Sir Anthony Hopkins has slammed his own appearance in the Thor franchise.
The veteran actor, who played King Odin of Asgard in the Marvel movies, has called his experience on the CGI-heavy superhero films “pointless acting,” because he spent most of his time filming in front of a green screen.
“They put me in armour; they shoved a beard on me,” Hopkins said in a new interview with The New Yorker, while discussing the impact the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has had on Hollywood.
“Sit on the throne, shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.”
The 85-year-old Oscar winner starred in the original Thor film in 2011, as well as its sequels Thor: Dark World in 2013 and Thor: Ragnarok in 2017.
Fellow Hollywood star Christian Bale appeared to feel the same way when starring in last year’s Thor: Love and Thunder, calling the green-screen experience far from stimulating.
“I mean, the definition of it is monotony,” 49-year-old Bale – who played Gorr in the film – told GQ last December.
“You’ve got other actors who are far more experienced at it than me. Can you differentiate one day from the next? No. Absolutely not.”
Bale said he couldn’t even “differentiate one stage from the next” and he refrained from applying his signature method acting techniques as it would’ve been a “pitiful attempt”.
Meanwhile, fellow Marvel star Elizabeth Olsen has also cautioned her peers about joining the MCU on multiple-movie deals.
Speaking of her experience on the Happy Sad Confused podcast last month, the 34-year-old WandaVision star urged actors to take it one movie at a time.
“I’ve had some people ask about it,” said Olsen, who has played Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch, in the series for eight years now. “Just give them one.”
“I think that way you have more control over … If you, let’s say, ‘Oh my God, this is the most fun I’ve ever had and I love this character so much, I want to do it again,’ you now have more creative control for the next one.”