Brett Goldstein has revealed how little time he had to transform into Hercules for his post-credits cameo in Marvel Studios. Thor: Love and Thunder.
Thor: Love and Thunder introduced a whole host of new gods to the MCU and chief among them was Russell Crowe’s Zeus. The King of Olympus turned out to be far less noble than Chris Hemsworth’s Thor had hoped, with the two briefly at odds.
The film’s post-credits scene saw an injured Zeus calling on his son, Hercules, to kill Thor. The scene shown Ted Lasso star Brett Goldstein as Hercules, a role he had very little time to prepare for.
In a recent interview, Brett Goldstein revealed that Marvel only contacted him to offer him the role of Hercules two weeks before the scene was filmed.
Given that Hercules appears during a brief, dialogue-free shot after the credits, it’s no surprise that Goldstein was cast late in the day. However, this quick turnaround didn’t give the actor time to embark on a typical MCU training regimen to get into Olympian shape.
Talk to The Playlist about her appearance in Thor: Love and ThunderBrett Goldstein revealed:
“I didn’t know what it was for. I was told that some people from Marvel would like to have a zoom with you, and I met them, and it was so surreal because… it was literally out of the blue one night, and I was very busy, and it was like, ‘Can you make time for a Zoom?’ ‘Yes of course.’ And they go on Zoom, and they just told me what you see in the movie, which kind of opens with, “So Russell Crowe is Zeus,” and I’m like, “Yeah, okay, keep going.” And blah, blah, blah. And then they turn around and reveal, “It’s Hercules; it’s you.’ And I went, ‘What?’ Just like, ‘Are you serious? Are you fucking with me? Is it a liquidation?’ So yeah, that was as surprising to me as I think it has been to other people.
The actor then revealed that director Taika Waititi then told him that he only had two weeks to prepare for the role of Hercules:
“Yeah, when I talked to Taika, I said, ‘You know I’m basically like a skinny comedian?’ I said, ‘When is this shooting?’ It was like two weeks from now, and I was like, ‘I mean, I’ll do my best, but two weeks is…’ I said, ‘He doesn’t need to be as tall as Thor, isn’t it?’ And look, that day, I mean, I do 400 push-ups that day. I was ready to explode. I tried my best that day, yeah.
The actor has apparently pledged to give his all to the role of Hercules in all future MCU appearances, joking “I’m going to eat 30 chickens a day from now on.” It’s not yet known when or if Brett Goldstein will return as Hercules, but it seems likely the son of Zeus could return for a showdown with Thor.
Here is the synopsis of Thor: Love and Thunder:
The film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on an unprecedented journey – a quest for inner peace. But his retreat is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magic hammer, Mjolnir, as Mighty. Thor. Together they embark on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s revenge and stop him before it’s too late.
Directed by Taika Waititi and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum, the solo Thor film stars Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan , Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper.
Thor: Love and Thunder now playing in theaters. Stay tuned for all the latest news on the future of the MCU and subscribe to the Heroic Hollywood YouTube channel for more original video content.
Source: The Reading List
