Paul Walter Hauser told "70 or 80 random people" about his appearance in Fantastic Four

He told Britain's GQ magazine: "For the most part I was zip-lipped, and everybody understands at this point. 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.

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

"But at the same time, they weren't blabbering it out, or giving it to news outlets.

"They were respectful, and excited, and what-have-you.

"But 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."

The Black Bird star doesn't think Marvel bosses would be too upset with his lack of discretion because they have bigger things to think about.

He said: "It's kind of like jaywalking, too. 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."

Meanwhile, the Black Bird star has also been busy shooting Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, in which he plays recording engineer Mike Batlan, and he explained how he largely left lead star Jeremy Allen White alone during breaks in filming because he could see how much he was trying to juggle.

He said: "Jeremy was very dialled in, and it was not in a showy actor way; it was not in some puffy, performative nature. It was just very much Jeremy Allen White in a mode of operation where he had a lot he had to think about.

"Physicality, dialogue, the look, the voice, singing the real songs, playing the real music. It was a lot.

"I usually try to bond with my male co-stars on a movie, like Sebastian Stan on I, Tonya, or Sam Rockwell on Richard Jewell. But I purposely just stayed out of his way, because I recognised how exhausted he was, and that he was trying to be a dad to his daughter, while also starring in this massive movie."