The stars and filmmakers behind Marvel's Disney+ series, "Loki," including Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Owen Wilson (Mobius), Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Judge Renslayer), Wunmi Mosaku (Hunter B-15), Kate Herron (Director) and Michael Waldron (Head Writer) discuss their new show with CinemaBlend's Eric Eisenberg. Take an exclusive dive into the inner workings of the TVA and the God of Mischief himself as he wreaks havoc on the Sacred Timeline.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Is it a rule that you'll only work with Tom Hiddleston if there's time travel involved?
00:06It's a coincidence.
00:08Well, it is a rule and, you know, our lawyers worked it out long ago,
00:15but it's one that I'm glad that you've picked up on.
00:20The timekeepers have built quite the circus,
00:24and I see the clowns are playing their parts to perfection.
00:30What was it like to witness Loki's death?
00:33I first have to ask about Loki witnessing his own death,
00:37because that is such a monumental thing,
00:40and I'm just, I'm curious how you even process a moment like that as an actor.
00:44Well, that moment I just was, when I first became aware of
00:50that was where the scripts were going, I thought,
00:54what an extraordinary moment to inhabit.
01:00And then, of course, you think, what would it be like for me,
01:03for anyone to sit and watch that?
01:06And how would it then change your sense of yourself,
01:10your journey through your own life, you know,
01:13what you thought you had intended to do,
01:15what your motivations were, what was important to you,
01:19and then to see, oh, it ends there.
01:22And it would be, yeah, it would be a hell of a,
01:27it would be a cause for concern, I think.
01:31That's so funny.
01:33Glorious purpose.
01:35It throws into question the whole root of his sense of meaning in his life,
01:45where he has derived meaning and what his purpose was.
01:48You know, I think it's a really interesting question just to think about,
01:52is we all have to, as we move through our lives,
01:56we have to think about what we're doing and why we're doing it,
02:01and what we're working towards.
02:04Basically, we want our lives to mean something.
02:06And I think he's decided his glorious purpose is a reason for kind of doing what he does.
02:15And then I think that the whole thing is called into question,
02:17and he has a kind of nervous breakdown,
02:23or at least a breakthrough.
02:25A breakthrough where he is confronted face to face with himself,
02:31his choices, and the things he's done.
02:35And yeah, I don't know.
02:38Cause for concern, I think.
02:40I think we tried to create a very intimate atmosphere on set when we were filming that.
02:45Like when we were filming on the memories,
02:46I actually had them all on my laptop,
02:48and I was kind of DJing them from my computer.
02:50But I just love that scene.
02:52I think the way Tom plays it,
02:54and as he goes towards,
02:55it almost felt like how we all imagine or felt when we sort of like,
02:58no, what the hell is going on?
02:59And I think he really captures that just complete horror.
03:03And like you said, that's what it was for.
03:07That's what I got.
03:08And I love the kind of, there's this moment where you see him react,
03:12and we have almost like the focus slips,
03:15but I kind of love it because I almost feel like it's kind of his feeling on reality,
03:19like slipping around him.
03:21Yeah.
03:21And then the end of file comes up, which is so cruel.
03:24And so again, in the mundane world of the TVA,
03:26and I think, you know, he starts to laugh because what can you do?
03:29You got to, you're going to cry.
03:30You're going to laugh.
03:31So I think that, yeah, that moment for me is very chilling.
03:34And it's yeah.
03:35One of my favorite moments working with Tom.
03:38Definitely.
03:38I just think he does such a beautiful performance.
03:41What a humbling thing to see how your life was meant to play out.
03:47You know, he says in the first Avengers, you know.
03:51An ant has no quarrel with a boot.
03:54I think Loki, certainly this version of Loki thinks he's the boot.
03:58And in that moment, he very much finds out, no, you're the ant.
04:03I beg your pardon?
04:04And so it's humbling.
04:06It forces self-reflection and introspection in a way that I don't think Loki's ever done before,
04:13which is really interesting.
04:15We were just very excited about that moment because it's a cool thing to witness.
04:20You know, this is a guy who's escaped death a lot.
04:24And to just see the finality of that, the violence of it, it's horrible.
04:30It's a hard thing for me to watch because I love the character.
04:33But Tom's just so tremendous in that moment.
04:36And it's one of my favorite moments in the whole series.
04:39Yes, very sad.
04:40Anyway, it got me thinking.
04:43Go ahead.
04:44Just to speak about kind of the Mobius relationship with Loki.
04:47I mean, one of the interesting things about this dynamic is just that
04:52Mobius knows everything about him.
