I'm here with Sean Ashmore. It's a little strange to be at the Nickelodeon lounge talking about The Following. A little bit different.

Yeah, slightly different demographics, but that's okay. I you know, I did a Nickelodeon TV show when I was 17 called Animorphs.

Oh, wow. What was that like?

It was interesting. It was a show where our characters could touch animals and turn into the animals we touched. So, it was pretty amazing. It's fantastic. Yeah. So, I have a connection to Nickelodeon.

You do. So you feel right at home here.

I do.

Well, we did want to make you feel more at home and the last time we interviewed you at our studio, you know what's coming. mask. Yeah, do you know, did you see it before you left the studio?

I didn't see it. I didn't see it.

Okay, now here's the interesting part. The last time I interviewed you, the show had not aired yet, so I didn't fully understand the context. The context of me saying that I was going to put the mask on and walk around. It's basically saying that I'm like a cult follower.

Yeah. I thought you knew that. Evil.

Well, I kind of did, but not to the extent that I know now, now that I've seen the show. Okay. Yes. So, I won't be putting this on today, but I just thought we would have it here just as a nice memento.

I appreciate that. It's a nice connection to the past.

It's a nice it's our nice connection to the past. So, given that the last time I talked to you, the show hadn't aired yet.

Yeah.

How has first of all, the fan response been? It's been And especially coming here to Comic-Con.

Yeah, it's been amazing. I think there was high expectations for the show just based on Kevin Williamson and Kevin Bacon. And you know, I don't think we could be happier with with the response from the fans. I mean, we've gotten an incredible amount of support. Um, we have followers for The Following, which is kind of amazing. So, it's you know, it's been a lot of fun and and we're back again. So.

And you're back again.

We're back again because we'd shot the pilot the last time, uh but the show hadn't aired. So I think this year the experience is going to be much much different. Um because people know what the show's about. So for the followers of The Following, you guys are going to be down here all together.

Yes. Are there parties planned? What's Kevin like sort of like is is he sort of 'cause he's a rock and roll guy.

Oh, Kevin Bacon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's Kevin's a great guy. He's super cool. What I didn't know really about Kevin was was what an incredible musician he is. And you know, He plays on Kimmel. I didn't even realize he was a musician. He plays shows while we're shooting. He's playing shows, you know, and um Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah.

On set?

Uh, I've see I think he brings his guitar to set. When we were in Atlanta, we were shooting in a house and they had a guitar and we were kind of hanging around and Kevin and and uh and another actor named John Lafayette started playing and singing and it was pretty cool. And that's just in between, you know. Just hanging out, you know.

Some light light material on the show.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Do you feel like a badass because Comic-Con is all about superheroes and that kind of thing. And you are Iceman. I mean, do you kind of come down here and go, this is my turf. This is my world.

Yeah. I am a superhero. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I've done four X-Men films now, so it's so it's been such a huge part of my life. And yeah, this is the place to come, uh and and sort of experience the superhero experience and, uh, this is the first time or the second time, I guess, Comic-Con last year was the first time I'd ever been to one of these conventions.

Are you ever going to come down here and dress up as Iceman?

I don't think that'll ever happen. I do get asked around Halloween, I get asked that a lot. Like, oh, did you get to keep the costume? Uh, I did not. Um, they're usually about a hundred grand each. So I did not get to hold on to it and I probably wouldn't wear it around. I think.

Have you But I'm do you think you'll see any Icemen here?

I'll have to report back. I don't know.

You'll have to let us know next time we catch you at Comic-Con.

We'll see. We'll see what happens.

So, difference between that character, who's transparent, shows his emotions and and that you have to show more restraint on the show emotionally and and sort of sometimes it's more internal. With

yeah, I think Mike Weston, the character I play is, uh I think sort of of all the characters on the show, specifically the FBI agents, I think Mike sort of does wear his heart on his sleeve and he sort of says what he means and I think that's sort of the charm of Mike. But as the season progresses and some, you know, awful things start to happen to him, he does begin to shut down. And what I thought was interesting about that is it sort of mirrors what Kevin Bacon's character Hardy went through in the past. And so it was a nice parallel and, um, yeah, it's a really fun character to explore. I'm really looking forward to next season.

Well, I know Kevin's talked about how for him, because he's also used to coming from the world of film. It's very different from the pace and sort of the Yeah. how draining TV can be because the hours are really you laugh when I say that because

No, no, because I love it. Yeah.

Oh, really? So you thrive on it.

I love the pace. I love having 15 hours to explore a character. And there's a sense where you can't overthink the scripts that are sort of flying at you. We work on the fly. The scripts are coming at us, rewrites are coming at us. And it's fun because once you have a handle on the character and sort of know where you exist in that world, you just have to sort of act on the fly, which is kind of an interesting an interesting way to work. I enjoy it. Kevin Williamson consistently delivers great scripts, great thrills, and interesting characters for us to play because otherwise, you know, if you don't trust the writing that's coming at you and you don't have a chance to to really fully think about it and really develop your ideas, it can be scary because you you you might miss something or you might miss a beat. But Kevin's writing is always on point and so it allows us to just work on the fly like that.

Kevin Williams Williamson is kind of a superhero. He knows what's going on. He knows what's going on. Yeah. Speaking of like superheroes, a lot of times at Comic-Con people ask, you know, who your hero is. I know you talked about meeting Clint Eastwood once.

Yeah.

And that he was somebody that sort of you fond over or not fond over, but got excited to meet.

Yeah, he was, I mean, he's I think he's just an incredible actor. I've loved his work for a long time. And when I met him personally, he was just so down to earth and I mean the story goes that he walked into a room, uh behind the scenes of an award show and walked around to everybody in the room and introduced himself as if we didn't know who he was. And I thought that was so classy and cool. And I was just like, wow,

Was it kind of like he knew everybody in the room wanted to talk to him, so he's like, I'm just going to do it for you.

No, no, it really wasn't. I think he genuinely was just like, I'm making an entrance into a room and I there's some people here I don't know and you know, just wanted to introduce himself.

And what did you say to him?

I think I just said hi. I think the rule is if you if you meet someone that you really look up to, less words is better.

Really? I mean, that's that's my rule. Is that a tip for your followers? Don't come.

No, no. I I mean, I enjoy, hey, listen, if you want to have a conversation, I'm ready to have that, but I just know from me personally, I should just shut up sometimes.