2019 was a monumental year for fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it brought the Infinity Saga to a close. But, what also came in the same calendar year was the finalization of Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox, which brought many familiar Marvel faces back under the Marvel Studios umbrella, such as the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool.
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One actor specifically who has been praised for his interpretation of a certain Mad Titan also made a splash in a different Marvel arena as a time-traveling cyborg, and has recently shared how different the two experiences were for him.
NEWS
As
reported by IndieWire
, Josh Brolin recently joined James and Roger Deakins’ podcast,
Team Deakins
, and opened up about his experience working as Thanos for Marvel Studios and how exactly he came about bringing the character to life:
Brolin also had high praises of Marvel Studios’ technology used on the set of
Infinity War
and
Endgame
, which brought his interpretation of the Mad Titan to life in real-time, saying that helped the process become
“fun”
to him:
“I mentioned Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now,’ this guy who is very elusive and insane but what he is saying makes sense and is poetical. I started seeing the parallel which I liked for me. I loved being able to resort to a film like ‘Apocalypse Now’ when I was doing something like ‘Avengers.’”
As many know, the year that Brolin brought the MCU’s Thanos to life in his full glory in 2018’s
Avengers: Infinity War
was the same year he appeared as
Deadpool 2
’s Cable just a month later. He then reprised his role as Thanos for
Avengers: Endgame
the following year.
“The more I watched it, the more I realized this is a real guy. This is not a big purple guy this is a guy with insides and cells and feelings. Then it became fun. To me, it was like going to do 1970s black box theater in New York. You totally resort to your imagination. It is absolutely behavioral, if not more than other movies.”
Brolin went on to add that he did not have the same experience in the other Marvel franchise he joined in 2018 under Fox, saying that the
Deadpool
job was
“much harder,”
and that it felt like
“more of a business transaction”
than anything else compared to his time working with the Russo Brothers and Marvel Studios:
WHAT THIS MEANS
What deserves the most focus from Brolin’s recent words is his consistent praises of Marvel Studios and how they go about piecing together the MCU one character at a time. The fact that Brolin was allowed to take such creative liberties with Thanos over the years and mold him into the character that fans would eventually see decimate the universe says a lot about how Marvel Studios allows their actors to tinker and toy with their roles, despite having such a specific vision for what path they want MCU films to follow.
“‘Deadpool’ was hard. Even though it was funny, it was harder. That was more of a business transaction, it was more, ‘We need to make this like this,’ which I didn’t feel that way with ‘Avengers.’ With those directors, they would constantly go back and reference ‘Scarface’ or ‘Dog Day Afternoon.’ Whether or not it was a manipulation, they knew what to throw out there to bring it back into something inspired.”
So, although Brolin may not have enjoyed the experience of playing Cable as much as he enjoyed playing the MCU’s Mad Titan, he hasn’t closed the door on returning as the X-Force’s Traveler. In fact, Brolin may even be more excited about the role now than before knowing that Marvel Studios will be the ones in charge going forward.