04:53He knows him backwards and forwards.
04:55And I'm curious if that was something that was kind of part of your preparation process.
05:00Mobius is watching.
05:04It was, you know, I was saying that the whole sort of TVA and the way the sets had
05:11and even our sort of wardrobe had this sort of bureaucratic kind of,
05:17you know, strangely futuristic, but then also sort of retro Orwellian look to it.
05:25And that was, you know, that's what, you know, Mobius brings to the table when he
05:31sits across from the god of mischief.
05:33And he needs something because, you know, you're talking to a god.
05:38So you better have something.
05:41And what he has is the weight of the TVA for all time.
05:46Well, actually, I mean, I wanted to ask about that relationship,
05:48because it's strange that you guys have a history, but time isn't really a thing.
05:52So it's kind of hard to piece together.
05:55But like, did you have a reference point for that relationship?
05:58Like, did you like either in movies or just from personal experience?
06:02I mean, personally, I always looked at it as a sort of like
06:05sort of version of the M Bond dynamic, you know, as in like, you know,
06:11with me being M and Mobius being Bond, this sort of rascally agent
06:17that just is a bit maverick.
06:19And my character sort of appreciates him for the facts that he takes up
06:25on these maverick challenges, but also kind of has to have him to the line as well.
06:29So I sort of looked at it a little bit like that.
06:31But then I think there's a slightly different chemistry going on.
06:34I think they have a longstanding friendship,
06:36and there's sort of layers to their history.
06:43I feel like I'm always looking up to you.
06:45I like it. It's appropriate.
06:47To look at this character, to look at Hunter B-15 from a macro perspective,
06:51this is a character who's not a human,
06:53but a being who knows the inner workings of the universe,
06:56knows the rules, and kind of lives to enforce them.
06:59Where do you even start with that character?
07:02What mind space do you get into when you're playing a scene?
07:07Well, it's just she's someone who just wants to...
07:10She knows the rules and she sticks by them.
07:14So once I know the rules, that's it.
07:17That's her modus operandi.
07:19That's her goal, and that's what she sticks to.
07:22And so it really is about learning about the TVA
07:28and what it's there for, why it's there,
07:31and yeah, that's it.
07:34That's all that matters to her, really.
07:36That's the only thing that matters to her.
07:39How far did you go just in terms of defining the rules of the TVA?
07:43Because there are obviously so many questions that are sprung out of this.
07:46I'm curious just how far you went as far as figuring out the answers.
07:50I mean, we went so far.
07:52Eric Martin, one of our writers, wrote an encyclopedia, basically, of it.
07:56We had to.
07:57That was one of the first and most important tasks of the writer's room.
08:04After we sort of landed on the real emotional core of the show,
08:08we had to define the institutional rules of the TVA.
08:14What is a time travel law and how do you break it?
08:19And so that required a lot of drawing of lines on the whiteboards
08:25with other squiggly lines coming off of it.
08:27A lot of writers yelling at each other over how time travel worked and everything.
08:33And at the end of that, we'd all created a foundational shared knowledge
08:38that then our job became, okay, how can we download this to the audience
08:45and then have them never really think about it again?
08:47Because I don't want people thinking about rules while they watch the show.
08:51It's got to just feel natural.
08:53So that was, I would say, that was probably the biggest challenge
08:56and from the writers, one of our most important jobs.
08:59There was essentially an encyclopedia that was built
09:02to kind of explain the rules of the TVA.
09:05Was that something you had access to?
09:09It felt like I listened to the audio version of that encyclopedia,
09:14beginning with sort of a podcast by Tom, a Loki podcast,
09:19which I attended actually in person.
09:23Um, yeah, you know, so many people, uh, you know, dive into the whole MCU
09:31and I had, um, we could probably auction that off.
09:34It'd probably be a great thing for charity to have Tom Hiddleston
09:37walk you through the MCU because that's what he did to me.
09:40And it was a beautiful walk.
09:43I am smart.
09:44I know.
09:46Okay.
09:49Okay.
09:50But I also do want to ask about working with Sofia DeMartino
09:53because obviously massive reveal.
09:56I'm curious just about working with her.
09:57And also, is there a sense of like getting
10:00your own performance reflected back to you?
10:04Um, I think certainly there's, in that second episode,
10:07there was a moment of, of taking these characteristics,
10:12which I had found interesting about Loki,
10:14that the, the, his capacity to sort of provoke and disrupt
10:23and manipulate with charm, often with charisma, with wit.
10:27He's sort of always playing chess with people.
10:29You're never quite sure if it's sincere, if you can trust him.
