SPOILER WARNING!
This interview contains massive spoilers from Marvel Studios' Black Widow, so proceed with caution if you haven't seen the film!
With Black Widow now out worldwide and also available to stream on Disney+ Premier Access, we were recently able to sit down with the film's best-kept secret, Olga Kurykenko (Oblivion; Quantum Solace), who plays Antonia Dreykov, a.k.a. Taskmaster.
Considering the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Taskmaster is a major departure from the character's comics origin, we were curious to learn whether Kurylenko looked to the comics to draw inspiration for her role or whether she was granted more creative freedom from Cate Shortland and Kevin Feige to make the villain entirely her own since it was a completely original take.
"I just explored it more and made it up for me, for myself and of course, I spoke to, Cate and I spoke about it, Cate the director, and we were both on the same note, agreeing that we had to show that humane part to her and that pain, it’s someone who is struggling between what she’s made to be and what she would’ve loved to be if she had the opportunity.
The lack of freedom, the manipulation, the lack of choice, the physical and psychological trauma that she endured, more than one, throughout her past and her childhood and that was an important thing too for this Taskmaster because here we were going to see beyond the facade, beyond the cold-blooded killer that seemingly has no feelings and I think it’s a very complex character behind that is very confused, which could be explored in lots of different ways."
While her Taskmaster may no longer be a villain under her father's control, that isn't going to stop fans from speculating about her future in the MCU, and it sounds like her son would be more than thrilled to see his mom go up against the one-and-only friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!
"That's interesting, no one has asked me that - *smiles* - yeah I mean my son would be thrilled to see that, I mean he would love it. He’s just like, not a long time ago, couple days ago, he was running around in a Spider-Man costume and he’s still into it. He loved it, he’s obviously now seen some bits of the film and he loves it.
It’s cool about Taskmaster, she can replicate other people’s moves and she’s just, for them, it’s like fighting with a mirror and it’s really cool. She can be anything, she can be anyone, she just takes it from others and copies them, so it’s a pretty good skill to have. How do you beat that?"
Check out the full video interview below and be sure to check back in tomorrow for more!