In Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, Jonathan Majors brings to the screen another version (of many!) of Kang the Conqueror. He told us how he tackled a very particular interpretation for an actor.
We had already seen how Kang in version “The one who stays” in the first season of Lokilet’s review it now as Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania: it’s really a good time to Jonathan Majorswho by the way will also be the antagonist of Adonis in Creed III, in cinemas from March 2nd. Meeting him for Ant-Man 3we got to understand something more than just the actor who embraced one of the most famous villains in the Marvel universe (from multiple incarnations in Multiverse), but also of the person Jonathan, who calls himself “a introvert.”
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Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania, Jonathan Majors: “Kang is an introvert like me”
Jonathan Majors feels very much on the wavelength of Kang the Conqueror which he interprets in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania: “Kang And introvert like me, isolates himself from emotions, I find it fascinating. Communicate with people at a distance.” It is a way of being that for Jonathan is based on succinct verbal communication, favoring inner life.
How then do you deal with the sudden fame given by the MCU, the fan ballot? Try to focus on one thing at a time, without sharing it too much with others, collecting oneself, trying to be present to the maximum of one’s ability when requested. He has decided to live film by film the definitely multi-year commitment to this character. “Because over the years everything can change,” she wisely considers.
Thanks to his introversion, Majors also had a very rational and calm relationship with a production that relied heavily on digitally recreated environmentsa potentially alienating problem that does not affect him: “At CGI I don’t even think locally. No one at the academy ever told me that I had to change my acting whether or not I was in front of a blue screen. Now, not to be too educational, but acting means using a maskyou have to activate it and you don’t have to think about it anymore.” Thinking about digital post-production, of which he doesn’t even know the details, would be an impediment in the interpretation, what matters to him is to immerse himself as much as possible in the character.
Interpretare Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania e nel Marvel Cinematic Universe
Dealing with various incarnations of Kang in Ant-Man 3 and in general in Marvel Cinematic Universe aesthetically it was easy. “It’s a very collaborative process.” For example, he worked with costume designer Ivo Coveney for Kang’s costume, tested by Jonathan himself and refined based on his suggestions. The same was true for the trickedited by Jan Sewell. “But I’m the last in the chain, they’re just geniuses and they know what they’re doing. They respectfully listen to my suggestions, but most of the time they hit us first time“.
The challenge, however, is essentially: how do you play the part of such a multifaceted character? Majors explains to us that for Kang he followed the always valid rules learned at the academy of dramatic art, what matters to him is that he did not have a specific inspiration to characterize the Kang of Quantumania: more than on other cinematic villains, he he focused onobsession that the villain has with the passage of time, for lost time, an obsession that often unites us all. We must remain anchored to what he calls the “Kangdom“, an essence common to all incarnations of the Conqueror, the same “metaphorical origin“. The variations depend on the mental state in which a specific version of Kang is found: for example Kang the Conqueror tends to be static, while The one who stays in Loki he could not sit still, because the first is focused on a goal, the other is not. Generalizing, for Kang an actor must make an almost philosophical consideration of him: “You have before you an infinite potential: how do you deal with infinity?”