The much-anticipated instalment in the Monsterverse Franchise, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, is all set to hit UAE cinemas today. The new adventure pits the almighty Kong and the fearsome Godzilla against a colossal undiscovered threat while uncovering the mythic battle that helped forge these extraordinary beings and tied them to humankind forever.
Dan Stevens, who plays Trapper, dentist to the mon-stars, lets us into what it was like to inhabit the Monsterverse. Getting into Kong’s mouth, for instance, meant a 65-foot drop. “It felt a long way when they hoist you up there… but also, a very cool character introduction; a great way to introduce that character to this world. I love doing stuff like that, so it was equal measures thrilling and terrifying,” says Stevens. Excerpts from an interview:
This is your first time working in the legendary Monsterverse. Did you ever think, growing up, becoming a young actor, that you would be in a big monster movie?
Definitely not! It is really a bit of a dream to share a screen with cultural icons like Kong and Godzilla. Then you have screen legends like Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry as well, that’s extra special.
Without giving away too much, what is the story?
Obviously, the big draw and the main event is Godzilla and Kong. I think with this one, we really get to deepen our exploration of Kong’s story and his backstory. The technology that’s available now affords quite a rich texture to that storyline that we might not have gotten years before. There’s a rich and very heartfelt story between Rebecca Hall’s character, Ilene Andrews, and her adopted daughter, Jia, played by Kaylee Hottle. There’s that, but then there’s also a huge amount of fun, and action-adventure that goes alongside it… and that’s really where Trapper, my character, comes in, and has a lot of fun interacting with Bernie, who’s Brian Tyree Henry’s character. There’s some action beats, there’s some heartfelt beats, there’s some humour.
How are Kong and Godzilla, as far as your scene partners go?
Yeah, it’s pretty amazing. All of these movies really require a big imagination, and it doesn’t get much bigger than imagining those guys wreaking havoc alongside you. My character has to interact with Kong quite a bit, and it’s pretty interesting. It’s one of the biggest co-stars I’ve ever had to work with, for sure.
How was it working in some of these remote locations?
It was very exciting. I love getting out in the wild, and seeing new parts of the world. For someone like Brian Tyree Henry, less exciting, a bit more terrifying, and that in itself, for me, was quite fun, to just enjoy him not enjoying being near spiders and snakes, and all sorts. I think it’s the first time I’ve been on a set that had a snake wrangler just standing by, in case a python decided to climb on the crane, which did happen. It was just an amazing day, where they’re like, “Okay, we’ve just got to pause for five minutes while we move this giant snake that’s decided to visit our set.” It was pretty fun.
You also had some really incredible stunts to achieve. We see you dropping into Kong’s mouth …
It was a very long drop. We were up on the roof of this massive studio, dropping down—I think it was about 65 feet, the drop. It felt a long way when they hoist you up there… but also, a very cool character introduction; a great way to introduce that character to this world. I love doing stuff like that, so it was equal measures thrilling and terrifying.
I understand you and Rebecca Hall have been friends for quite a while. Was it fun working together?
Yeah, it’s always great fun working with Rebecca. We’ve known each other since our college days, over 20 years ago. We started our careers together working in theatre. We did another movie called Permission a few years back, and there’ve been various things over the years that we’ve talked about working on. It was great to get to work with her again.
You also go back a bit your director, Adam Wingard, master of the MonsterVerse …
We do, yeah. And Simon Barrett, one of our writers who wrote The Guest with Adam; we had Tom Hammock, our production designer, who also worked on The Guest. There was a little team of people who’ve worked their way up to this scale of movie, which is really lovely, and it’s really special again to get to work with friends, but also to see how they have preserved the spirit of independent filmmaking, just on a larger scale—really we’ve just been given bigger toys to play with.
What do you think or hope audiences are in for when they finally get to see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire?
I think the same as you would hope for all of these films. It’s just a wild ride. I want people to go see this in as big a format as they can, with the biggest, best sound system. That’s certainly how I enjoy consuming a film like this. I talked to a lot of people when I was making this, and they said, “We just love the monster battles.” I’m under no illusion that people come to see these films for the two main guys, really. The human element is really a fun side show, and I hope they’re entertained by that as well.
Don't miss it!
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is out in UAE cinemas.
