Xavin Actress Clarissa Thibeaux Discusses Her Gender-Fluid Character In MARVEL'S RUNAWAYS

Marvel's Runaways recently returned with Season 3, which unfortunately for the fan-base will be its last - despite inital plans for a Season 4.

In the newest season, a very interesting character stands out amongst the already impressively colorful cast of characters. Clarissa Thibeaux portrays Xavin - an alien/shapeshifter/gender-fluid character who joins the Runaways on their latest adventures.

MEA Worldwide recently spoke with Thibeaux about playing the character. The way she discovered she received the role was a bit unconventional - getting it on social media instead of a more professional way.

"When I first found out that I got Xavin, it was kind of overnight, I kind of found it via Facebook, which is highly irregular but I got a message from the casting director on Facebook, saying, 'You got it!' It was really exciting and everything happened really fast."

The actress discusses the research she did for the role and how she turned to the source material - the comic book by the same name written by Brian K. Vaughan (Saga, Y: The Last Man, Paper Girls).

"As soon as I found out, I went online, Googled Xavin, found the Wikipedia page, then I was like okay these are the comic books I need to look for. I went to the comic book store, sort of just rifling through trying to find every image of Xavin, which is kind of hard since Xavin is a shapeshifter. So, there were some scenes that I didn't realize was Xavin at first and I had to re-read and go."

What process did the actress go through to honor the character from the comics when bringing her to life on screen?

"When I first went through the comic books and saw some of the more iconic moments with Xavin, what stood out to me was the comedic nature of that dry humor that Xavin has and the blatant honesty, so when I went into doing the TV show, I tried to honor that as best as I could. But of course, with the writers and the directors, you know, we're all working as a team to have a final product that's the creative vision. So, I try to stay as close to the comic books as I can with what I'm given. I hope people like it."

It definitely seems like she cares about honoring the source material - which should please fans of the comic book. Lastly, the actress discussed what it was like injecting human emotion into a character who starter without it.

"I really wanted to show an emotional progression with Xavin and it's hard because Xavin is quite muted and an alien. So human emotion is something that's really new to Xavin, which was an interesting challenge to me as an actor to take it down a few notches, but not too far that people wouldn't see what I was doing. So letting emotion kind of just peek out at the right moments was something that was really fun to play with this last season."

If you're interested you can watch Thibeaux's full interview with Meaww below!

What do you think of these comments? If you haven't yet watched the trailer for Marvel's Runaways, check it out below!

The Runaways have left their homes (and evil parents) behind and now have to learn to live on their own. As they scavenge for food, search for shelter, and take care of one another, our kids begin to realize that, for better or worse, they’re stuck with each other. And it’s up to them to take down PRIDE once and for all. But someone sent a mysterious message to Jonah… Is there a mole in the Runaways? Meanwhile PRIDE is focused on finding their children, and Jonah has his own dangerous plan in mind.