How did you become involved with the “Thor” production?
I went into an audition back in 2009 and a few weeks later I got the part.
What was it like finding out you had this part?
Pretty surreal. I had heard about the project months and months in advance before auditioning for it and I just thought ‘Oh, it would be such a great experience to be a part of this,’ and I just kind of got a feeling about it. But, you know, that kind of goes away and then all of the sudden I have an audition for it. And I’m a huge comic book fan, so I knew I could play Lady Sif. Like I knew physically I was very similar to her in the comic books. I just thought, man if they go with somebody with less credits then that would be amazing. And sure enough Ken Branagh did.
You’re a comic book fan then? So you were familiar with the story already?
I’m kind of familiar with “Thor,” not as much as I was with “X-Men” or “Spider-Man.” I used to read those because my brothers had them growing up. I did know about the “Avengers” though and that’s how I started looking into “Thor,” and I really refreshed my memory back when I first heard about the project which was – I think the summer of 2009 that I started hearing about “Thor.” So I just kind of looked at it anyways just to refresh my memory, and sure enough I auditioned a few months later and got the part.
You were a little familiar with it then, so from what you were able to tell was it pretty faithful to the comic book or were there some artistic liberties taken?
The movie itself – it does have some similarities to the comic book, but the film also has its own story, its own spin on things. So it’s got a little of both for everybody. You know, the diehard comic book fans I think will be quite pleased and then the newcomers to “Thor” will also like it. I mean, it’s an action film, it’s got romance, it’s got sci-fi fantasy. It’s just everything across the board.
So this is one of the films that leads into the “Avengers,” so do any of the other heroes show up in “Thor”?
JA: I can’t tell you that. (Laughs)
Going back to the audition period – you’re doing physical action in the movie, aren’t you?
Yes.
Did they test you to make sure you were able to do that or was it just acting skills you were audition with?
No, it was just the acting I auditioned with, but when I went to have an interview over at Marvel, Kevin Feige and Craig Kyle both kind of asked me about my upbringing and my childhood. I said, ‘Look, I have four brothers, I was on my high school wrestling team.’ And there were things about my personality that I think they figured ‘Oh, she can definitely handle this.’
And will Lady Sif be apart of the “Avengers” movie?
I can’t comment on that either.
What were the most difficult aspects for you for filming this movie?
At first I was very nervous about doing a British accent, but I worked with an amazing dialect coach. Her name is Julie Adams. Fantastic woman. She worked with all of us and then it was… and then it was easy and it became more about an attitude than an accent and once I looked at it that way it became easier. But the physical stuff wasn’t – for me it was tough but I loved it and I wasn’t scared about it because I knew I could handle it, but yeah, that accent made me nervous at first.
From what I hear you’re running around in corsets?
Yeah. (Laughs.)
That wasn’t difficult?
You know… I forgot about that! You know what happened was, when they were training us in stunts we – I trained for about three months prior to shooting, and I had to lose some weight as well. I wasn’t particularly in that great of shape when I got the role. So they said ‘We want you to get real strong.’ They didn’t ask me to get thin, which I thought was awesome because I wouldn’t do that anyway. But they asked me to lift some weights, run, get flexible, get skilled with my weapons and that sort of stuff. So part of that was wearing the corsets during the training because I thought, if I can – I need to know if I can run in this thing, because I can’t really breathe as much as I’d like to and my movement’s restricted, so I started training with it on. And I had like three different corsets that I switched through – some were tighter than the others and that sort of thing. And then I started training in the boots, which had a bit of a heel on them and so that way… cause I could run all day long without the corset, but with it on – which I had to wear every single day all day long. There wasn’t one outfit that I had that didn’t have a corset under it. So, yeah, it was rough! I’m not gonna lie!
There’s some bigger names in this film, like Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman. How was it working with them?
They were great. I love Anthony Hopkins. He was really good. During rehearsal he would always help me out a little bit and he would tell me the funniest stories about what had happened to him when he was younger first entering the acting profession. You know, he just made everyone feel at ease and he would always come into work with a huge smile on his face and give everybody a hug and just chat with everybody. I didn’t matter what rank you were. You know what I mean? Like, you could be the lead cast member, you could be an extra, you could be a janitor, you could be the director – he treated everyone the same, which I thought was really awesome. And Natalie is an incredibly intelligent woman who’s very regal on her own and she’s a fantastic actress. She’s very respectful and very funny and she’s a hard worker, so it was fun working with both of them.
For even more of the interview, head over to
Before The Trailer.
Thor hits theatres on May 6th!