I remember Chris Pratt said to me, “Sometimes James is going to throw things at you and you’re going to be like, ‘What are you talking about? You’ve lost your mind.’ Just trust him.” I did that, and by the end I felt really confident in just doing whatever James said. Sometimes words like visionary get overused. But James is a visionary, there is no question. The way he’s able to visualize things and then bring them to life is second to none.
So how did he get you into his Warlock?
He said, “Really, your goal each day should be to fuck up.” That’s really scary, because I actively spend all my time trying to avoid fucking up as much as possible and I fail enough as it is when the memo is “don’t fuck up.” So when the memo is, like, “embrace the idea of fucking up,” that’s a wild one, but it was quite freeing by the end of it.
You spend a fair amount of time flying around—that’s got to be tough on the core?
I was talking to Sasha Calle recently about her work as Supergirl and she was having to hold those poses for long periods of time—we were saying what a massive core workout that was. I had to practice poses, which sounds horribly vain and superficial, but we wanted to give Warlock his own way of flying so he had a unique quality and didn’t feel like it was copycatting anyone.
One of the best scenes in the film is you interacting with Chukwudi Iwuji and Elizabeth Debicki, who play your mother Ayesha and the High Evolutionary.
Doing scenes with Chuk and Elizabeth was so fun. Chuk, with all his theatrical experience, has the most unbelievable presence and brought something so magnetic to the High Evolutionary. Elizabeth, for someone who I’ve seen be so brilliant dramatically, can throw down in the comedy space so well and be so funny and so silly. We had a real laugh about people commenting on our height our entire lives too.
At one point in the film, you inherit the Ravagers’ pet, and you become quite attached to it. Did it provide something of a home comfort for Warlock?
Blurp, my stuffed toy, was vocally played by none other than James Gunn, so he was there on the mic making little Blurp sounds and drawing my eyeline towards him and explaining what Blurp was doing at any given moment. Managing that CGI relationship was a challenge—sometimes holding nothing, sometimes holding a stuffed gray thing.
Without giving too much away, what did you make of Warlock as the story progresses?
Throughout the movie, I think he’s as angry as he is confused, and he’s on a path to self-discovery. I figure he’s always going to have this pretty intense, emotionally-driven rage to him and that’s going to be somewhere under the surface always.
As Gunn is moving over to DC, are you going to miss him?
Do I wish James was directing whatever the next installment of Adam Warlock is? Sure. If I had my pick I wouldn’t want anyone else—but I do genuinely trust that he’s done his best to set up the character in a way that feels like it best serves him.
Photography by Will Arcand
Styling by Angelo Mitakos
Grooming by Josh Knight at Caren using Sam McKnight for hair and Typology for skin
Tailoring by Faye Oakenfull
With thanks to Spring Studios
Mike Christensen
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