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Christopher Eccleston Actually Likes Green Screen. Also Star Trek. And Anthony Hopkins.

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Christopher Eccleston Actually Likes Green Screen. Also Star Trek. And Anthony Hopkins.

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Published on October 28, 2013

Den of Geek got a pretty awesome interview with Christopher Eccleston following the premiere of Thor: The Dark World over in the U.K. In it, Eccleston revealed what sorts of genre stories he’s partial to, what it was like working on a big blockbuster full of CGI, and how there’s a scene between Malekith and Odin that will (hopefully) make it onto a DVD release, because it’s not in the movie.

While many fans might expect a serious, theater-conscious actor like Eccleston to laugh off a movie like Thor, he was quick to point out that the team you get to work with makes a huge difference, and had nothing but kind words for director Alan Taylor and Chris Hemsworth. In addition, it turn out that he actually enjoyed acting in front of some green screen for a change:

“It’s a relief to get out of the make-up chair. It’s a long time in the chair, but once you get on the set and you’re doing the scenes… for instance, when I was in my sleeping pod, the whole awakening of Malekith. Alan would play atmospheric music. That was great fun, it was like being a kid again. I’ve always said that I like green screen, because it’s what I did as a child in the back garden at home. I created all kinds of things around me as a child, with my imagination.”

Which is a fantastic way of putting it, and a far cry from plenty of actors who get aggravated at the lack of “reality” in current films. Additionally, it would seem that a scene between Maliketh and Odin was filmed, but never made the final cut—Eccleston acknowledged on of the primary differences between big movies and small one; often the big ones get made as much in post production as they do while filming. But even if that scene between himself and Anthony Hopkins never sees the light of day (we imagine it has to be in those DVD extras), he admitted that it was a ‘meet your idols’ kind of moment:

“Yes. It very much was. I was a 19-year old usher at the National Theatre in 1984, and at that time – pre-Silence Of The Lambs – he was playing a character called Lambert Le Roux. He was based on Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell. Giving this incredible stage performance, which had a huge influence on me.”

Eccleston also talked of what he appreciates about genre stories, specifically when they really focus on the humanity amidst the trappings. It would seem that he’s squite the Blade Runner fan, and that he also has a lot of love for Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future:

“I think there is a whole area of genre cinema where they think doing the genre is enough. But yes, when it takes a human situation, looks at it, and magnifies it through the prism of sci-fi… I loved Star Trek, I loved the original Star Trek as a child. And that is all about character. The triangular relationship between Spock, Bones and Kirk.”

Point being, Christopher Eccleston is a pretty awesome guy who loves all the same things that we love. It makes us even more excited to see what he brings to Maliketh once Thor: The Dark World hits screens next week!

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