10:33And, and seeing those characteristics inhabited by other people
10:37was really interesting.
10:39It was a really interesting mirror for me.
10:41And then also a very freeing feeling of, of, of like delighting
10:47in how, how those, the qualities of Loki might exist,
10:53you know, outside of me completely.
10:56And, um, I really enjoyed it.
10:59It was just, you know, really fun.
11:02And I don't want to spoil things, but you'll see where,
11:07you'll see where it goes.
11:08Because, um, we contain multitudes as some,
11:11some great psychologists once said.
11:13I like it.
11:14Swap it on a t-shirt.
11:16Sophie is great.
11:17Her energy is amazing.
11:18She does a great job in, in episode two,
11:21and they're seen together and matching his, his energy there.
11:25It's, it's, uh, it's, it's really fun.
11:27I'll, I'll be a brief.
11:29Um, I always knew, you know, in a, in a show about branching timelines
11:35and variants and everything.
11:37We wanted to hold up a literal mirror to, to Loki.
11:40And, and so, you know, this, this is one of the ways we're,
11:45we're gonna, we're gonna do it.
11:46Did you actually get to keep anything from set?
11:49Just because, I mean, the production design in this is absolutely gorgeous.
11:52I have my tie.
11:54Nice.
11:55Tie that I wear, but had I been able to keep something from the set,
12:00you know, I, I talked about how even set sometimes that I wasn't involved,
12:05that I didn't have a, you know, wasn't acting in,
12:08I'd go up to take a look at just because they did such a good job
12:11with the production design.
12:13It really, I think is cool looking.
12:16That comes part and parcel of my next question,
12:18which is about the creation of the TVA,
12:20because this is obviously such a massive idea that you're introducing to the MCU,
12:25but you also have matched it with this really just fascinating aesthetic
12:29that is both like futuristic and seventies.
12:31So what was the evolution of that look?
12:34And just kind of where did it start?
12:35What were the other ideas tossed around?
12:37And what was the conversation that led to the final decisions?
12:40Yeah. So when I pitched basically, I mean, where I grew up in Southeast London,
12:44there's a lot of brutalist kind of architecture.
12:46A lot of Clockwork Orange was filmed very near me.
12:49So it was children and men.
12:50And I love the idea of this organization, you know,
12:54having this kind of brutalist kind of architecture,
12:56but mixed with this kind of Midwest architecture.
12:59Because, you know, these guys are heroic and very classy.
13:01And, you know, they saved the universe.
13:04So I just felt like an interesting meld to me.
13:06And I think for me, like, honestly,
13:09it was interesting trying to create a place
13:11that existed outside of space and time.
13:13Because there's no sun, they're not on a planet,
13:15they're like in this unknowable place.
13:16And I think somewhere I definitely drew from was the comics,
13:19because they had those amazing images of like, you know,
13:21office desks stretching into infinity.
13:24And that's definitely something we've carried across
13:26with all the TVA's look and aesthetic.
13:29And then also just working out with the style and the lighting,
13:31like me and my DP were really inspired by, you know,
13:34film noir and detective stories.
13:36But actually somewhere where there is no sunlight,
13:38lent itself very nicely to, you know,
13:40hard shadows and that kind of moody look.
13:42So I think for me, like I was drawing from all kinds of places.
13:46I like the idea of the TVA having this kind of
13:49retro futuristic technology,
13:51because I've also worked in a lot of offices.
13:53And often the technology is not updated.
13:56And it is like in need of an update.
13:58And I thought for me that was really fun and exciting was,
14:01you know, like even the weaponry they have,
14:04like looks in some ways, it looks dated and basic,
14:07but then you actually see it in action.
14:08And it's like, oh no, these,
14:10they're very powerful and not to be reckoned with.
14:12Hi, how's it going Will?
14:15Where's my jet ski magazine?
14:16Put it down. Come on.
14:17Have you been on a jet ski since this performance?
14:20And has it raised your appreciation for their existence?
14:24I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of jet ski.
14:31So that was acting, that was just pure acting though.
14:33Yeah, it was just pure acting.
14:35I put them, you know,
14:38they kind of remind me of aquatic leaf blowers,
14:43which I'm not the biggest fan of either.
14:46Now I have been on a jet ski.
14:48When you're on it, it's, you know, it's great.
14:51It's, you know, pretty exciting.
14:53You feel like Poseidon.
14:54The problem is, is if you're standing on the shore
14:57being subjected to it, not the greatest.
15:00It's not Walden's pond.
15:02It'll be fun though.
15:03Yeah, it'll be really fun.