Chatting With The Cast & Filmmakers of Thor Ragnarok! ⋆ Brite and Bubbly

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I recently had the amazing opportunity to attend the Marvel Studios Thor: Ragnarok press junket, where I had the incredible opportunity to chat with the case and filmmakers of the film. In attendance was hottie Chris Hemsworth (“Thor”), Mark Ruffalo (“Bruce Banner / The Hulk”),(“Loki”), the legendary Jeff Goldblum (“Grandmaster”), Tessa Thompson (“Valkyrie”), the awesome Karl Urban (“Skurge”), Rachel House (“Topaz”), the hilarious Director Taika Waititi (also “Korg”), and the Marvel Studios god Producer Kevin Feige! I am obsessed with this movie and with Thor in general, not just because he’s a hottie mc hottie, but because I just enjoy those movies the most. I couldn’t wait to attend this awesome event!

I’ve said the past that the Thor movie series has been my favorite Marvel films next to Guardians of the Galaxy and that first Avengers movie. I’ve always just loved the way that Thor was shot, cast, and the music is always incredible. This new film takes Thor to a whole new level and it’s honestly the best superhero movie of the year. I’m seeing it again on Thursday during a fan event and probably a 3rd time on the weekend, that’s how much I loved this movie! We’ll share our thoughts on the movie on Friday, so stay tuned for that. We had a bunch of questions for the cast and filmmakers and they gave us some great answers.

Here are some tidbits of what they had to say about the film, their characters, and the making of the film.

This was a question for Chris. What makes this Thor different from the others?

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

Taika Waititi, basically. I think we all had a vision and an idea that we wanted to do something vastly different than what we’d done before, and take it to a different place. And that meant kind of doing away with what we knew and just reinventing it. It all came from his crazy, wonderful brain, his inspiration, and him pushing us every day on set. He was constantly encouraging us to improvise and explore, and take risks. And it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had on a set and it’s a film that I feel the most proud of, just because of this – this whole team, and the collaboration, and fun we had.

People like myself are invested in these franchises, and they love these characters. So we wanted to know what made Taika and everybody else here the right fit?

Kevin Feige jumped in to answer as well!

KEVIN FEIGE:

Well, I mean, Chris sort of said it. We wanted a new sensibility. We wanted to take Thor – and if you look at everything Chris has done as this character, there have been moments of humor – moments of humor throughout. [Um-hmm.] And we wanted to build on that. And if you look at the movie, it’s got the epic action. It’s got Thor arguably more powerful than he’s ever been in any of the films, with his powers going up against the Hulk, but at the same time embracing what Mr. Hemsworth does better than anyone up until now has ever been able to see, which is his acting chops expands to comedy in an amazing, in an amazing way. And Taika giving them the confidence to explore that, and to try things. And most of that is in the movie, because it was on story, and yet at the same time expanded each of their characters.

We wanted to know what your thought process was to want this film to look like a heavy metal album cover, what Kevin thought about this style, and of course who decided on the Led Zeppelin song.

TAIKA WAITITI:

Well, to these guys’ credit, you know, they were very supportive right from the beginning. They supported me in this and if you look at all the elements in the film, it’s pretty crazy, you know. If you would describe all of the characters in this film to someone, it deserves to have all of that color, and you know, all of those crazy, curvy designs, and yeah, it’s a bombastic concept that you can’t hold back from this thing. So you’ve got to go either all in, or nothing.

KEVIN FEIGE:

Taika, the first meeting we had, the first meeting, Taika came in. I asked somebody to ask you about your passport adventure, but that can be another day.

TAIKA WAITITI:

Okay.

KEVIN FEIGE:

But he had a the music as a temp track. Often times, people come in with story boards and temporary music to show you how they envision the film.

TAIKA WAITITI:

I almost didn’t make the meeting because I lost my passport.

KEVIN FEIGE:

Right! He almost didn’t get to the meeting. But he came in. Filmmakers sometimes will say, using clips of other movies, ‘Here’s what I have in mind.’ And sometimes they’re not good. Most of the times, they’re okay. His was amazing, and was scored to that Led Zeppelin song.

TAIKA WAITITI:

Yeah.

KEVIN FEIGE: So from the beginning, that song kind of defined what Taika was going to do with this. That it’s in the trailer, that it’s in the film – all from that first meeting, and from one of his first instincts of this movie, is very impressive.

My personal question is for Taika and Kevin was: Where is Lady Sif? Is she alive? I needed to know!

TAIKA WAITITI:

Kevin.

KEVIN FEIGE:

If she had been on Asgard, she might not be alive, so that’s one of the advantages.

TAIKA WAITITI:

Lady Sif is an actor in New York, on a TV show at the moment.

KEVIN FEIGE:

Oh, that’s true.

TAIKA WAITITI:

She was busy.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

That’s right.

KEVIN FEIGE:

I’ve been using ‘A Force Awakens’ quote today when people ask me that, and to say, ‘That’s a good question for another time.’

We wanted to know if Mark wanted a full Hulk movie? Since this is the first time we’ve seen the Hulk this much in a film, what aspect of the character would be most interested in exploring?

MARK RUFFALO:

I would love to do a Hulk movie, and I think we all would love to do one. But about a year ago, before I even had this part, or were talking about doing this, Kevin had asked me to come over and have a script meeting. And basically he sat me down and he said, ‘What would you like to do if you had a stand-alone Hulk movie?’ And I said, ‘I’d like to do this, this, and this. And he’s like, ‘I love that. Let’s do that over the next three movies, starting with Thor 3 and carry it on through Avengers 3 and Avengers 4. And so that’s my stand-alone Hulk movie.

MARK RUFFALO:

And Taika is gonna take all three of those movies and cut it into one movie.

We had to ask Tessa if she felt any pressure playing a character that was mechanical white in the comics, and bringing that character to life?

TESSA THOMPSON:

No, I didn’t feel any pressure with that specifically. You know, the things that I thought about the particulars of Valkyrie had more to do with, like mass and size. For example, I thought, like I’m short,’ you know. I’m not buff enough, you know. She’s arguably as strong as Thor. How do I stand, next to a person like Chris Hemsworth and feel like that’s true, you know. So I didn’t think so much about satisfying Norse mythology, it’s mystifying, and fantastical, and glorious, and also very confusing and doesn’t make a lot of sense, you know.

We had to ask the legendary JEFF GOLDBLUM what was it like to come into the Marvel universe?

JEFF GOLDBLUM:

Hello! Fantastic. Fantastic. I like the character, of course, and the opportunities in the character. Joining a group like this, a cast like this is a dream come true. Working with Taika, that was my first time and connection point to the movie. We had a meeting and hit it off and he said what we were gonna do. He wanted to improvise and have fun. But then, you know, Kevin Feige and Louis D’Espesito, and Victoria Alonso, and Brad Winderbaum – the whole upper tier of creative leaders, do something unique. They know how to make these epic productions and popular movies, but they want to make good movies. They somehow uniquely know how to do them, that feels to me like an actorly, workshop-y, character-y, improvisatory, delightful experience to make a movie that I think skins the cat like this. I’m grateful, overwhelmingly grateful.

For Cate we had to ask how was it fighting with Chris?

CATE BLANCHETT:

I didn’t do enough of it. I kept wanting to do more.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

You wanted to hit me.

CATE BLANCHETT:

It was hugely enjoyable for me. And apart from working with these guys, obviously, the chance to finally, in my deep middle age, to get fit, and to wear that much lycra was really exciting for me. I worked with Chris’ trainer, Zahki for 20 minutes a day, which doesn’t sound like much, but my god, it was intense. And Zoey Bell who is, I mean, an extraordinary actress in her own right, and director in her own right, but she was my stunt double. I was blessed every day with the fact that she was my stunt double, because when I started, I had to manifest these weapons out of my… I’m not spoiling anything by saying that am I?

KEVIN FEIGE:

Uh-uh.

CATE BLANCHETT:

Have I just lost my chance to be in the sequel?

CATE BLANCHETT:

Well, I manifest weapons and I had to throw them, and I could see Taika’s disappointment as I threw it. I said, ‘Ha.’ And I had to stop making the noises, because I’d go, ‘Ha.’ And so I had to close my mouth. And so eventually Zoey suggested that I put some sugar, which was deeply humiliating, to have sugar packets in my hand, so at least I could throw something and be real. So Zoey helped me with little things like that. She was a great action director. I moved from the humiliating to the exhilarating in a matter of five days.

MARK RUFFALO:

I’m so glad you’re not the only person he looked at like that.

CATE BLANCHETT:

I know. It was the suit that you were wearing. It was really bad.

MARK RUFFALO:

He looked disappointed in me a lot.

TAIKA WAITITI:

Well – You know. Lucky they don’t have the Oscar category for throwing.

Lastly we had to know how much healthy competition was there on set?

CATE BLANCHETT:

A lot.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

Yeah. That’s why don’t sit next to each other.

CATE BLANCHETT:

Yeah. Mark was always in the middle.

MARK RUFFALO:

Yeah. And I’m, and I’m sick of it.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

I mean, we had the New Zealand/Australian competition –

CATE BLANCHETT:

Oh, yeah.

KARL URBAN:

Yeah. Well, there’s been very intense robbery between our two nations

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

For thousands of years.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

Even though my country’s only existed for a couple of hundred – it goes back before that.

KARL URBAN:

I mean, you know – you know, apart from the experience of making a big movie, I like to think that the real reason we did this was to bridge the gap between the two nations.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

Bridge the gap.

KARL URBAN:

Yes between our two nations and foster some sort of kinship and peace, because the New Zealand/Australian War must end.

CATE BLANCHETT:

They don’t need that.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:

And it has and we love one another.

The cast and filmmakers were so amazing to chat with. I also got to chat with Director Taika Waititi and Kevin Feige after. We took some selfies of course.

It was a dream come true to meet Karl Urban and…

The one and only Jeff Goldblum! I can’t even tell you how much I love this man!

He is the best and so is this movie! I hope you enjoyed learning these behind the scenes tidbits. You need to see this movie ASAP!

THOR: RAGNAROK opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd! Get your tickets now, as I said before, it’s the best superhero movie of the year! I’m not just saying that!