SPLICED Issue 04\r\n\r\nX-Men: Days of Future Past\r\n\r\nInterview with Peter Dinklage, Bolivar Trask, X-Men: Days of Future Past\r\n\r\nThe X-Men have faced many threats from within and without their ranks, but in their latest adventure, Day of Future Past, they’re dealing with one of the worst. The films have a history of mankind misunderstanding mutants, but in the upcoming film, scientist Bolivar Trask begins to rally the world against our heroes, and creates the monstrous, massive Sentinel robots to help tackle what he perceives as the mutant problem.\r\n\r\nWith Bryan Singer back at the helm, the movie continues his approach of grounded, understandable villains, whose issues come from a place of fear and arrogance. To portray Trask, he turned to respected actor Peter Dinklage, who has found fame on TV’s Game of Thrones playing Tyrion Lannister, a man for whom life is an endless series of shades of grey. Singer figured Dinklage was the man to bring Trask – a well-known character from the comic books – to life on screen, and developed a nuanced role for him.\r\n\r\nDinklage, who has also been seen in such films as The Station Agent, Death at a Funeral and Elf, found time in his schedule to shoot the film before having to return for the next season of Game of Thrones. Here he talks about what he wanted to achieve with Trask, his experience on set and his ability to grow a bushy moustache quickly…\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHow did Bryan pitch you the role of Trask?\r\n\r\nWe had a great phone conversation about it. It just sounded like a fascinating character, a man of science who may be the villain of the piece, if you had to choose, but he’s definitely not your traditional villain, which is what I\'ve always loved about these X-Men films. If you take somebody like Magneto, for example, who might be considered a villain, there\'s real history there: he was once great friends with Professor X and he comes from a history of pain, so it\'s not just really black and white hero/villain storytelling, which really appeals to me. I\'m fortunate to be part of Game of Thrones, which is sort of similar in that way, that there\'s a lot of grey areas between your definition of villainy. We talked a lot about that, and about how Trask has a belief that what he\'s doing is the right thing. He didn\'t have to convince me, really! The films and the storyline speak for themselves and I was won over pretty quickly. \r\n\r\nAnd you\'re both New Jersey men...\r\n\r\nWe have a couple of mutual friends in common! We had never met for some reason, but there\'s always a Jersey bond with anybody who is from there.\r\n\r\nWhat appealed to you about Trask?\r\n\r\nIt\'s fun to play someone who thinks he\'s the smartest person in the room, and that arrogance – that’s what I wanted to play up a little bit and hopefully it comes across. But at the same time, he\'s also frustrated, he’s not being taken seriously and this maybe makes him a bit more aggressive and a bit more volatile. Underestimating someone can be dangerous!\r\n\r\nAnd he doesn\'t see himself as the villain?\r\n\r\nOf course not; he sees what he\'s doing as heroic. He wants to save humanity and doesn\'t see the problem with that. \r\n\r\nDid you base him on anyone?\r\n\r\nA lot of the people with genius IQs are humble, and you would never know it. That’s not the case with Trask. I\'ve seen some interviews in the past with men of science who are quite proud of their IQ level. I just had fun playing with that. Again, being a movie that\'s not based in real facts or history, it\'s a little tricky, but you just have to have fun with it and that\'s what we did.\r\n\r\nDid you have any experience with the comics beforehand? Did they give you “comics homework”?\r\n\r\nChris Claremont, the writer of the Days of Future Past comic book was on set. I read one of those and that was great fun. He was great. I was always a comic book fan, but in deference to true fans/collectors, I certainly wouldn\'t consider myself on their level. There are some people out there who really know what they\'re talking about and I\'m certainly not one of them. I was always drawn to the X-Men storylines and, of course, Bryan\'s films, which are up there with the Christopher Nolan Batman movies as some of the best superhero movies ever. \r\n\r\nHow was it hanging with the cast?\r\n\r\nWe were up there in Montreal last summer and we had a really good time. Nary an ego amongst them. Before I met Jennifer, I saw her and her friend sneaking peeks at me out of their trailer window. Here\'s this woman in blue running after me, screaming how much she loves Game of Thrones. She\'s an angel, a truly lovely person. We’d geek out with each other. Everybody on that movie, we were a bunch of kids getting together and being fans of each other\'s work. \r\n\r\nWas it enjoyable to work with the Sentinels and other special effects? Does that come easy to you now?\r\n\r\nOh yeah, there\'s so much make-believe that anything tangible on set that you can touch is just fantastic. When you first start, it\'s tough, but then faking things gets easier. I remember the first movie I did where I had to act with tennis balls; you really had to know what you\'re looking at because it\'s completely unreal. But as time goes on, you know the tricks and how to sort it all out in your head. And there are people around who just know so much more about it and that\'s very helpful. \r\n\r\nHow was it working with Bryan? He had a very fluid way with the scripts and his thoughts in production. And did he and Simon Kinberg welcome your input?\r\n\r\nOh yeah, for sure. Very little input from me, at least, because they know what they\'re doing. But I love their openness to change things at the last minute - I think that’s how great things happen. Bryan and Simon are bright enough to realize that. It\'s interesting, dealing with a movie with time travel and the different elements of it. Going through the \"rules\" was fun to explore. And the continuity of that! It must\'ve been the biggest headache for them, the differences in past and future… I can\'t imagine how they were able to wrangle that. \r\n\r\nWere the \'70s fashions strange to wear?\r\n\r\nI loved every second of it. I looked like a guy who worked with my father back in the day! The trick with these period films, especially the \'70s and the \'80s, is not to go too overboard. You sort of have to pull back just a little bit because you don’t want to go crazy with it, but the hair and wardrobe department knew what they were doing and they certainly transformed me. I don\'t know who thought that the color brown was good for a suit, but back in the \'70s they did. Rust colors! Deep browns... Very attractive in a suit.\r\n\r\nBut the moustache was yours?\r\n\r\nI can grow a Burt Reynolds at the drop of a hat. It was my Tom Selleck, that\'s all me. Of course, I\'m getting older, so they did have to comb out some of the grey in my moustache, but that\'s about it. \r\n\r\nHave you had much reaction to Trask yet? He hasn\'t been a big presence in the trailers yet. \r\n\r\nThey\'re teasing the audience! I like it when they don\'t give too much away. \r\n\r\nBut at Comic-Con, you\'re a god... \r\n\r\nWell, when you\'re sharing the stage with Hugh Jackman and Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, I think it\'s good because there\'s not a lot of focus on yourself, which is nice. The day before, I\'d done a panel for Game of Thrones and... Yeah... (laughs) it was nice to take more of a back seat, if you will. But it was a lot of fun - a large audience there. And it was the first time that we had gotten to see the trailer they had put together. \r\n\r\nAnd you got to meet some of the original cast you hadn\'t met?\r\n\r\nYeah, a few of them, like Halle. It was great to meet them.\r\n\r\n