While the Marvel Cinematic Universe may not be quite as big a franchise as it once was, the movies are still a great deal of fun for the audiences that are going to the movies to see them. It turns out the movies are also just as much fun to make. At least they were for Tessa Thompson, though she admits that Chris Hemsworth was a big reason for that.
In a recent appearance at the BFI London Film Festival (via Variety), Thompson talked about her experience in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Thor: Ragnarok to The Marvels. She made it clear that she had an absolute blast making movies with director Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth, calling the Thor actor…
[Chris Hemsworth is] a baby with muscles, a very big infant.
While Thompson may sound like she’s being critical of Hemsworth here, it’s clear she actually loved working with him. She complimented the actor (with whom she also appeared in the failed reboot Men in Black: International) who may act like “a baby” a lot of the time. But she said that was all in service of a willingness to “discover,” which made working with him great. Thompson continued…
[He] will just do anything you know, to get the laugh and to discover, so it’s a pleasure to work with him.
Thompson’s most recent entry in the MCU was by voicing her character of Valkyrie in the recent Marvel Zombies! animated series. Her name was not included in the massive cast list for Avengers: Doomsday, making it seem unlikely, though not impossible, that we’ll be seeing her again in the next MCU movie.
Making Marvel movies, as well as other major blockbusters, is certainly unlike most traditional film projects. The movie’s heavy reliance on CGI means that most of the movie what we see on screen was never really there while the actors were filming their scenes. Many performers have talked about how difficult that can all be.
It turns out that was exactly why Tessa Thompson wanted to become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The actress says she wanted to challenge herself, because she was far from certain that she’d really be able to make a movie like that. In the end, she found the experience quite freeing. She explained…
It’s so goofy making those movies sometimes. The mechanism of making those films requires a place of pure imagination, you know, where you just have to play like a kid. I really wanted to make a movie like that, because I’m not sure I can do that, and I really want to figure out if I can. And it was just so fun. It really, really freed me up.
I think we can all agree now that Tessa Thompson absolutely can make those movies. Her last live-action appearance in the MCU, in a brief cameo in The Marvels, showed that she doesn’t even need Chris Hemsworth to make it work.