GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Our ‘Thor-ific’ encounters
Los Angeles — In February this year, we were on the set of the latest “Thor” franchise, “Thor: Ragnarok,” directed by an indie director Taika Waititi who is so adventurous and playful he also portrays Korg in the movie.
Korg, by the way, was created by writer Greg Pak and Filipino freelance artist Carlo Pagulayan, a Polytechnic University of the Philippines graduate from Santo Tomas, Batangas.
Anyway, it was in beautiful Queensland, Australia when we first met the cast and director: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, and director Taika Waititi. We were at the Village Roadshow Studios and watched as they filmed.
Recently, we interviewed the cast again—this time with Tessa Thompson—the director, and producer Kevin Feige in sunny Beverly Hills at the Montage Hotel.
Below are excerpts from our interviews with them:
Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”)
On whether there is sibling rivalry among the Hemsworth brothers: “Yeah, just as brothers do, in the positive sort of fun way. It’s more just playing sports or football or playing cards or whatever. It doesn’t go much beyond that. We are incredibly supportive of one another, [especially] in our careers.
There is so much instability in this line of work that we chased and chose. You have got to support each other. We are just well aware that we are never solely responsible for anything that happens anyway. It’s always part of a big team effort and collaboration.”
On working with legendary animator Stan Lee: “I am in in awe of him, what he created, the opportunity and the life he had given us because of the stories he has written. He is just wonderful too. He is incredibly charismatic, fun and always smiling when he comes. He does these cameos or I cross paths with him on a set or a red carpet or what have you. That was a fun day. That was one of the funniest cameos he’s had.
I can’t remember the first time I met Stan Lee or where it was. It might have been on the red carpet for the first ‘Thor’ movie. I was overwhelmed to meet him and overwhelmed to be a part of that movie. The whole thing was somewhat of a blur in that sense. But I just always enjoy my interactions with him because he is such a kind person. He has such a great sense of humor.”
On working with Cate Blanchett as the antagonist Hela: “Cate inspires me. It’s incredibly intimidating. When I was standing opposite her and doing these scenes, I had to keep reminding myself, 'come on Chris, you are Thor. You are the title character on the film'. [But] it was like, it doesn’t matter. She’s Cate Blanchett. She is way cooler than you are and way more talented. It’s a combination of a pinch yourself moment that you have the opportunity to work with someone like that. Then once you get it together, there’s just so much to learn from their approach and attitude. She is just wonderful in the film.”
On finding his comedic side: “Yes, I did. I have done other things in the previous year. I did SNL a couple of times and ‘Ghostbusters,’ and ‘Vacation.’ Those things certainly made me realize how much I enjoy it. It gave me more confidence to go oh, I could run a little more with that in ‘Thor.’ Then you have to have the director to have the same vision and thankfully he did. Taika Waititi has just a wacky sense of humor and a very good lighthearted attitude. He looks at life and situations from just a whole other angle than most of us observe it from. That’s where he finds the comedic magic.”
On his beard: “Yeah, the beard is staying. We are just shooting ‘Avengers’ at the moment. But I am looking forward to getting rid of it. I have had it for so long.”
On fatherhood and whether he is going to have more than three kids: “At the moment, we are outnumbered and we have three, from one to three. It’s just logistically a lot harder. It’s the best thing in the world to have kids but I think we both feel satisfied with that amount but who knows?
I have always would look forward to having a family because of how much fun I have with my parents. My happiest memories were going camping with them, surfing with them, traveling around. That is what I look forward to doing with my kids. We would take a lot of camping trips now from up the coast of where we lived. They just love it. They are incredibly outdoorsy and adventurous. It’s tricky when we travel for work sometimes and in a smaller house in the suburbs near the set. They go a little stir crazy, because they are spoiled back home. They have the beach, horses and many, many acres to explore.
“They called me Papa for a while. Then since they have been living in Australia and they hear other kids calling their dads ‘Dad,’ it’s heading to Dad. But I prefer Papa.”
