Shawn as Eric tries to survive in "The Ruins" Credit: DreamWorks Pictures

Humm, if cute actor Shawn Ashmore could conjure the powers of his X-Men character Iceman, his character Eric in the horror thriller The Ruins, might not have been sweltering in the jungle heat! We cornered this star in L.A. recently and learned about his vacations from hell, his favorite bands, wazzup with his twin bro Aaron and just what it's like for him and fellow actors to play such intense, in peril scenes for days on end. Did the group of young stars actually bond? Read on....

TeenHollywood: So how did you end up playing this guy stuck on top of a Mayan ruin?

Shawn: My agent sent me the script and said Dreamworks was involved and it was based on this novel by Scott Smith and I knew Scott Smith from his work from A Simple Plan; just great character involvement in that, amazing performances and a great thriller and I knew Scott Smith was adapting his own novel. I hadn't read it but I did after I got the part. They also sent me our director Carter Smith's short film Bug Crush which was amazing, really intense. It won best short film at Sundance. I liked the characters, the situation and scenario so I went in, auditioned and ended up getting the part. It was great.

TeenHollywood: You have a different, cute, blonde, shaggy thing going in this film. Are you keeping that up or do you look different now?