Paul Walter was not all ‘zip-lipped’ about ‘Fantastic Four’ role

Paul Walter Hauser admits he wasn’t exactly perfect at keeping his Marvel role under wraps. 

The Golden Globe-winning actor, who takes on the role of Mole Man in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, recently revealed in an interview with GQ that he wasn’t as “zip-lipped” as he probably should have been.

“For the most part I was zip-lipped, and everybody understands at this point,” Hauser shared. 

“They all know if you do Star Wars, or Marvel, you can’t talk about it. 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," he revealed.

"I’m not gonna lie and say I told literally no one. I told several dozen people.”

Hauser explained that those he confided in didn’t leak the news. 

“They weren’t blabbering it out, or giving it to news outlets. They were respectful, and excited, and what-have-you,” he said. 

The actor admitted he occasionally dropped playful hints to fans, especially younger ones. 

“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.”

While Marvel is known for keeping a tight lid on spoilers, Hauser doesn’t view sharing a few behind-the-scenes tidbits as a major offense. He compared it to a minor infraction. 

“It’s kind of like jaywalking,” he said. 

“It’s like, you can get [arrested] for that, but it’s like, hopefully they’re catching the bad guys. And when I look at 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.”

In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Hauser stars alongside Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, and Ralph Ineson. 

The film follows Marvel’s iconic superhero team as they face one of their biggest threats yet, the colossal, planet-consuming Galactus.

It seems that while Hauser may have let the secret slip to a few dozen people, he still kept the spirit of Marvel’s secrecy alive, with just enough teasing to keep fans smiling.