Not everyone is cut out to have a secret identity.
No doubt to the chagrin of a few Marvel producers, Paul Walter Hauser is admitting that he wasn’t always the best at keeping his secret Fantastic Four role to himself.
Now that the cat’s out of the bag — and the film is wrapping up its third weekend in theaters — the truth has officially been revealed: Hauser appears as subterranean antihero Mole Man, an antagonist of the titular heroes with a soft spot for Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm. Leading up to the film’s release, Hauser was absent from trailers to keep his role under wraps. But that didn’t stop him from letting the truth slip out.
“For the most part, I was zip-lipped, and everybody understands at this point. They all know if you do Star Wars or Marvel you can’t talk about it,” Hauser told GQ in a recent interview. “But if I’m being honest — and I pride myself on my honesty nowadays — I probably told 70 or 80 random people, be it family members or fans.”
Phillip Faraone/Getty
Paul Walter Hauser attends ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ world premiere in July
He continued, “I’m not gonna lie and say I told literally no one. I told several dozen people. But at the same time, they weren’t blabbering it out, or giving it to news outlets. They were respectful, and excited, and what-have-you.”
Thirty-seven movies into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, more than a few actors have acknowledged the intensity of the studio’s secret-keeping — and the fear of what will happen if you let something slip. But according to Hauser, some situations simply demand honesty.
“If a little kid comes up to me in a wheelchair with a comic book, and they’re like, ‘Are you Mole Man?’ I would say something like, ‘I don’t know, man, I hear there is a mole…’ and wink at them, just to get them excited,” he recalled. “It’s kind of like jaywalking, too. It’s like, you can get [arrested] for that, but it’s like, hopefully they’re catching the bad guys.”
He adds, “And when I look at [President of Marvel Studios] Kevin Feige and the Marvel folks, I go, ‘I think they’re probably busy with some other stuff. They’re probably not gonna chase me down and scalp me, or shoot a little [dart] into my neck.'”
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/Human Torch in ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’
To his credit, Hauser is certainly not the worst offender. His role went largely unreported until the film officially arrived in theaters and the chatter began in earnest. Compared to bad deeds like spoiling a major character death (Tom Holland), accidentally livestreaming a movie premiere (Mark Ruffalo), or revealing the cliffhanger ending of Avengers: Infinity War (Ruffalo, again), Hauser is basically innocent.
Hauser appears alongside Kirby, Pedro Pascal, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, and Julia Garner in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which sees the titular heroes face off against the gargantuan planet-eating entity known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson). As Harvey Elder, a.k.a. Mole Man, the leader of Subterranea, Hauser must decide whether or not to team up with his enemies to deal with the cosmic entity threatening Earth.
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While attending the film’s premiere in July, Hauser made the case that Mole Man will follow in Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) footsteps as a well-liked character, despite his antagonistic ways.
“Mole Man is equal parts curmudgeon and thorn in folks’ sides, but he also does have an endearing quality, and he is comedic throughout the film,” he told ET. “So I think it’s that antihero thing. We all kind of fell in love with Loki even though we knew he was a villain, right?”
Fantastic Four is available in theaters now.
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