Alfred Molina brought back his role as the villain in ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ 17 years after his character died in 2004’s ‘Spider-Man 2.’ The actor shared his surprise about being asked to return after so long in a recent interview with Vanity Fair:
“Coming back 17 years later to play the character again, no one was more surprised than me. When they asked me, I said, ‘You realize I’m quite a bit older? I’ve got crow’s feet, I’ve got a wattle, you know, a double chin, I’ve got bad knees.’ And [director] Jon Watts and [producer] Amy Pascal said, ‘No, no, it’s your role. We want you back. We can fix all that, we’ll de-age you. We’ve got the technology, we can change everything.’”
The Actor Wasn’t Sure About Getting The Role In Sam Raimi Series
Molina didn’t think he was ‘qualified’ for the role in the first place, either. He explained:
“You always think of these big action films as [casting] physical types, and I’ve definitely never been that. We had a great meeting. And I kept saying, ‘Look, I’m up for it. But I’ve got to be honest with you, I’ve never done anything like this before. And I’ve certainly never worked on a film with all this technology, I’ve never done much green screen or anything like that.’”
The actor made a name in films like ‘Chocolat,’ ‘Enchanted April,’ and ‘Frida.’ But the audition process convinced the team to have him in action:
“But what swung it was we did a screen test, where they gave me an approximation of the costume — the big leather [harness] with the big trench coat. And then Avi Arad, who at the time was the head of Marvel, takes off his sunglasses and goes, ‘Put these on.’ I put the sunglasses on, and the whole room sort of went, ‘Oh, this could be the image.’ And I think that’s what swung it.”
He Loves How Marvel Villains Are Written
Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro joined Alfred Molina in ‘No Way Home.’ Andrew Garfield’s, Tobey Maguire’s, and Tom Holland’s Spider-Men teamed up to cure what created these villains during the film.
The ‘Enchanted April’ actor shared his thoughts about the Marvel bad guys’ stories as follows:
“The beautiful thing about a lot of the Marvel villains — and, in fact, a lot of the Marvel heroes — is that they all become so reluctantly. Otto Octavius has this terrible tragedy in his life which changes things, and so they become these monsters, these villains, almost against their will. And what that does, it gives those characters a real level of humanity.”
He said their ‘moral dilemmas’ gave them depth and went on:
“And that was all in the script. Sam wanted to develop that, and it gave the character a depth and something that the audience can hang onto. Because he’s no longer a two-dimensional character. He’s not just the bad guy, he’s actually the bad guy with a kind of emotional life. And that just, I think, makes them so much more interesting.”
You can watch Molina’s interview in the video below.
