WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
It’s funny to that we actually had two Quicksilvers around the same time, only Evan Peter’s wasn’t part of the MCU until WandaVision when he oddly took up Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s mantle (still not quite clear why they did that, can’t actually remember if it was explained). Introducing the Quicksilver of the X-Men Universe, who had probably one of the best scenes in the whole franchise! I just want to clarify that in the comic books, there is only one Quicksilver – Pietro Maximoff, brother of Wanda…
Sleepover
This is actually the second earliest film in Evan’s career. The crazy part is, because of the type of roles Evan has gone on to do, it’s really hard to associate him with this style of film. He does have an unbelievably embarrassing introduction in this film, crashing into a pole on his roller skates. His character, Russell, is small in the grand scheme of things but I guess early in your career in what seems to be a pretty girly film as guy, is no surprise but it doesn’t stop him causing countless moments of havoc (not that the girls need much help). He and his mates are definitely not the sharpest tools in the shed leading to unsuccessful panty raid on Jules’ sleepover. However, this does lead to him having to dress in a blonde wig. I’m going to be honest, I thought he was going to end up with Julie – given the way we were introduced to him – but it seems the popular girl Stacy starts to become interested.
Gardens of the Night
This film made me uncomfortable from the very beginning – feeling suspicious of Alex and Frank from the moment little Leslie gets into Alex’s car! There’s a long time before we meet Evan’s character but if I’m honest this not an easy watch leading up this point! The whole scene with Leslie and Orlando, even though nothing actually physically happened, made me unbelievably uncomfortable and things only get worse from there but I think that’s the point. If you’re comfortable with the subject of this film then I honestly don’t know what to tell you. We finally meet Evan’s character around 42 minutes from the end and at this point he’s Rachel and I’ll be honest the make-up suits him. He just unfortunately doesn’t make as good a woman as Jared Leto does in Dallas Buyers Club. Interestingly, he is credited as Rachel/Brian but considering that he only has two scenes in total, we never actually meet him as Brian as both of which are as Rachel.
The Good Doctor
It is very hard around this period of Evan’s career to find him in a leading role. Once again, he is an ancillary character – playing the role of Diane Nixon’s brother Donny. Our first introduction to him shows Donny as a typical teenage boy – slobbed out on the sofa when Martin arrives to the thank you dinner Diane’s parents are holding for him. In truth, there actually isn’t much more you can say about his character in this film other than that because you barely see him. It’s simple one dinner and then he’s sitting on the sofa when Martin arrives to collect his gift basket and that’s it. We never even see him visit his sister in hospital. I was slightly gutted that his role was so small again as I was hoping maybe he would be the one to work out what Martin had done to his sister, that he was the reason she had got sick again. I actually struggled to understand why Martin treated Diane the way he did, had he fallen in love with her? Was it to try and make him look like a better doctor? Or was he just trying to get more gratitude and recognition from her parents?
Honorary Mentions
I obviously cannot discuss Evan Peters and not mention the fact that our aforementioned Quicksilvers had appeared side-by-side back in 2010 when they both starred in Kick-Ass, Peters playing the best friend of Taylor-Johnson’s Kick-Ass. He also starred in An American Crime which was based on the true story of Sylvia Likens who was confined, tortured and killed by Gertude Baniszewski. After watching Gardens of the Night, I don’t know if I would have coped watching that as well.
