is a little bit of an outsider, it was very very important that deep down he loved this family.  He cares about them deeply, he has his baby and his wife, but also it’s whether or not he’s got surface problems with them, he still has to care, he has to feel it when the mother basically dies in his arms.  The bonding was very important.

Q: Did you guys hang with the mutants?

Aaron: Yeah, we ended up hanging out with them.  It was like a sequestered environment, there’s nowhere else to go, everyone was in the same hotel, and so yeah, we all ended up hanging out with the mutants like family, we ate lunch and dinner together and all that.

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