‘Thor: The Dark World’ cast Q&A highlights

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With so much of the film being set in our capital city, it seems only appropriate that it’s in central London’s swanky Dorchester hotel that the press conference takes place. Talking about the film, their characters and their experiences on filming in the UK were director Alan Taylor, Marvel President of Production Kevin Feige, and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddlestone, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston and Kat Dennings.

> Read our review of Thor: The Dark World.

Here’s what we learned from the Q&A session…

Unlike his screen alter-ego, Chris Hemsworth doesn’t have too many issues with his real-life brothers.

CH: “Well, neither of my brothers has attempted to take over the universe just yet!”

Natalie Portman’s foray into the world of Asgard in the sequel came as a welcome development.

CH: “It was brilliant to have Natalie there to break up some of the godly testosterone.”

Everyone involved has fallen in love with London…

CH: “I love the aesthetic this film has, not only do we get to see Asgard, but we get to see London! I love shooting here.”

NP: “American actors end up like gypsies, from movie to movie, moving from city to city, whereas here you can have such a fulfilling, wonderful, rich career doing the theatre, television and film all in London. It’s pretty cool you can have it all in the same place.”

…but Kevin Feige may have had a different motivation.

KF: “There’s no secret there’s a very big tax incentive which lures us here…”

Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddlestone are not quite as antagonistic with each other as Thor and Loki.

CH: “I don’t know that it was ever the plan to have Loki in this many films… my hat goes off to Tom, and I think he’s done such an incredible job on every film, and hopefully we can keep sneaking him in on more.”

TH: “I love you man.”

Humour is the key to a good Marvel film…

AT: “The key to the Marvel universe is that you are screwed if you don’t keep it funny and light on its feet.”

KF: “Humour is definitely the key. We’ve got spaceships and other planets in this movie. We’ve found that humour is an amazing way of getting audiences to embrace and accept all this craziness and all these costumes.”

…but Christopher Eccleston had a somewhat different experience.

CE: “I was surprised about the amount of humour in the film, because I’m such a miserable bastard. I was completely excluded from any of the joy. My character was completely grounded in vengeance.”

Kat Dennings relishes the freedom of the big screen.

KD: “I’m on this show in the States that allows no improv whatsoever. When they told me I could do some, I didn’t know what to do. I was very jetlagged, so I think “banana-balls” came out at one point.”

Natalie Portman’s mother lends out a set of childhood photos to be used as props in all her films. No, really!

NP: “I think it’s the same set of photos that she always lends out for every movie I’ve done for the past twenty years. There are a lot of characters who shouldn’t have the same experiences in family photos…”

As rumoured, there were things that had to be cut – but they’ll appear on the Blu-ray!

AT: “Myself and Chris Eccleston were talking about some things that we savoured that had to fall away. I’d be REALLY grateful if some of those appear on the Blu-ray or DVD.”

KF: “I think they will; there’s about 10/12 minutes of footage on the Blu-ray.”

The cast all had different thoughts on how to ground their characters amid the fantastic nature of the plot…

NP: “Playing a woman who, the guy didn’t call back, he disappeared, there’s a long distance thing going on, then she meets the parents… that’s something most women can relate to.”

CH: “I remember Hopkins said something to me on the first film; we walked onto the set, in our outfits, and he had the patch on, and the sets, the whole thing… he said to me ‘Well, no acting required here!’, and I always remembered that. ‘Yeah, don’t compete with it. Keep it simple’. The sets and costumes sell a lot of it already.”

TH: “It’s the family relationships that ground it for me. We’re travelling through space and time, we’re dealing with gods and monsters, but the heart of the film is a family; a father, two sons, two brothers, a mother and the fractious interaction that they have.”

KD: “I think Darcy is maybe the most grounded person in the story. Even if she’s a little spacey in her brain, she’s not IN space. I think Darcy’s love for Jane and my love for Nat is an easy way to stay grounded in the whole thing. I get to be the outsider to all the craziness.”

…but Christopher Ecclestone had a somewhat different experience.

CE: “How did I ground my performance? I ground my performance out. They’ll all tell you. They had to suffer! My make-up call was about 3am, I was in the chair about 4am, and I hit the set about 10am… I was not a happy elf.”

> Read our review of Thor: The Dark World.

> Buy Thor on DVD on Amazon.

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