Hey Folks,
Collider posted this pretty sweet interview, with Anthony Hopkins, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston. Find out below, what each of the had to say, concerning the actual main topic of the motion picture.
Tom, did you see Loki as the hero of the movie? Well, I think there are no villains in this world. There are just misunderstood heroes. I think Loki thinks he is the hero. Essentially, if you boil this film down to this barest elements, it’s about a father and two sons, and both those sons are brothers competing for the love and affection and pride of their father, Odin, played by Tony [Hopkins]. There’s a deeply misguided intention within Loki, and he has a damage within him. He just goes about getting that pride in the wrong way.
How did your costume inform your character, in terms of becoming that person? If you get up in the morning and wear a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and some flip-flops, it’s a signal that you might be going to the beach. If you get up in the morning and you wear a breast plate and a back plate and a cape and a pair of golden Satanic horns on your head, it’s quite clear that you’re doing something else. Also, we were so helped by the beautiful sets built by Bo Welch, the production designer. There was no furniture to lean on, really, and no props to busy your performance, so there had to be a simplicity to it. The costumes were incredibly heavy and made you stand straighter. It’s like being in a neo-classical museum. If you go up to the Getty, you have a sense of the size of the place, and that just does stuff to the way you stand.
When you were crafting Loki, was it with a trajectory towards The Avengers? Will Loki continue down that path in The Avengers? Really, I took the character that I saw in the comics. Loki is a master of magic, and in the Marvel Universe, he’s the agent of chaos. His super-power is his intelligence, if you like. He’s a shape-shifter and has the ability to stay 10 steps ahead of everybody else. So, Ken, Chris, Tony and I all talked about having those layers. He’s someone with a fierce intelligence, but also a very damaged heart. I think a red dot will form on my forehead, if I give anymore information about Loki in The Avengers. All I can tell you is that Loki will be in The Avengers, and it will take more than Thor to stop him, this time.
Chris, growing up, did you have any favorite superhero characters? Yeah, growing up, I loved a lot of different films. Superman was probably the very first one I was aware of. I would run around the house, pretending to be him when I was a kid. I also had a Robin costume – Batman’s sidekick. It was a nice pair of green underwear and a yellow shirt and red cape. I was six or seven. And, I loved Han Solo, too.
How was it to work with Kenneth Branagh, as a director? Ken challenges you, all the time, in a very nice, gentlemanly, charming way. He’s very cunning I like the way he says, “My learned, esteemed colleague, I would like you to stand here, and then Chris will come up behind you. Do you have any suggestions?” I said, “Yeah, but I’m not going to tell them to you because you want me to stand here, don’t you? So, just tell me where to stand, and I’ll do it.” He knows so much. That’s the most comforting thing. You don’t have to work. You just do what he tells you. That sounds pretty wimpy to do that, but why not? He knows what he wants. A good director knows what he wants and what it’s going to look like.
With the physical demands of the role aside, how did you approach the role of The Mighty Thor?
I started with the comic books. I didn’t read all of them – there are 40 or 50 years worth – but I certainly read enough to get a sense of who he was and the world he was from. And then, I read some things on Norse mythology and the fatalistic view they have, that everything is pre-ordained. That would lead the Vikings into a fearless attitude in battle and with their lives. They would certainly back their opinions and they were not swayed easily. That spoke volumes to me about the character. You fill your head with whatever information and research you have, but on set it was just about making it truthful and finding a simpler way that I could relate to it. Instead of thinking about how to play a powerful God, it became about scenes between fathers and sons, and brothers. You personalize that and that helps ground the story for an audience. That way, we can relate to it and, hopefully, an audience can too.
Anthony, what made you want to be a part of this comic book movie?
It was Ken Branagh. I said once that if they gave me enough money to read the phone book, I’d do it. I live in a total state of non-expectation. I don’t expect things, and I keep my expectations very low about everything, especially the last few years. I had come back from a movie with Woody Allen (You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger), which was a big surprise – I enjoyed that – and I left my agent because I wasn’t very happy, and I got a new agent. Within two days, they said, “Would you like to meet Ken Branagh?” I said, “Yeah, what about?” And they said, “Odin.” And I said, “Oh, that’s God, isn’t it?” And they said, “Yeah.” The only thing was that I hadn’t seen Ken in some years and I wasn’t sure how he’d respond to me because I was one of the bad boys that ran away from England, many years ago, and came out to cuckoo land out here. I had never fit into British theater. So, I wasn’t sure how he’d receive me. But, we met for breakfast in Santa Monica, and he was very pleasant and friendly, and we had a chat about old times. He said, “Would you like to play Odin?,” and I said, “Yeah, okay.” He gave me the script and I read it, and I thought, “Yeah, I’d love to work with him.” I’ve always been a fan of Ken’s, actually. I had never read the comic. I’m not a geek, you know. But, it turned out that it was the most enjoyable film I’ve been involved with, for a long time, particularly because of the cast and everyone and Ken. I’d gone through a patch where I was getting very indifferent to everything and could care less about anything. To work with Ken, he just pushed the right buttons to get me to give up my best. I really valued that because I had gotten lazy. He’s one of the best directors I’ve worked with. That was the principle reason for doing it. That and the fact that I wanted to work. I’ve got to pay the rent, you know. And, I thought this was a nice part. I didn’t have to do too much. The only thing was that I wish I had gone out to New Mexico. I had such a good time in the studios, but my time was so brief. I was only on it about three weeks, on those great sets. There was no acting required. I wrote N.A.R. in my script, for no acting required. I let the armor act for me on the sets. I showed up and put on my voice, and that was about it. I really enjoyed it.
Read the complete interview on Collider.
Thor hits cinemas May 6th, 2011.
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