Guardians of the Galaxy represents a step into the left-field for Marvel and the burgeoning super-hero genre in general.

Featuring a bunch of heroes (and that’s a term that should be used fairly loosely when it comes to this group) that most people have never heard of before, Guardians of the Galaxy is Marvel’s chance to cut loose and experiment; to have a little fun. The film’s principal cast and director James Gunn gathered in London last week to answer some questions about what is perhaps the most unlikely joy-ride of the summer season.

Present and correct alongside Gunn are Chris Pratt (Guardians’ leader Peter Quill – AKA Star-Lord); Zoe Saldana (fearsome Gamora); wrestler turned actor Dave Bautista (Drax, the muscle of the group); and Karen Gillan (Nebula, a step-sister of Gamora, and one of the film’s striking antagonists).

Absent and incorrect is Vin Diesel (mo-capper and voice of the sentient tree Groot, the gentle heart and soul of the team), who is meant to be in attendance but whom, we are reliably informed, has been held up due to a “stilton mishap”. Quite what that means, we’ll leave to the imagination.

Here’s what else we learned…

 

KAREN GILLAN HAD THE BEST AUDITION

JG: “Karen’s screentest was my favourite audition of anybody on the whole project – sorry guys! – She was so good! She took this pretty simple character, and it was actually pretty moving, this character she created, this bald cyber-jerk. She’s like the Boba Fett of the movie.”

 

CHRIS PRATT ONLY HAD TO BUFF UP TO WIN THE ROLE

CP: “I figured if I could just get them to believe me physically as the character, it would be mine.”

JG: “I was just trying to check all the boxes to get Pratt in the role so he could be hired by Marvel.”

CP: “I also had an inside in, because my friend Ben was reading the role of Drax and he’s one of my best friends. And he was like, ‘Dude, Pratt, you can’t tell anyone, but it’s totally yours. Nobody came in and did what you did, and you’re gonna get it.’”

 

THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN THE GUARDIANS ISN’T LIMITED TO THE FILM

JG: “The interesting thing with these four actors is, I think back along the journey, and with each one of them, from the minute we met, there was something very sincere between each of us.

“The first time I met Dave I really got Dave, Chris and I are friends, Karen and I hung out in my office just laughing our asses off the first day we met, and Zoe on the phone going at a thousand miles a minute, we just got along really well.”

 

DAVE BAUTISTA HAS ACTUAL SUPER-POWERS IN REAL LIFE

JG: “Dave actually protected my brother from getting beaten up. There was this guy [at the wrap party] who was bothering people… and my brother Sean, who was the on-set Rocket, who is not a big guy, got in this guy’s way. And somebody ran over to me and said ‘Your brother’s about to get in a fight!’ and so I ran over and said, ‘You gotta leave!’

“Dave was there, and Dave said ‘What’s the problem?’ and this big guy marches over to Dave and he’s about to get in Dave’s face, but Dave has actual super-powers, and Dave just went like this with his hand, and he tapped the guy and the guy, like, flew back! It was awesome. Dave has actual super-powers.”

 

 

ZOE SALDANA WISHES GROOT WERE REAL

ZS: “For me, I would say Groot stole the show. I have a soft spot for that big tree. He unconditionally loved us all, and even though I’m mature and I’m pretty sane [ahem], and I know this is make believe and this is a fictional character, but he just moved me in such a way that I was like, ‘Screw that!’ I want to believe that he’s real, because what he’s making me feel is real.”

 

ASKING JAMES GUNN TO PICK A FAVOURITE GUARDIAN WOULD BE LIKE ASKING HIM TO PICK A FAVOURITE CHILD, RIGHT?

JG: “Well, I have a favourite child, and it’s Rocket.”

 

DAVE BAUTISTA IS EASILY EMBARASSED

JG: “I get more tweets about Groot and Bautista than anyone else. I like to say it’s Bautista that steals the show, because it embarrasses him… he’s the one person I like to compliment as much as possible because he hates it.”

 

 

IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN…

ZS: “When you think of things that are sexy, they’re usually in pink, or black, or white, or red… they’re not in green. We don’t even like vegetables. Half of us don’t even eat vegetables, and they’re green. So we started out in a very tough position.”

JG: “With the green, if I could go back, I would really consider changing her colour. It was SO HARD. It took us SO long to find a green that would work, that people would believe.

“We have other characters that are blue, other characters that are yellow, pink… and we found that all of those colours were natural to human beings in a strange sort of way. You could find a colour that looked like skin. But green was really hard. It took a long time, it really was a struggle.”

CP: “I remember being in the make-up room and seeing some of the tests, and it was like ‘Maybe a lighter shade of green?’ and she just looks like she’s seasick. Then it was like, ‘a darker shade of green?’ and that just looked like somebody that had been painted green.”

 

GILLAN AND BAUTISTA DIDN’T MIND THE LENGTHY MAKE-UP SESSIONS IN THE CHAIR.

DB: “It wasn’t nearly as bad as people think. I became close to my make-up team. Imagine yourself hanging out with five of your friends for four hours, and having some good conversation, a lot of laughs, listening to music, and it kinda flies by.”

KG: “I just watched Pulp Fiction on repeat.”

 

 

CHRIS PRATT SHOULD DEFINITELY WRITE THE AVENGERS SEQUEL…

JG: “Chris and I were in the car the other day, having one of our ridiculous conversations, talking about all the different things that could happen to the Guardians in this universe, as we do *endlessly*. You think we’re sick of hearing about the Guardians? No. We talk about it constantly!

“And Chris said, ‘Dude, seriously, I really, really think that Star-Lord should kill Iron Man! The audience would be… it would be so awesome… if he came down and shot Tony Stark in the face. People would be so surprised!’ YEAH, THEY WOULD.”

 

…AND HE *REALLY* WANTS IRON MAN DEAD.

CP: “Or, like, not me, maybe Rocket. Without giving away any… well, none of my ideas will ever make the movies, so I should just tell you all of them… but in the comic Gamora and Iron Man they, y’know, they hook up, and maybe I don’t like it, and then Rocket hears that I don’t like it, and then Rocket shoots Tony Stark, with an M5 – just shoots a hole in his face! It would be amazing!

“People would be super mad! But it would be kinda great! They’d be all ‘Why would you do that?!’ and it’s like, ‘well, because RDJ makes a hundred million dollars a movie, and we can’t afford to have him…’”

JG: “Yeah! ‘We can afford Pratt, he kills everyone!’”

 

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