I was blown away at this cast interview. I’m so thankful to Disney for inviting me out on this all expense paid trip to interview and review the Thor: Ragnarok movie. The press junket on this day was a dream come true. It was a pinch me moment if you will. To be in the audience while this amazing cast of brilliant creatives answered our questions was one of those moments in time you will remember for years to come. Why not check out and see what all happened at our interview of the cast of Thor Ragnarok press junket.

Interviewing the cast of Thor Ragnarok at the press junket

First off they gave us numbers to get us into the auditorium. My number was 64. That’s the order we went in. I don’t care if I had been number 1400 I would have gone in! After we all filed in then the announcer came on and asked us all to be seated. Once we were all seated they called the talent out. One by one. It was awe-inspiring to see them come on to the stage and see us clapping for them as well as their peers. Here’s my stage photo of most of them.

Many of the questions asked were questions we had already covered with our other interviews. You can see my Kevin Feige interview, Karl Urban interview, Taika Waititi interview and don’t forget to check out my time on the red carpet with the Thor cast and my Thor Ragnarok review.

Since I don’t want to repeat myself I’m going to hit the highlights. 

What makes this film different from the other Thor films? 

Chris H. says, “Taika Waititi, basically.  I think we all had a vision and an idea,.  A want to do something vastly different than what we’d done before, and take it to a different place.  That meant kind of doing away with what we knew, and just reinventing it.  It all came from his crazy, wonderful brain, and his inspiration, and him pushing us every day on set. He constantly encouraged us to improvise, and explore and take risks.  It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had on a set.  It’s a film that I feel the most proud of, just because of this – this whole team, and the collaboration, and fun we had.”

Everyone on the stage loved Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi and it showed. 

People are invested in these franchises, and they love these characters.  So what made Taika and everybody else here the right fit?

Kevin Feige responded:

“We wanted a new sensibility.  We wanted to take Thor – and if you look at everything Chris has done as this character, there have been moments of humor – moments of humor throughout.  We just wanted to build on that. If you look at the movie, it’s got the epic action.  It’s got Thor, arguably, more powerful than he’s ever been in any of the films, with his powers going up against the Hulk. At the same time embracing what Mr. Hemsworth does better than anyone up until now has ever been able to see, which is his acting chops expands to comedy in an amazing way.  And Taika giving them the confidence to explore that, and to try things.  And most of that is in the movie, because it was on story, and yet at the same time expanded on by each of their characters.

Taika: I would like to know what your thought process was, and how Kevin reacted when you’re like, ‘I want this to look like a heavy metal album cover.’

If you look at all the elements in the film, it’s pretty crazy. If you would describe all of the characters in this film to someone, it’s  just –  it deserves to have all of that color and all of those crazy, curvy designs. It’s a bombastic concept that just – you can’t hold back from this thing.  So it’s either all in or nothing.

 We’re all in with you Taika. On everything! 🙂 

Who decided on Led Zeppelin? 

So from the beginning, that song kind of defined what Taika was going to do with this.  That it’s in the trailer, that it’s in the film – all from that first meeting, and from one of his first instincts of this movie, is very impressive. He used it to explain to us how the movie would go on his scissor reel. We knew then it had to be in the film.

Are you interested in all in doing a full Hulk movie?  This is the first time we’ve seen the Hulk this much.  And if so, what aspect of the character would be most interested in exploring? Question for Mark Ruffalo.

I would love to do a Hulk movie. I think we all would love to do one. But about a year ago, before I even had this part, or were even talking about doing this film. It was well over a year ago, Kevin had asked me to come over and have a script meeting.  And basically he sat me down and he said, ‘What would you like to do if you had a stand-alone Hulk movie?’  And I said, ‘I’d like to do this, this, and this; and this and this – and then this.  And then this, and this, and this, and then it would end like this.’  And he’s like, ‘I love that.  Let’s do that over the next three movies, starting with Thor 3 and carry it on through Avengers 3 and Avengers 4.’  And so that’s my stand-alone Hulk movie.

