18
FLASH FORWARD
WITH A LITTLE
IMAGINATION,
HENRY ZAGA LIGHTS
UP LIKE THE SUN
HEN ACTOR Henry Zaga joined the young cast of
The New Mutants in 2017, no one could have anticipated
the serpentine journey Josh Boone’s comic book adaptation
would take to the silver screen: Disney acquired its distribu-
tor 20th Century Fox, throwing its scheduled release into
limbo, only for that planned date to move yet again after the coronavirus
disrupted, well, everything. But the Brazilian-born 26-year-old said that the
many delays, changes and conflicting reports between then and now taught
him an important lesson about focusing on the future of his career instead
of worrying about the past.
“Love it while you’re doing it and then go onto the next one,” he tells
MovieMaker. “Otherwise, you’re just going to drive yourself insane. You’re
there to serve a story, to move people, and promote it after you’re done.”
Zaga sat down for a conversation over breakfast at Los Angeles’ Chateau
Marmont just a day before Disney bumped the release of The New Mutants
yet again to later in 2020, a decision that the young actor pre-emptively
agreed would be a good idea. “Now is the time they actually need it to be
delayed,” he suggested, laughing at the irony. Nevertheless, when Zaga first
started working on the project, he quickly assumed it would lead to over-
night success—that it was the big break he’d waited for in Hollywood.
“I was 23 when we shot it and I had all these expectations,” he confessed.How the young actor rolls with The New Mutants
delays—and plots his own futureBY TODD GILCHRISTW