Kurt Russell is one of those actors that I grew up watching on television. My mom is a big fan, so you can say that I’ve probably watched everything he has ever done. There were some awesome moments on this trip, this Exclusive Interview with Kurt Russell On Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is definitely one of them! We talked joining the cast, being younger, and his healthy ego.
I was invited by Disney to attend the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 press event in LA. This included an exclusive interview with EGO himself, Kurt Russell. All galactic opinions are my own.
Photo Credit: Disney and Louise of momstart.com
Exclusive Interview with Kurt Russell On Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 #GotGVol2Event
I was excited about the possibility of learning more about Star-Lord’s past when I first found out that Kurt Russell was playing Ego, his father in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Finally, are we going to find out who his dad is and why he left?
If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, what are you waiting for? If you have then you know that we finally do get those answers about Peter Quill’s father and more about his daddy! WHAT?! Yes, mind blowing! Just a quick warning, there are some SPOILERS in this interview. You have been warned!
Photo Credit: Louise from momstart.com
It seems that everyone around Kurt Russell knew that he would be playing Ego on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 before he even did. He had not seen the first Guardians and wanted to make sure the script was for him. He saw something in Chris Pratt that he knew would be a good thing.
When I saw the movie, right away I kinda fell in love with it and it just got better and better. But more than anything else I was watching Chris and saying, “Yeah, I get that energy. I get that style.” I realized from movies that I had done in the past, I would bring the right baggage here.
Photo Credit: Disney
Kurt Russell did have his hesitations after reading Ego’s character and how big of a role he would be playing in Peter Quill’s evolution of the movie. He wanted the fans to be happy with the end result and not blame him for the stories end result.
We’re so happy that he’s gonna have adventures with his dad, and it’s Kurt Russell and he’s working…and I hate this movie. And Kurt Russell’s responsible for killing this for me. And I said, I just wanna make sure we hit the right notes here, James. I said it has to have the right amount of comedy.
Many actors are known for specific movies or for playing specific roles, but Kurt Russell believes that playing different characters can really challenge an actor. Being known for a movie or role is not his thing, instead, he prefers to find scripts and stories he likes. Especially if it’s something new he has never done before.
So my job was to skip around genres, skip around characters, find stories that I liked, that I wanted see, characters that I wanted to play. And try to challenge myself with giving the director as many options as possible with takes so that he could or she could put the movie together and have a lot of options to choose from.
Kurt Russell shared with us that as an actor you do have to have a healthy ego and a name of a character is everything. You need to be able to draw attention and be memorable. I agree, if a character has a name that can easily be forgotten then that character is forgotten.
I got a healthy ego. I do. I think that’s important in our industry and our business and as a human being to have control of your ego.
I was very disappointed with when I read this, the character’s name was J’son. I said, well fifteen Marvel people will know who this is. That’s a weak-ass name. And then later on being to find out that well actually his name is Ego the Living Planet. And I went that’s more like it. So how much of myself is there? I don’t know. Listen, if you’re gonna play God let’s go big. So I think this movie has a lot to say about that.
Spoiler Alert! If you have seen the movie then you know that EGO doesn’t end up being the father we all expected for Peter! Yes, his father abandoned him to create his own planet, then planted cancer in Peter’s mom, and used him as a battery! Ummmm… issues much?!
You have to go all the way from being kinda cool and loving and fun to just, you know, who fuck do you think you are? I think we’ve all said that to our kids. Who the hell do you think you are? I could hear myself. I was literally [thinking] you go to your room! It was all in that zone and it kinda had to have some of that tone to it. So you could sort of enjoy as a parent – some of that reprimand. You tell somebody live a thousand years as a battery, he means it, you know.
In one of the opening scenes a young Kurt Russell sets the stage and by the reaction of the fans, they loved it! Much to our surprise, CGI was only used a bit in the process, while most of the credit is given to his makeup artist.
His name is Dennis Liddiard. He’s been my makeup man for twenty-eight years. We’ve done a lot of movies together where our goal was to, without the audience knowing it, help me arrive at what I need to do to set the tone for the character, the look for the character, the feel for the character. And I think we’ve achieved it many times, very subtly. So much so that nobody knows what he did. On this one, I’m really proud to point him out because we assumed, all of us, that we were just gonna do heavy CGI special effects like they normally do.
As you can tell Kurt Russell brought enough ego, expertise, and fun into the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. Now, go see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 in theaters NOW!
About Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2:
Set to the all-new sonic backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, Marvel Studios’ “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mystery of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel Cinematic Universe continues to expand. “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” blasts into theaters on May 5, 2017.
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