Tessa Question: First – did you have any pressure playing a character that was mechanical white in the comics, and bringing that character to life?  Like, how did you feel about that? 

No, I didn’t feel any pressure with that specifically.  You know, the things that I thought about the particulars of Valkyrie had more to do with, like mass and size.  For example, I thought, like ‘Oh, I’m short,’ you know.   Or like, ‘I’m not buff enough.’  Or she’s arguably as strong as Thor.  How do I stand, you know, next to a person like Chris Hemsworth and feel like that’s true, you know.  So I didn’t think so much – I mean, satisfying Norse mythology, it’s mystifying, and fantastical, and glorious, and also very confusing and doesn’t make a lot of sense, you know.  And I remember someone online saying like, ‘You know, Tessa Thompson playing Valkyrie is white genocide.’  And –  Which is just as mystifying as Norse mythology.  I just figured like, you know, this thing that I’m tasked to do with any character that has its own iconography is to capture the spirit of the character. I think the spirit of all of us, at the risk of sounding, you know, cheesy, has very little to do with what color we are.  So I just didn’t really invest in that.

Question for Jeff: You’ve been in so many iconic films – what was it like to come into the Marvel universe? 

JEFF GOLDBLUM:  Hello – hello.  Fantastic.  Fantastic.   I like the character, of course, and the opportunities in the character.  Joining a group like this, a cast like this is a dream come true.  Taika – working with Taika, that was my first, you know, connection point to the movie.  We had a meeting, and hit it off, and he said what we were gonna do, and improvise, and have fun.  But then, you know, Kevin Feige and Louis D’Espesito, and Victoria Alonso, and Brad Winderbaum – the whole upper tier of creative leaders, do something unique.  They know how to make these epic productions, and popular movies, but they want to make good movies.  And they somehow uniquely know how to do them, that feels to me like an actorly, workshop-y, character-y, improvisatory, delightful experience – and make a movie that I think skins the cat like this is just – I’m grateful, overwhelmingly grateful.

So was there healthy competition?  How much healthy competition was there on set between Mark, Chris and Cate?

CATE BLANCHETT:  A lot.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  Yeah. 

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  That’s why we don’t sit next to each other. 

CATE BLANCHETT:  Yeah.  Mark was always in the middle.

MARK RUFFALO:  Yeah.  And I’m, and I’m sick of it.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  I mean, we had the New Zealand/Australian competition –

CATE BLANCHETT:  Oh, yeah.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  – going. 

CATE BLANCHETT:  Yeah.

KARL URBAN:  Yeah.  Well, there’s been very intense robbery between our two nations CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  For thousands of –

KARL URBAN:    For thousands of years.  And –

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  Even though my country’s only existed for a couple of hundred – it goes back before that.

KARL URBAN:  Well, I mean, you know –  apart from the experience of making a big movie, I like to think that the real reason we did this was to bridge the gap –

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  Bridge the gap.

KARL URBAN:  – between our two nations and foster some sort of kinship and peace, because the New Zealand/Australian War must end. 

CATE BLANCHETT:  They don’t need that.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  And it has.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  And we love one another.

CATE BLANCHETT:  Yeah.

CHRIS HEMSWORTH:  Truly.

MARK RUFFALO:  Yeah.

MARK RUFFALO:  And I, I brought them together.

These guys…am I right? 😛

I want to ask Tom Hiddleston a question real quick.  And Tom, do you feel that – there is a change in Thor.  Could there be a change in Loki, also?  Do you think you could ever change – or is a – that is just a part of your character that won’t change?

TOM HIDDLESTON:  I did ask Taika if I could get a haircut, as well. But his answer was a quick, ‘No.’  It’s interesting.  I mean it is about the development of the relationship between Thor and Loki. Thor has evolved, and grown, and matured; and Loki in a way is stuck in his struggles of the past.  And that’s in a way that’s the challenge for Loki in this. He’s got to confront the fact that time is moving on, and people change, and – so I don’t know. We’ll see.  There’s room to grow, and I’m still here.  And we’ll see where he goes next.  I’m not going to spoil anything. Loki with a beard might be pretty cool.

