Disclosure: I attended the #ThorRagnarokevent and my expenses: flight, accommodations, transportation and some meals were be covered by Disney. All opinions, however, are always 100% mine.
Photo Credit: Marvel Studios
You might know Rachel House as the voice of Gramma Tala in Moana. But she has also done of film work in her native country of New Zealand. She has also worked with Thor Ragnarok director, Taika Waititi.
Her interview was really fun. She was so mice and down to earth. In Thor Ragnarok, her role is small but it leaves an impression. I liked her character because she is probably the only character that is surrounded by chaos and craziness but Topaz never ever let's it show. She is sassy and sarcastic. My favorite type of character.
In the interview, Rachel gives us a little insight on how it was to work in this Marvel Universe movie!
Rachel: You know, I’m, I’m pretty used to keeping a straight face because I’ve done a lot of Taika’s films, and he, it’s always like that.
Some of the other actors weren’t so good at it. They were losing it, especially Jeff Goldblum because he was so funny. That’s not even half of it what you see. It’s not even a quarter of the improvisation and stuff that we were doing. Jeff was just so masterful at improvisation.
Q: What’s your favorite part about working with Taika?
Rachel: Just the fun.
Q: You’ve worked with him other times.
Rachel: The fun of it is really good. But, I mean, this is the [big] film he’s done. The others were very independent, therefore we had a very limited amount of time to shoot. We had to literally run around the bush, and the mud, and the snow, and the rain.
It was a lot of fun. But we had no time, you know? So, we just had to keep going. Whereas in, in Thor, because of the scale, we got to kind of breath a little bit.
So, and Taika was allowed to play as much as possible. That was really great seeing him able to do that without any kind of time restraint.
Q : What was that like transforming to this character?
Rachel: Kind of easy-ish. It’s a kind of character that Taika always makes me play. I just play all these really mean characters and I’m not mean at all. I’m sort of really ooh about meanness. I think [Taika] kind of enjoys that.
Q : How did you first get approached for this film? Did he come straight for you?
Rachel: No. I got a top secret kind of audition that I had to do through my agent. She said, “Oh, it’s for Marvel.”
And I said, “Well, that’ll be Taika.” I was given this tiny little saying with a few lines. New Zealand is so small, so one of my buddies, who’s a casting director, filmed [it]. And then sent it off. And then got an email from Taika saying, “Oh, by the way, you got the role.” You know, which is really lovely. I don’t know if they saw any other people. I’m not sure.
Q : How did you get involved with Taika in the first place?
Rachel: So, we, we’ve known each other since I met him when he was 17. He was in a play in this little theater in Wellington, and he was the best thing about it? I was a couple years older, and at drama school at the time. I met him after and said, “You were so great. Thank you so much.” And then started becoming a fan of his little crazy comedy stuff that he’d do with Jemaine and Bret and another guy called Nigel Collins.
So, I became a very big fan. From then, we just kept staying in touch. I had no idea he was gonna end up being a awesome film director. He was an artist, and an actor, and a comedian.
Q: Was last night the first time you got to see the film?
Rachel: Yes.
Q: What did you think about seeing it with all of us?
Rachel: Great. It’s so Taika. So full of comedy, and his unique brand of humor. And Korg was so great. It was amazing. And, you know, people back in New Zealand are just gonna fall about, because it’s such a familiar character. That character is very.
Q: Did you get along with Tessa Thompson in real life?
Rachel: She’s a darling. What a darling. She’s wonderful. And it was so, I felt so embarrassed because I watched Creed, and I said to her, “Oh, I loved in that boxing film.” I always forget names of things. Then I realized that I’d seen Dear White People like three times, because I love it so much. She’s in it. It wasn’t until afterwards where I actually Googled her, because I tend not to want to Google the people I’m about to work with, especially if they’re kind of famous because I don’t wanna necessarily have that pressure, feel intimidated. Once I realized it was her in Dear White People, I started Googling and seeing how much else she’d done.
Rachel: Yes. Yes. But you get over that really quickly. There’s so many wonderful people involved in the Marvel universe. They’re just normal people, talented people. The intimidation didn’t last long.
Q: Will we see you again you think, in Infinity War maybe?
Rachel: I’m not sure. Maybe. I don’t know.
Q: What did you find most challenging as a performer on set every day?
Rachel: To be honest, my costume. It was really stiff. It was hard to move. When we were doing that spaceship scene, I was like grr, because it’s quite stiff. It’s beautifully made. The costume designer is out of this world. But that was a bit hard to move in.
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!
This sounds like a great movie, thanks for the interviews.
ReplyDeleteI want to see this with my nephew. I think we'd both like it.
ReplyDeleteGreat interview. My nephew loved the film.
ReplyDeleteslehan at juno dot com
You get to sit in on the best interviews for the neatest shows.
ReplyDeleteThis would be really interesting to attend. I have always loved Thor in Marvel and am glad to see it come out.
ReplyDeleteellen beck