Stellan Skarsgård Talks Thor's Post-Credits Scene and His Role in The Avengers
Posted 09.02.11 by Ryan
In May, actor Stellan Skarsgård explained that the end-of-credits scene in Thor was directed by Joss Whedon and not Thor director Kenneth Branagh. The scene — which involved Skarsgård's character Erik Selvig, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), and, ultimately, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) — was Skarsgård's first introduction to The Avengers, and the Swedish actor told IAmRogue, it almost made him quit.
It was shot by Joss about half a year or more after we finished shooting Thor. So that was the first time I had worked with Joss and I think the fourth time that I worked with Sam (Jackson). When we shot the tag from Thor to Avengers, we shot it with a 3D camera that was a horrible contraption with two cameras and the mirror and stuff. It was extremely clumsy. I was considering not wanting to do the film if we were going to shoot it with machinery like that. But they decided to shoot The Avengers now on the small electric cameras and then digitally make the 3D afterwards, which is much more comfortable. I prefer to work with light and fast equipment because, as an actor, if you have to wait twenty minutes every time they change a lens the energy sort of fades out of the performance.
Skarsgård is reprising his role in The Avengers and revealed he was surprised with the way his character has evolved from Thor to The Avengers, especially since the post-credits scene from Thor was not in the original screenplay.
No it was not [in the screenplay] because I don’t think they had the final story for The Avengers ready at that time. So that developed last fall when they contacted me and asked me if I wanted to be in The Avengers. Then they started sending me pages and stuff.
In The Avengers, Skarsgård says his character is "of importance but the size of the role is not big" in a movie that he feels is "pretty crowded" with actors. However, Skarsgård admitted that more details about how his character changed for the post-credits scene in Thor will be explained.
Well with the scene we did in Thor, it was like Loki, one way or the other, entered Eric’s mind. And in Avengers, you will see more clarity in how Loki is using Eric’s mind.
Skarsgård is just about to wrap his last scene in the movie, but may not be finished with Marvel since "when you sign up for these films, because of the way Marvel works, you are prepared to do five films for them and you negotiate for all those films," he explained. "So I’m on their payroll so to say." And Skarsgård isn't unhappy about it, either.
It’s incredibly impressive [what Marvel Studios is doing]. I mean those stories are modern American mythology and there are tons of fans out there to who these characters are very vivid and living. But if they would have done those films fifteen or twenty years ago they would have concentrated on just the special effects, but now they are hiring the best writers, the best directors, and the best actors which means specific quality products that are entertaining to people who are not even familiar with those super heroes.
Next Showing: The Avengers opens May 4, 2012