 

Are there any Easter eggs that we can look forward to in the trash piles that we see, both when Thor, and then when Jeff Goldblum’s character lands at the end of the movie, as well?

There might be some things in the trash piles.  I mean, the biggest – the biggest Easter eggs are on the side of the Sakaran Palace – right, Taika?  There are previous Grandmaster champions that we see, as one for Hulk is being constructed, and those are all sort of Easter eggs for the deeper comic universe – that may or may not ever show up in the cinematic universe, but we thought it’d be fun to celebrate.

I want to ask Karl real quick about coming into this universe, and also – did you feel like – Cate talked about working out 20 minutes a day.   Were you working out?

KARL URBAN:  Yeah.  The working out schedule was rather intense.  In fact, Taika came to me and he said, ‘Listen, you need to tone it down.  You can’t be bigger than Chris, okay?’ So I did, you know. I just had the most amazing time working on this film.  And you know, building upon what Jeff said, I feel very blessed to be a part of this family, and to have had the opportunity to work with Taika, and for him to be so well supported by the team at Marvel.  And it was a real rarity.  And you know, I really appreciated the environment that Taika created on the set.  It was fun; it was focused.  He would often play music.  And there was nothing sacrilegious about a take.   You know, he – quite often, you’d be in the middle of a take and he’d go, ‘Oh, try this, or try that.’  And it was just wonderful to – felt like everybody had your back, and we had – we had fun.

HOST:  What was Taika’s go-to song on the set?  What was his go-to song?  What was his go-to cut?  What was his favorite cut?  Need somebody to love.

KARL URBAN:  I remember Lou Reed.  I remember a bit of Lou Reed.  I remember –

CATE BLANCHETT:  Go, go, yabba, yabba was kind of what – that was –

TAIKA WAITITI:  Don’t bite your friends.  Don’t bite your friends.

CATE BLANCHETT:  That was my entrance into Asgard, was don’t – yeah, don’t bite your friends.

TAIKA WAITITI:  Don’t bite your friends, from go, gabba, gabba – oh, I really recommend –

CATE BLANCHETT:  Yeah.

TAIKA WAITITI:  :  Really – if you’ve got children, I really recommend –

CATE BLANCHETT:  It was my life in a theme song.

TAIKA WAITITI:  – playing that song.

TAIKA WAITITI:  It’s all about teaching kids not to bite other kids.

CATE BLANCHETT:  That led to my brain.

TAIKA WAITITI:  :  Don’t bite your friends. Sometimes it’s just a simple message like there, you know, it’s just you

CATE BLANCHETT:  I mean, you never know what’s gonna trigger an actor, you know. Thank you –

TAIKA WAITITI:  Cate – Cate – don’t bite the other actors.

What a great thing it was to witness them interacting and enjoying each other on the stage. I hope you enjoyed our press junket! Don’t forget to check out the trailers for Thor below! 

This Thor trailer is everything you’ve wanted to see and more! 

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And they will make you excited to screen the movie. 

More about the Thor: Ragnarok movie.

In Marvel Studios’ THOR: RAGNAROK, Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok—the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization—at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first, he must survive a deadly gladiatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger—the Incredible Hulk! THOR: RAGNAROK is directed by Taika Waititi and returns Chris Hemsworth starring as Thor and Tom Hiddleston reprising his role as Loki. They are joined by Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson and Karl Urban, with Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins.

THOR: RAGNAROK opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd! 

Like THOR: RAGNAROK on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Thor/  

Follow THOR: RAGNAROK on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thorofficial

Follow Marvel on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marvelstudios/  

THOR: RAGNAROK opens in theaters everywhere November 3rd! 

One more for your viewing pleasure! 

Stay tuned to learn what happened when we were able to attend the press junket where I was able to interview the cast.