Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars in Kraven the Hunter, which tells the story of how the iconic Marvel villain came to be. The action-packed film will be released in theaters on December 13.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
“When you take on a role like this, I think there’s definitely a responsibility to do it justice, right? I think there are a few key things there, one is you’ve got to… there’s the look, right? There’s the aesthetic. There’s the physicality of this character that is so prominent on all the comic books, the Kraven comic books,” the actor explained. “People need to visually see and kind of go, ‘Oh, sick, okay, that’s bringing that comic book character to life,’ and you can see the lengths that I went to to transform into that physical role. I think that’s a sort of a relationship. There’s a sense of faith there. It’s like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna do everything I can to get us there,’ right? Whenever there’s a new something, me included, we’re all skeptical, right? And that’s fair. That is so fair that you need that, right? Everyone’s like, ‘Well, okay, let me see. You’ve got to tease me. You’ve got to prove to me,’ right? I think one of them is that first initial look, right? And then, you go, ‘Okay, so that’s different, was not expecting that,’ right? And so, that was one big thing to me. Then, the harder bit is going, but we need to make him real. Like, we need to bring life into this person. This character needs to have layers, complexity, depth, emotion, heart, and empathy. How do you feel empathy for a villainous character? That’s a challenge.”
We talked about seeing the excitement from fans firsthand, making the character real, and the complexities of a villain.
Watch my interview below:
