The highly anticipated “Godzilla” reboot hits theaters this Friday, May 16.
There was a scene where you and Godzilla had a bromance look. Tell us about how you created those scenes when most of it was special effects? What impressed you in the final cut?
The special effects stuff I guess the way it works is you give a variation of different looks … like with that look it’s funny ’cause I look at that and go “Oh I didn’t realize he was gonna be that close.” It’s funny that’s the only one where I think “Oh it’s kinda funny” and then there’s another look where … I’m on the train track and the mutant comes over and it’s like all these eggs and I was like fuck that looks really fucking gross.
That wasn’t in the storyboard!
If I had knew it was that disgusting … So it’s funny … when they put things in but essentially Gareth would always get a lot of variation on looks. I think they went with more subtle looks because I think with Gareth it’s always about trying to make it as natural as possible. I think sometimes when you’re in a moment where you think he’d probably react hugely, maybe you do the opposite.
You’re just too much in shock.
I like the way that Gareth thinks about details like that. But yeah when you’re in it, you just have a lot of that “Oh how big is he again? Right. And how far away?” And then you’ll play with it and then he’ll mess around with mad roars and loud noises of different animals all mixed up together like walrus lion meets an elephant or something. He’d just fuck with it a little bit.
When you were first approached about the role, how did you react?
I got a call and they said they’re gonna do “Godzilla” and my initial reaction was why?
That’s what Gareth said, actually. He said that he offered it to a lot of the actors. Most of the actors were like Godzilla?
That’s it. And even Gareth as well, when he got approached. Let me see the script, well that’s not the vision I sort of see and they were like “Well come in.” I learned a lot from that as well – is that … the majority of the things you get you go “Nah.” And you read these things and actually everything changes. And depending on the filmmaker or the cast or whatever. I was definitely like “A monster movie that’s kind of not what I was thinking of doing next.” But then they said “Yeah, well you know the director is this young guy, he’s Gareth Edwards, and did this thing called ‘Monsters.'” I’m like I know “Monsters” I saw that, I remember that. It was beautifully shot and it was a really lovely story about these two guys. Yeah it’s the opposite to a monster movie, it was really great. … I’m like “Yeah I’ll sit down with him.” And that’s how it kind of started. And then we just chatted for about six hours just about what films did we love, or about the character for this, what he wants to do with Godzilla, we kind of just got underneath. I just think he’s an amazing filmmaker and he’s a brilliant director. He understands actors. He had a really strong vision for it and by the time I walked out I was like I will fucking do this movie. I want to do this movie.
With Cranston, he’s obviously one of the great actors working today. What was it like to play the father/son relationship with him on the screen?
It was hard because obviously he’s not an asshole. He’s a really loveable guy and my whole thing was to be like “I fucking hate you dad.” With Cranston you just think “Oh God I wish he was my dad,” he’s so awesome you know.
What is the fan boy experience been like? Because with “Kick-Ass,” now “Godzilla” and then the “Avengers” coming up it’s like the level of fandom and fanatics just gets higher and higher. Have you experienced that yet? Are you excited of what’s about to happen? You’ve done Comic-Con.
“Comic-Con” you always get nervous you think “Oh God.” You know they’re the guys that might boo you or something. I think it’s a huge place of people who love film and love characters and have a real fan base in a way so it’s kind of amazing ’cause you get quite high. I never really seen that many people that are that lovers of comic books and movies and combining them. Usually they’re just really happy and appreciative.