Anthony Hopkins doesn’t feel the need to go Method in Marvel films.
The “Silence of the Lambs” Oscar winner told The New Yorker that appearing in Marvel films “Thor,” “Thor: The Dark World,” and “Thor: Ragnarok” had a “pointless” approach to acting due to the green screen CGI-heavy superhero films.
“They put me in armor; they shoved a beard on me,” Hopkins recalled. “Sit on the throne, shout a bit. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s pointless acting it.”
“Thor: Love and Thunder” actor (and fellow Academy Award winner) Christian Bale previously said it would be a “pitiful attempt” to apply classical acting techniques to play an MCU villain.
“That would’ve been a pitiful attempt to do that, as I’m trying to get help getting the fangs in and out and explaining I’ve broken a nail, or I’m tripping over the tunic,” Bale said during a fall 2022 GQ story.
Bale continued of working with green screens, “That’s the first time I’ve done that. I mean, the definition of it is monotony. You’ve got good people. 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. You have no idea what to do. I couldn’t even differentiate one stage from the next. They kept saying, ‘You’re on Stage Three.’ Well, it’s like, ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. But you’re on Stage Seven.’ ‘Which one is that?’ ‘The blue one.’ I was like, ‘Uh, where?’”
In contrast, Oscar winner Jared Leto stayed in character as Morbius even during bathroom breaks on set. Director Daniel Espinosa said in April 2022 that “it’s people’s processes. All of the actors believe in processes. And you, as director, you support whatever makes it as good as you can be.”
Espinosa continued of Leto staying in character despite the role’s physical ailments, “What Jared thinks, what Jared believes, is that somehow the pain of those movements, even when he was playing normal Michael Morbius, he needed, because he’s been having this pain his whole life.”
