The baddies from the huge new DC movie told Lovin all about their roles.
The best superhero movies are often linked back to the fact that the superhero is matched by a memorable villain. We’re talking about Heath Ledger as The Joker, or Tom Hiddleston as Loki, or Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman, and loads more besides.
It is often the failing of a not-as-good superhero movie, too. Can you even remember who played the villain in Thor: The Dark World? Or you do remember Arnie in Batman & Robin, but for all of the wrong reasons.
Thankfully, that isn’t a problem with Wonder Woman 1984, which has lined up two of today’s best character actors to take on Gal Gadot as Diana Prince, and we here at Lovin were lucky enough to be a part of the global press conference for the movie, which featured them chatting about their new roles.
First up is Kristen Wiig, best known for her comedic performances in Bridesmaids and the 2016 Ghostbusters. Here she plays iconic Wonder Woman villain Barbara Minerva, aka Cheetah, and she told us if she was excited about playing a legendary comic book baddie:
“Short answer – yes. Yeah, I don’t really get asked to do these kind of things, to be honest. I felt really shocked and happy, and of course, extra pressure, when I signed on and I was talking to Patty [Jenkins, director] about it. And I’m a superhero geek, I’ve seen all of the movies at the theatre, I was obsessed with the first [Wonder Woman movie], so to know that I was going to be in it, and that I got a chance to be a villain, and that Patty believed that I could do it, it was an amazing life experience for me.”
And secondly, Pedro Pascal, memorable for never taking his helmet off in The Mandalorian, or coming to a squishy end when fighting The Mountain in Game of Thrones. He plays Max Lord, a bit of a slimy businessman with a nefarious plot up his sleeve, and Pascal told us that he based his villainy on someone very close to him…
“The scariest thing about this movie for me, and this experience, was to do something that was a lot closer to me, at least energetically. At least to expose desperation, instead of brood with a moustache, it was expose, expose, expose. And I had to use a lot of myself to do what Patty wanted. And so it was really scary, and thrilling, but just like Kristen was saying before, you kind of knew what you didn’t want [the character] to be. And it was completely new as far as professional experience is concerned, but completely closer to me. Which is really… scary.”
Wonder Woman 1984 is released in Irish cinemas on Wednesday, December 16.
These interviews were edited slightly for clarity.
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