Taylor Kitsch On Playing JOHN CARTER, Woola, Character Driven Story And More

Walt Disney Pictures has provided Comics Continuum with the question-and-answer interview with Taylor Kitsch, who plays the title character in the Andrew Stanton-directed film John Carter, a science fiction epic based on the classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In this in-depth interview, Kitsch talks about the character driven story, what will audience love the most about the film and much more. He also reveals a very interesting tidbit about Carter getting transported to Mars, which was actually never addressed in the novels. Check it out below.

Your character John Carter has an amazing back-story. How did that inform you as an actor?

When I first read the script, I was drawn to the character-driven story and the fact that it will benefit from being a big studio movie. It gave the filmmakers a chance to make the film in an amazing way. You get to know John Carter's background with his family, the Civil War and everything. It's heavy to play but it gives me such a base to draw from through the whole movie. For example, in one scene, you'll see Carter playing with his rings and you'll know what that truly means to him. It's great as an actor because it's something to really dive into. It's great.

Carter is a man who has lost everything he ever cared about. He comes back from the Civil War to find his wife and child dead. He basically goes into this recluse mode of living and is driven to mine for gold. It's like a Band-Aid solution -- he's covering up what he hasn't dealt with, the guilt and the loss of his family, whom he went to war to protect.

He has a fear of taking responsibility again and that's what he's fighting through the whole movie. He lands in the Civil War between Helium and Zodanga. He's on Mars but their conflict is incredibly relatable for him, so he just wants nothing to do with it. You have Dejah, Tars and everyone reminding him or literally telling him that there's a cause here and you have to be part of it whether you like it or not. He's made that choice before and everything was just ripped from him, so obviously there's that fear of actually engaging in that again. So that's what he's always pushing away from.

The grandeur and what Stanton's done and how it works and how it's all intertwined is quite epic and I felt that as an actor. My character is definitely on an epic adventure. We go from the 1800s on the streets of New York to the Arizona Territory in the West, to the plains of Mars -- all in one movie. As an actor I experienced my character John Carter in many different settings that had specific emotions and needs that I had to evoke.

I can't recall any movie that's done it the way we have. The ending brings the adventure full circle brilliantly, but you'll have to see it to understand what I mean.

There's a lot. I keep saying that the great white ape scene is worth the price of admission alone. Visually it's going to be incredible. I think they'll like the characters; they're going to be able to relate. It's not just a special effects movie with things blowing up and basically one guy that you don't care about. You care about John Carter and you care about his journey. You see an incredible arc of who he is, his new beginning and rebirth, and although you have special effects, you've also got the brilliant actors whom I've had the fortune of working opposite as well.

Andrew Stanton's vision was very infectious. He's just brilliant and you just have to go along with it. You have to believe in it because it's such an incredible vision that if you don't, you're not doing the story and the character justice. Our first meeting was great. I was so excited because I am a huge fan of Wall-E and, come to find out, he's a fan of Friday Night Lights. It's just been a great relationship from the get-go and trust has been there from day one. It was great to be able to have him explain his vision and then to become part of it.

It comes from Edgar Rice Burroughs, who created the character of John Carter. 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the creation of the character. Burroughs wrote a whole series of books based on him.

I think Edgar Rice Burroughs was way ahead of his time, especially for his first science- fiction novel. It relates to what we're living and doing right now -- the lack of natural resources, the energy problems, the wars going on from racism to religion. He was hitting it all almost 100 years ago. And even in the film we address all those things. What Stanton has done is taken the base of John Carter from Burroughs and definitely gone into more depth of who John Carter really is and where he comes from. Stanton has given me so much more to dive into with the character that wasn't realized in the books. It's been really great, script wise, to draw from that.

It's actually quite brilliant. Edgar Rice Burroughs didn't really address it in the book, in which he just wakes up on Mars. Andrew Stanton's John Carter goes into a cave on Earth where he tries to escape the Apaches. The cave has become a Thern way station where Therns transport back and forth from Mars. Carter gets accidentally transported to Mars when he comes into possession of a medallion.

I'm telling you, Woola will steal this movie. That's how brilliantly he's worked into the story line. Of course, he saves my butt a few times, which is really great. At the beginning, I hate him for blowing my cover in the Thark camp. And, annoyingly, he finds me wherever I go. He's always able to find me at the right time and sometimes the wrong. He's loud and awkward, like a puppy in a sense. If anyone has an animal or has had an animal growing up, they know that there are so many things that you do with an animal that you don't do in a relationship with another human. Eventually, John lets his guard down quite a bit and I love that because it makes those moments with Woola quite great.