On his parents: “My parents always just said have fun and enjoyed life. If you are not enjoying it or loving it, do something else. They encouraged us to truly chase that feeling, not stop until we found it and not just accept oh maybe I have got to do this nine-to-five job that I don’t like and that is just life. They said no, that is not the case. You are in charge of your life and your destiny. Go out there and get it. I remember thinking that when I first came over to LA and was auditioning and having a time that wasn’t going so well, my mom said well, the couch is still here if you want to come back. It was nice to always have that support, that fall back and that network at home, which has always been there for me.”
Tom Hiddleston (“Loki”)
On his routine on the set: “I love what I do. I'm lucky to call this a job. In the scheme of things, a day’s work as an actor can't be called grueling. I do get up very early but that’s just the nature of how things are run because Taika on this particular film, we like to shoot between 7.30 and 8:00 am and 5:00 pm. But I have to be ready to shoot at 7.30 am so I've got to get all of this on before then. I get up to train because that's the only time I have. So I get up at about 3:00 am but I go to bed early like 8:00 pm
“As for the hair and make-up, it takes a while because I really don't look like this underneath. There are little intricacies. I'm supported by the most incredible team who have done my hair and make-up and costume for some time with the other two. We've all seen films where a misplaced wig will take you out of the film. They take pride in their precision. I depend on them so it takes about two and half or three hours.”
On playing the evil brother Loki, and having Cate Blanchett as Hela, the ultimate evil
“He's always been unpredictable and the most fun thing about this particular time around is that I don't have the responsibility to play the villain or the antagonist. Cate Blanchett is the villain and she does an extraordinary job. As for Loki, he has this mercurial presence and all ‘Thor’ films are about family. There is some sense of this family with enormous power – the father and two sons. The relationship between the two brothers is something that always evolves. It evolves in this one as well, without giving too much away.”
Mark Ruffalo (“Hulk”)
On being a master of motion capture now: “No, but I'm getting better at it. It's really hard. I struggle with it because I come out in a leotard with a bunch of dots on my face and a helmet on my head with two cameras coming out of it. I'm supposed to be playing a 9 feet scary super powerful monster but when the actors see me, they start laughing every time I say something. I am getting better at it. I'm working with people like Terry Notary who is a motion capture master and Andy Serkis. I'm going to be doing a lot of it and so I'd better be good at it.”
Jeff Goldblum (“Grandmaster”)
On how much a comic book person geek he is: “In real life? I liked some comic books when I was a kid, actual comic books. Especially in the late sixties I liked the Art Crumb comics. They’re not exactly these kind of comic books. They’re the alternative counter-culture, stoner comics. And drug comics. I dug those. But there were other comics that I liked.
Tessa Thompson (“Valkyrie”)
On working with Jeff Goldblum and the physicality of her role:
“I had a hard time working with Jeff because I couldn’t keep a straight face. I found myself apologizing a lot. It was fun but challenging.
“I’ve never done so much improv. Jeff is so incredibly skilled. There was one day when he went on forever doing improv.
On the physicality of my role, I’d never done something like that before so that was a unique challenge for me just getting into shape, getting muscle mass, learning things like sword work, working with daggers and fight and combat. That was new.”
Producer Kevin Feige and Director Taika Waititi
On the combination of action and comedy in the movie as the “new formula” for superhero movies:
Kevin Feige: “I hope so. That has always been our formula. You go back and look at what Robert Downey and Jon Favreau did for us on the first ‘Iron Man’ and there were serious moments in that movie and comedic moments in that movie. For us, we want to bring films to the world that are fun. It doesn’t mean that they are not scary. That doesn’t mean they are not sad. That doesn’t mean they are not exciting or drastic things happen in them. But they need to be fun and entertaining. Humor is traditionally the best way to do that. Even in this movie, what Taika did with the humor was amazing. But there is also some amazing stuff between these brothers. There are things that happen by the end of this movie that are permanent and shocking. That humor allows the audience to get invested in all of it.”
Taika Waititi: “Just to echo what Kevin was saying, I feel that people need to go to the movies and leave the cinema smiling. I never see people smiling when they leave a theater anymore. I remember being a kid and watching ‘Back to the Future’ or watching ‘Karate Kid’ and running out of the cinema and finding the first playground.
“I want grownups and people to go to the movies and leave just having had a nice escape, learning something, because there are some relatable and emotional relationships in this movie, and just having fun.” — LA, GMA News
