"Playing a character who's dealing not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship is easy to associate with, because I feel that everyone has been through it"
About this Quote
Ashmore is selling the superhero as a mirror, not a monument. His line does the classic actor-in-a-franchise move: drag the genre back down to human height so the character doesn’t read as a bundle of effects shots. The key phrasing is “not only with a superpower but having a normal relationship.” The “not only” quietly demotes the superpower to a complication, like a demanding job or a bad habit, and crowns the relationship as the real plot engine. That’s smart PR and smart craft: if audiences buy the romance, they’ll forgive the CGI.
The subtext is about relatability as currency. Superhero films can feel like mythology with product placement; actors are trained to insist the story is “really about” something familiar. Ashmore reaches for the broadest bridge possible - “everyone has been through it” - which is obviously not true in any literal sense, but emotionally strategic. He’s trying to collapse the distance between viewer and character by describing power as an exaggerated version of ordinary pressure: hiding parts of yourself, managing expectations, negotiating intimacy while carrying a secret you can’t quite put down.
Context matters: Ashmore’s career is tied to ensemble superhero storytelling (most notably the X-Men era), where the mutant metaphor already frames power as difference - adolescence, identity, stigma. His comment aligns with that tradition while keeping it light: no thesis about oppression, just the friction of wanting a “normal” relationship when your life isn’t. It works because it flatters the audience’s self-recognition and reframes spectacle as emotion with better lighting.
The subtext is about relatability as currency. Superhero films can feel like mythology with product placement; actors are trained to insist the story is “really about” something familiar. Ashmore reaches for the broadest bridge possible - “everyone has been through it” - which is obviously not true in any literal sense, but emotionally strategic. He’s trying to collapse the distance between viewer and character by describing power as an exaggerated version of ordinary pressure: hiding parts of yourself, managing expectations, negotiating intimacy while carrying a secret you can’t quite put down.
Context matters: Ashmore’s career is tied to ensemble superhero storytelling (most notably the X-Men era), where the mutant metaphor already frames power as difference - adolescence, identity, stigma. His comment aligns with that tradition while keeping it light: no thesis about oppression, just the friction of wanting a “normal” relationship when your life isn’t. It works because it flatters the audience’s self-recognition and reframes spectacle as emotion with better lighting.
Quote Details
| Topic | Relationship |
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