Mark Strong Interview For ‘Green Lantern

Watch Green Lantern Online - Bringing the enduringly popular superhero to the big screen for the first time, ‘Green Lantern’ stars Ryan Reynolds in the title role, under the direction of Martin Campbell (Casino Royale). In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan. Alongside Ryan Reynolds the film stars Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Jon Tenney, Geoffrey Rush, Tim Robbins, Angela Bassett and Michael Clarke Duncan. Check out what Mark Strong had to say about the film below. In the film Strong plays Sinestro, a Green Lantern and Hal Jordan’s strict mentor. ‘Green Lantern’ is in cinemas June 17th.

The purple is a good look, how was that getting used to?

Mark Strong: Thank you very much. I saw the whole process happening so I was amazed. What was really freaky was when I Skyped my wife and kids looking like it, that was an event (laughs). It was a shock for them. Everyday I would Skype her and say, “Hi, it’s your alien husband here.” It really freaked her out. My kids are six and three and a half, they’re used to the idea that Dad does strange stuff now.

How Green Lantern savvy were you before going into all of this?

Mark Strong: Not very. In England you don’t really have…you can get a hold of DC and Marvel comics but they weren’t part of the culture like they are in the US. We’ve got different kinds of comics, strange British comics like Beano and Whizzer and Chips, they were very child friendly rather than kind of adventuretastic like Green Lantern or Superman or Batman. I wasn’t really that aware at all to be honest.

I got into it though, they say education is wasted on the young, as a grown up getting into it I found it totally riveting. Jeff and Adam at DC sent me some books and I worked my way through them, it’s a rich heritage of source material. I kind of weirdly got addicted.

Seeing as Green Lantern already has such a huge following in the comic-book world, what was it like as an actor to take something on like this?

Mark Strong: I felt a responsibility to get it right. If people adore this stuff and have known it for years and years it is beholden to you to deliver what they’re hoping. I know if I read a book and go see the movie I’m always hoping they will do it justice. That was something I was very serious about. The look of Sinestro, I tried very hard to make sure that he would match what he looked like in the comics rather than take him in a different direction, which was muted at first. I did feel a responsibility to the fans.

Doing this blue screen stuff with Sinestro, that must be like using a different acting muscle. When you’re doing that how do use your imagination to go where you need to go?

Mark Strong: It’s not actually that dissimilar to theatre. If you’re on stage and you look out and point , “Look at the huge forest,” you just have to use your imagination, you have to create it in the minds of the audience. Really it’s the same thing. You have to use your imagination to imagine all of this. It’s much easier on a set because you can have a pre-visualisation of animation that helps you out, or you can have the artwork there, which tells you the environment you’re in. Essentially it’s just using your imagination.

What was the makeup process? How long did that take?

Mark Strong: The first time we tried it, it was like eight hours or something, but we got it down to about four hours. The fastest we ever did it was three hours. There was a series of prosthetics, then different passes with an air brush of different colours.

You’ve gotta have patience.

Mark Strong: Yeah (laughs), a long time in the chair, you get to know the special effects and make-up guys very well indeed (laughs).

Ryan Reynolds was great, why do you think he made such a good Green Lantern?

Mark Strong: Because he can just do everything that is required. I think he said somewhere, I don’t want to take words out of his mouth, but I think he said he can throw a punch and kiss the girl. That’s kind of what’s required. He does that really well. He’s also very funny, vulnerable, I think as an actor he rounds out that character of Hal Jordan. He’s also handsome and buff, everything you need from a leading man.

You were also pretty muscled up in this.

Mark Strong: Thank you very much, I worked out for it, they drew me extra muscles as well which is always welcomed (laughs). If we could live in the world of film it’d be perfect.

Ryan is a very gentle soul, he’s very approachable, I got on with him very well. I think what I like most of all is that he can bring his natural humour to it and just turn a scene on a six pence. One minute he’d be very serious, then he’d say something that would just lighten the mood and make everybody laugh. He’s very good at judging the right moment.

There’s some great fight scene’s, the one you’re involved in with the swords is one that stands out.

Mark Strong: Originally in that scene we weren’t even going to touch each other, we were gonna do it all with our imaginations or through the ring, we were going to create these constructs and fight each other. But ultimately we would have stood there doing very little, we realised it would be better if there was some contact, so we did have to rehearse the fight scene, we did get physical with each other. It was quite strange holding these constructs that weren’t actually there, again you had to use your imagination in the fight. Normally a fight is avoiding physical contact, this was a combination of the traditional fight, but also using weapons you didn’t really have. It was interesting.

How was it doing the flying scenes?

Mark Strong: Well I turned up early in order to learn how to do that with the rigs. In the old days if you flew, somebody would just be literally holding onto a rope and you’d hope they would land you in the right way (laughs). These days it’s all done by computers, so once you find your stop point, you can have the confidence that you know the minute you land the computer and wiring will stop, so you can look like you’re proficient at taking off and landing, much more than you used to be able to in the old days. Also flying itself, there was a rig that had six different points that you were attached to that could make you vertical and move you any which way you wanted. That was fun.