American actor Josh Brolin went into detail about the creation of the character of Thanos, which immortalized him as one of pop culture’s greatest villains.
Since Avengers 3 and 4, Thanos has become one of cinema’s most famous villains. His crazy charisma comes largely from his interpreter, actor Josh Brolin, and yet at the start, it was only a very small role for him:
When I said yes to [Gardiens de la galaxie], it was just a cameo. There wasn’t a lot of money involved. I probably shouldn’t say this, but I will say it: if [on m’avait proposé] the role of one of the Avengers, I would probably have refused. But the fact that it’s about pitting all the Avengers against this one guy? I loved the idea.
At the microphone of varietyhe added: “I was shooting Everest in London and [les gens de Marvel] dropped me a huge bible about Thanos, what he meant to the Marvel Universe, his relationship with Mort and all that.”
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And the actor, who had already turned down appearances in blockbusters including superheroes “not for Marvel, but other people“, was convinced by this bible devoted to the Mad Titan: “I was going through these volumes of information and I thought it was really cool to discover all this depth”.
Joe and Anthony Russo, directors of the two Avengers devoted to Thanos, finally summon the actor to carry out tests during which the comedian confesses “more and more relaxed”. The advice of the two brothers to interpret Thanos well? “Stop playing. Be the character”.
Brolin and the Russos’ main influence for the character was the role of Marlon Brando in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Yet the shooting conditions are far from the same, since the appearance of Thanos requires performance capture:
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“He’s a real guy, he’s not just a big purple guy. He’s a guy with guts, alive and well and with feelings. (…) The shooting was entirely in [performance capture] with between 250 and 500 very specific little dots on my face, to track the slightest movements…”which did not bother him too much since : “I had a lot of fun, and it went really well.”
His on-set enjoyment carried over to theaters as both Avengers were massive hits and fans loved his portrayal so much that he won Best Villain awards at the MTV Movie and Teen Choice Awards. Awards.