CraveOnline: Most of your scenes in the film are opposite Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. You’re both creating characters with a new hybrid mythology and language. Did you have to work together with him on the language, for instance?
Christopher Eccleston: Oh yeah, we worked closely on the language. While we were alongside each other going through the makeup process we would run our lines and make sure that we sounded like we were speaking the same language, in terms of inflection and music, and getting used to each other’s rhythms. Also, we had such a short time to memorize, just running it and running it between us we created a music between ourselves, which we’d then recreate when we got to the set.
Were you a fan of the Marvel movies before Thor: The Dark World? Were you caught up?
I’d seen Iron Man, and I did a bit of catching up once I was cast in the film. I would say that probably, I tend to watch more independent, character-driven cinema. If I go to the cinema, that’s what I do. And I have a young family so I don’t get a chance much to. [Laughs] But I enjoyed the first Thor film very much. The performances, and particularly the humor… I was really gratified to see that humor, as I was with the first Star Trek, and the second Star Trek film. I was a huge “Star Trek” fan as a child, and I thought the first one, the use of character and humor – which we have in Thor – really helps sell the special effects and the CGI and the stunts. If you have that human connection to cling to as well.
As a “Trek” fan, would you like to find a place in that franchise if you can?
Well, listen… a funny story about Thor was that 30 years ago I was an usher at the National Theater, and I used to tear tickets and sell ice creams, and one of the shows that I had to watch again and again was a show called Pravda, and the lead actor was Anthony Hopkins. And then 30 years later I ended up on film with him.
Did you tell him that?
I did tell him that. I did tell him that, because he’s a big hero to me. So the idea that, I mean I was probably five when I watched the first Star Trek film… the idea that 45 years later I could be in Star Trek [laughs], that would be… but it does sound like I’m trying to get myself work, and I’m really not.
No, these movies are making fandom – almost childhood fandom – legitimate in a lot of ways. They allow people to talk about their enthusiasm for things like Norse mythology and science fiction. I don’t think it sounds like you’re trying to get work. I think it sounds like you’re sharing something you love.
Yeah, I did love them. But of course with the original Star Trek films, they were in space and there were aliens and adventure, but really what made them work for me was the brilliant writing and characterization, and the human and Vulcan relationships within it, you know what I mean?
Are you interested in returning to the G.I. Joe franchise? It’s looking like that’s going to continue…
Is it going to continue?
I think it is. They said they were going to do G.I. Joe 3. And they touched on Destro in G.I. Joe: Retaliation. They allowed that you might be around for future films.
Oh yeah, I’d love to play Destro. I would love to.
Did you see the new one?
No, I haven’t seen the second film, no. I have not had a chance to catch up with it yet, but I think Destro, like Malekith, the whole mask thing and all that, I think you can do… One of the beauties of Malekith’s prosthetics, for instance, is that you can still recognize that it was me, and that this was a living, breathing creature as opposed to an automaton. I wonder whether you could do that with the idea of Destro, too.
Because you could go with the idea that it’s a living, breathing, metal face. It could actually be really beautiful to have a reflective surface all over your face.
It was metal, but it was animated, yeah. He could animate it even though he was trapped within it, which is the thing about him isn’t it? He’s trapped. So yeah, I would be interested, yeah.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
