With Apple TV+'s Monarch: Legacy of Monsters more than halfway to the finish line, we were able to sit down with the show's legendary leading man Kurt Russell ("Lee Shaw") and son Wyatt Russell ("Young Lee Shaw") to talk about their unique role on the series, as they play the same character, but in two very distinct eras.
Sitting down with yours truly, in one of the biggest exclusive interviews in this site's history, the elder and younger Russells walk me through his process for finding their respective Lee Shaws, while also describing the work they put in together to keep their versions in sync. Plus, they also elaborate on whether they picked up any mannerisms or quirks from the other to craft their iteration of the character.
In our review of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, we said the series "is wildly entertaining with a compelling human core that keeps you coming back for more. Godzilla and the Titans remain the stars of the MonsterVerse, but, thanks to the outstanding father-son duo of Kurt and Wyatt Russell as well as a star-making turn from Anna Sawai, the universe is finally able to expand in a satisfying way that will hopefully set the stage for a variety of new adventures, including the sure-to-be epic Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in March."
Watch and/or read on for our full interview with actors Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell below, and please remember to SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel for more exclusive content!
ROHAN: Kurt, since you’re playing the elder Lee, who has lost a lot of time, what was your approach to finding the character and figuring out what makes him tick?
KURT: Well, that was something that Wyatt and I worked on immediately with the showrunner and the writer, because we were just a casting idea, and we wanted the result of the idea, the execution to be as good as the idea. So, I think working on it was the most important thing, and, you know, making sure that the progression of the character throughout the ten episodes would maintain the mystery, and also connect the two time periods of the ‘50s and the modern day period.
ROHAN: Wyatt, since you obviously know your father better than anyone else, were there any mannerisms or quirks of his that you wanted to instill in your younger Lee before passing off the baton?
WYATT: No, we didn't really use any of the things that, you know, we know about each other off-camera to put into the story, as much as it was trying to make the character of Lee Shaw unique in this MonsterVerse and working on making him important to the story, impactful. And then, whatever, you know, we came up with, we would just play the scene as it was written and knew that we both play the scenes similarly, because I think we both do look at it like that, like you play the scene like it's supposed to be played, and we're gonna have a lot of similarities anyway, so we didn't need to focus on that.
KURT: There was a little. I paid a lot of attention to the rhythms. My rhythms are different from Wyatt’s, but our idiosyncrasies are the same. So, we didn't really worry about those. But for me, he was laying the character down, I was gonna be following what he was doing. I did get a chance to go on the set and watch him sometimes, and that was really, really helpful to me.
ROHAN: Both of you have been leading men on various projects, and are the co-leading men on this, but since you are both on set together, was there anything you hadn’t seen from one another previously that you wanted to bring to your version of the Lee?
KURT: He and his mother have a very, they both have a distinct walk. I kind of tried to, I don't know, I wasn't trying to emulate it, but I didn't change mine all that much, but I was aware of it. He has a very distinct walk.
WYATT: Yeah, and there's times where my dad will do things. He has a specific charisma, where he'll play things, you know, probably differently than I would think of before you'd start the scene, and so, there was times where I was like, oh, I think I have to add a little bit more charisma, some sort of charisma or some sort of, you know, pizzazz that normally I would play more subtly. And, you know, you got to kind of be like, this guy's got some umph and guile that I don't always normally have.
KURT: And, I just brought everything way down. *both laugh*
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is now streaming on Apple TV+!