Patrick Wilson jokes that he felt 'ridiculous' shooting dazzling 'Aquaman' scenes
“It was insane,” Wilson said on “Popcorn with Peter Travers.”
Finally, the moment is here! Aquaman is set to make his big debut on screen. And with every hero, comes a villain. That’s where Patrick Wilson comes in, making his debut as King Orm, the Ocean Master! He plays opposite Jason Momoa, who takes on the role of Aquaman.
"I’m the half brother. I’m the current King of Atlantis," Wilson told ABC News. "And my journey is trying to assemble at least four of the seven undersea kingdoms to then become the Ocean Master. And then we take on the surface world, who I’m very angry at, rightfully so, for destroying the oceans. So he’s an eco-warrior with a bad drive. He’s not such a bad seed."
As you can imagine, much of the film is played out under water. And it’s quite the spectacle. Wilson said it was an interesting challenge as an actor to pull it all off.
"It was insane," Wilson said on "Popcorn with Peter Travers. "It was a series of different devices and harnesses and wires. Willem Dafoe and I would have these scenes, and Dolph Lundgren as well. But Willem and I would feel as if we were doing some sort of strange avante garde theater. You’ve got a two page dialogue scene and nothing is really happening. Oh and you’re under water. So you just find yourself floating around the room and trying to act. You feel ridiculous. But if you don’t go full bore to really try to engage it, then you look really stupid if you’re just sort of dangling there. It’s very odd."
And because of the complexity of the production, Wilson said the scenes took some time to shoot.
"There’s a fight scene where we trained most of April, started shooting in late May/June, he (Jason Momoa) goes away to do some re-shoots on another film, I can continue on with his double. He comes back. He does all the shots. We’re now into July. And we think we have it. They’re cutting it as we go along. Late August rolls around. We need more shots. We’ve got another week. And we even did more in October," Wilson said.
Travers joked that Wilson’s working relationship with Aquaman director James Wan extends well beyond King Orm. He said Wan has helped Wilson to become the 'scream king.' The two have worked together on some 5 horror films, "Insidious" and "The Conjuring" franchise, with yet another in the works.
"I never viewed him as a strict horror director. He is constantly pushing himself forward. And above all of this creative and artistic talk that I have such artistic trust in him with anything, with everything that we do together, we get along. We come together. We’re always pushing each other. There’s a great relationship with us and the camera every time we do something."
Download the all new "Popcorn With Peter Travers" podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Tunein, Google Play Music and Stitcher.
"Aquaman" will be in theaters everywhere this Friday.
Watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Patrick Wilson in the video above.
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