GREEN LANTERN directed by Martin Campbell, written by Greg Berlanti, Michael Green, Marc Guggenheim and Michael Goldenberg, with Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard and Mark Strong. A Warner Bros. release. 114 minutes. Opens Friday (June 17). See listing Rating: NN
Mark Strong plays a lot of villains.
The English actor started out playing fairly decent fellows, including the role of Mr. Knightley opposite Kate Beckinsale in a BBC production of Emma. But he’s spent the last few years as Hollywood’s go-to heavy, matching wits with Robert Downey Jr. in Sherlock Holmes and crossing swords with Russell Crowe in Robin Hood.
“When I was at drama school, I remember the guy there saying, ‘If you want 40 years in this business, what’s the hurry?'” he says, relaxing in a hotel suite during a Toronto press stop for Green Lantern. “I feel like I’m not in any hurry. I’ve been doing it for 23 years so far, and I’ve had a wavering trajectory of different types of characters. I just happen to be going through my heavy incarnation.”
Green Lantern casts Strong as alien peace officer Sinestro. Followers of the comic know the character well, but his significance is downplayed considerably in Martin Campbell’s film. Sinestro doesn’t do much at all here, making a couple of speeches and sparring with Ryan Reynolds’s Hal Jordan as part of his space-hero training.
“Martin, I remember, described it as pipe-laying,” Strong says. “You have to tick certain boxes in order to establish the mythology.”
That’s okay with Strong, though. The English actor – who looks much less like a sleeker Andy Garcia in person than he does on screen – knows Sinestro has a bigger role to play down the road.
“It’s a very delicate balance,” he explains. “I mean, everybody who knows the comics knows where Sinestro heads in the mythology, so I had to imbue him with characteristics that would make that believable should we come to make the subsequent film.”
There was also the challenge of playing a red-skinned, pointy-eared space alien – though Strong says it wasn’t as big a deal as you might think.
“It’s no different wearing a pound of makeup and a red face and a skintight suit than it is wearing wing collars and a Regency cravat,” he says. “It’s not you, but you have to make that believable. You have to make that your everyday. I’ve never flown in my life, but Sinestro does it every day. It’s not exotic to him, the way he looks or behaves. That’s just him.”
Of course, before he could make Sinestro believable, he had to become him, which required hours in a makeup chair every day of the shoot.
“Ten hours, I think, was the first attempt,” he says. “We got it down to about four, and I think once we even did it in about three when we were in a hurry. It’s a real process to go through – and I don’t mind that, because it allows me to get into him. You literally see the layers being put on, so by the time you’re finished, you’re there.”
Interview Clips
Mark Strong on not being worried about being typecast as a bad guy:
Strong on shooting in New Orleans — and missing the party:
Strong on the North American reaction to Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood movie last year:
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