Alexandra Shipp talks about playing Storm in X-Men: Apocalypse

My Storm in particular is kind of a, well yeah, she’s the past derivative of Halle’s Storm. This Storm is a little bit different because you’re meeting her in Cairo. You’re seeing kind of a little bit of where she comes from. You’re seeing all the pain that she’s gone through. It’s not like she’s in the mansion having a great time. She’s so different from all of the other kids because they come from families. They come from some sort of love and support whereas Storm hasn’t had that since her parents died in that plane crash into the house when she was like 5.It’s like, she’s kind of just all really messed up and the only mutants that she knows are bad mutants. The only mutants that she knows are the mutants who use their powers for stealing, or protecting thugs or whatever. It’s not like, “Oh, we’re going to save the planet”. It’s like, “Forget the planet, I need money so I’m going to distract you with some wind and then I’m going to pick pocket you.” She’s in survival mode so when she meets Apocalypse, she’s kind of like hit this revelation where she has been struggling to feel like she belongs somewhere.

Then this extremely powerful being comes to her and says, “I’m what you’ve been waiting for, I will take care of you”. For her, that’s like, click. She doesn’t know anything about the X-Men. The only thing she knows is about Mystique when she saved the president, but that’s basically it. Other than Mystique, every other Mutant that she’s known has been bad so, that’s kind of where she’s coming from. I don’t necessarily see her as a bad person, or as a bad mutant. I don’t see her as a villain. She doesn’t know that she’s a villain. That’s just all she’s ever known, is just bad.

I’m doing a Kenyan accent. I’m also speaking Arabic, which is cool.

We kind of find each other. Like though the crowd, it all parts and I see his blue face. Then we kind of just like, “Ah”. There is a moment.You see me in Cairo, and he’s speaking whatever ancient language because he’s just woken up and I’m speaking Arabic. I’m trying to communicate with him, and then he has this moment where he figures out where he is, what’s happened, what date it is, and he … Apocalypse doesn’t need to say much. All he has to do is just be like, “I’m here, I’m what you’ve been looking for”. And you just feel it right in your gut, and you’re like, “Right, you are exactly what I’ve been looking for. You are exactly what I need right now.” I think that he can see that, and he could also see the power. I feel like when you’re the most powerful, you’re also the most self-conscious about it.

Storm is always looking for father figures. What I found in the comics and stuff like that, is that Xavier kind of ends up being that for her. When she joins X-Men she finds that love for him. In the beginning, I think most girls who have daddy issues go looking in all the wrong places and Apocalypse comes and he takes care of her, gives her new clothes, you know. Takes her out for a nice dinner, no I’m just kidding.

It’s a little bit of everything man. It’s just all kind of all over the place and I think what it is, is she admires him. She believes in him because for so long humans have treated her like crap. He is like, “Well in my day it was different”. She’s like, “Let’s get back to there, let’s get back to that”. She’s a weather goddess, you know. She’s a level, what is she, level 4, level 5 almost? She’s almost on Magneto’s level when it comes to her power.

For me specifically, well like, what he does is he has the power to enhance your power. So while you’re around him, he’s got all these mega level mutants. He’s able to turn them into crazy-baboom level mutants. For me, he is like, what you can control everything, almost, kind of, sort of. I’m not the Phoenix, but you know what I mean. She’s got so many powers, and he’s like, but he doesn’t even know what her powers are when he meets her. He can just sense the level and that’s what attracts him to them.

So what he is attracted to is their level and their magnitude of power. I think that his plan for her in the movie is to protect him. Protect him with fog. Protect him with lightening. Blow away a missile. Blow away a plane. There is so much that she can do, and what he’s looking for is protection because he just woke up after a couple thousands and thousand years. He’s weak and he’s alone, and he’s been betrayed, you know. He’s kind of like a girlfriend who just got cheated on, who wants to date the nerdy guy who can take care of her.