What has been the most commonly asked question directed at you about Jubilee?
I guess how and why I use my powers, and if I’ll use my powers in the film. I actually had this conversation with Bryan as well. I mean, they’ve tried to bring in Jubilee as a character before in the franchise, but she never really made the cut. It just never really happened. Now they’re like, ‘We finally have the money, the fanbase and all that stuff to bring you in as a character.’ She’s had little cameos, but she has never ever used her powers—nothing. So I definitely get a lot of questions like, ‘Will she use her powers? Will she say something in the movie??’ [Laughs]
Are you going to contribute anything here?
You know?? [Laughs] And I’m super sensitive about questions like that because I don’t exactly know what I’m allowed to say. But yes, she does use her powers. It’s just that I can’t say why or anything because, you know, that’s the movie. I get those questions all the time.
So how prominently are you featured in the movie?
Okay—there are like the 17 of us in the ensemble, right? Six of those are the new, younger mutants, which includes Jubilee. I stick together with Jean, Scott, and Nightcrawler. Almost all of my scenes are with them. They’re such a prominent part of the film because we’re watching them grow up and learn how to develop their powers and use them. I can say that Jubilee is in it throughout the entire film. Hopefully. Unless they cut me. [Laughs] I would also say that if there were to be another film, I would hope that Jubilee would get an even bigger character arc.
How familiar were you with the X-Men universe going into this?
I told you I went to the midnight screening of X-Men: Days of Future Past, but since I do not lie, I was more into The Avengers. Iron Man was my thing. With X-Men, I wasn’t an avid fan where I had to go see every movie as it came out right away, so I wasn’t all that familiar with it. However, that being said, when I found out I was cast in it and also leading up to it during the auditions, I went complete psycho: I bought like 200 comic books, watched all the cartoons on Netflix and all the movies back-to-back twice. I became a more knowledgeable fan of the franchise once I was cast. But I was obsessed with The Avengers first.
Did it take long to find the right look for Jubilee? If you compare the set photos to the comic books and animated series, it’s pretty spot on.
The costume designer was amazing. When I first started going to the wardrobe fittings, she laid out these full entire lookbooks. They wanted to make Jubilee look exactly like the comics and the cartoons. They wanted it to feel like Jubilee jumped off the page so much. And I thought they were going to cut my hair, but they just cut my bangs and kinda teased it up. The yellow jacket: We tried so many different ones, before finally deciding to make it from scratch. I really wanted to keep it! It was made to fit me perfectly but, I know, it’s Jubilee’s jacket. I can’t wait for everyone to see it.
I can’t even fathom what it must’ve been like for you to step onto set for the first time.
The whole entire time: ‘Is this real? I’m dreaming.’ Me, Sophie [Turner], Tye [Sheridan], and Kodi [Smit-McPhee] were all working the first day. They rented out half a huge mall in Montreal for the shoot, so half of it was the X-Men set and the other half was a regular, functioning mall. I walked in and there were hundreds of extras milling around, and it was transformed into the ’80s. I was like, ‘Oh my god! This is my first day of work?’ I remember being really serious that day, too, and Bryan was like, ‘Yo! Laugh! This is fun!’ I would sit outside my trailer sometimes and Jennifer [Lawrence] would walk by me, as Mystique in her blue, like, ‘What’s up, Lana?’ It’s crazy because she’s in blue, Kodi’s in blue, and Nic’s [Hoult] in blue. Not only are these actors I totally look up to, but it’s also them in their characters, just having lunch with you. It was just crazy.
Could you contextualize that mall scene for me without getting into trouble?
I guess I can say that the whole scene is establishing the four of our relationships. That’s the foundation of who we’re gonna be to each other for the rest of the film.