In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the Guardians help Peter Quill mourn Gamora while adjusting to their new lives on Knowhere. A threat from Rocket’s past emerges, threatening his life and that of countless others. Peter and the other Guardians work together to protect Rocekt and fight one of the greatest evils they have ever faced. The Guardians will risk their own lives to save Rocket, but if they fail, it could be the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
James Gunn completes his Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy as writer and director once again, a feat no other creator in the MCU has accomplished. Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Sean Gunn, and Maria Bakalova reprise their roles in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Will Polter Joining the cast are Chukwudi Iwuji as the High Evolutionary and Will Polter as Adam Warlock.
Screen Rant spoke with Miriam Shor and Nico Santos about playing the High Evolutionary’s Recorders in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Shor revealed the backstory she created for the character and the incredible practical effects, while Santos discussed the makeup and prosthetics process and how welcoming the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 set was.
Miriam Shor & Nico Santos on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Screen Rant: Congratulations on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3! It is phenomenal. What an amazing bookend to the great Marvel trilogy Guardians of the Galaxy by James Gunn. Did you create backstories for your characters and their connection to the High Evolutionary, or did James Gunn talk to you about their backstories at all?
Miriam Shor: I like to create backs stories. It helps me as an actor. It’s also fun. I’m a dorky sci-fi nerd, so I’ve already created so many back stories for every character, every sci-fi movie that I’ve ever seen, because we write dissertations. It’s what we do. James talked a little bit about zealots, believers, people who believe in this cause that the High Evolutionary, and he as the creator.
And I really viewed Recorder Vim as a zealot, but also as someone who believed she could be an observer and wasn’t going to get emotionally involved, someone who’s almost a scientist or was a scientist about it so that she could divorce herself from culpability, maybe? I think that’s what people who are zealots in that way do. Well, it’s a higher cause. Was kind of the work that I did.
Nico Santos: Adding to that layer with Theel, I think Theel was more also about his proximity to power. He’s a survivalist. He doesn’t want to end up being killed by the High Evolutionary. So whatever he needs to do, whatever bidding he needs to do for the High Evolutionary, as long as he survives, he will do it. Like I said, his proximity to power to the High Evolutionary, that’s why I think he’s so evil and so comfortable being evil. Nobody’s going to mess with Theel when you got this guy protecting you. It’s going to be evil all the way.
James Gunn is a phenomenal director. He’s really seen Guardians to its completion all the way to Vol. 3. Nico, can you talk to me a little bit about James Gunn’s directing style? What did it add to Vol. 3 and what the tone was on set, being that it was the last one?
Nico Santos: The tone. It’s always a crapshoot when you walk into movies like this, when it’s an established franchise, a legendary director like James with a cast full of movie stars, you just don’t know what you’re going to get and how welcoming the set was going to be. From day one, one of the most welcoming sets I’ve ever been to. It was very collaborative. We were never made to feel stupid if we had a question to ask, if we needed something to help our performance or something for the scene, as long as it was for the end goal of playing this amazing movie. You were just allowed to play and whatever you needed was the imagery. That is not the case, usually. It was very, very wonderful to be in an environment like that.
Miriam Shor: It’s not a given that that kind of generosity and openness is going to be there, but it really was. You can tell he’s a fan. He’s really the lover of the genre and that this speaks to this kind of storytelling.
Miriam, I think Chuk is brilliant as the High Evolutionary. This is one villain that is just the worst of the worst, and I think that out of all the Marvel cinematic villains, this might be my favorite. Can you talk to me about working with Chuk as the High Evolutionary? Was he intimidating when he put on the makeup and you saw him on set?
Miriam Shor: First of all, what you should know about Chuk is that he’s a delight of a human. He’s just kind. He’s dreamy and he’s a brilliant actor. He comes from the stage. He can do anything. He really can. So getting to work with an actor, that is just the fun. That’s what you want to do. I come from the stage too, so he wasn’t afraid to let the stakes be as high as possible. You can be funny, which we all are in the James Gun universe, but you’re not making fun of it. The stakes are real. The story matters, and it’s so fun to play in that way.
That was what it was like to work with him because he elevated every scene he was in, and he wasn’t afraid to give it every ounce of his emotional truth. So then it makes you do that, and then it just makes it such a joy. It’s so thrilling. It’s really, really fun. You just feel like you’re on a ride and it’s why you do it. So it was so fun for me. There were times when James was like, make it Shakespearean and Chuk and I were like, “Oh yeah.”
Nico Santos: You got it. You can prepare for the character as much you can. But something happens when you get on set, you see what your scene partners are giving you, and you’re then able to recalibrate him. Then that last piece of the puzzle makes sense of how you are supposed to portray your character. That’s what it was. Working with Chuk and Miriam. I just read it on the page and I got a sense of it, but it wasn’t until we were on set, you saw their performances, and you were just like, “Oh, I got to up my game because I am working with these two people who are just amazing.”
Miriam Shor: Your game was already up here, your game was high.
Both of you guys are phenomenal in this film. Nico, can you talk a little bit about the practical makeup that you would put on to help you get into your character a little bit more?
Nico Santos: We were just talking about this. There was something about doing all the prosthetics that once, it was like this morning ritual. The first thing you do is get to the hair trailer and they do your haircut. And then you prepare yourself to sit down on a chair for two and a half hours to piece by piece lay this character on you. This is my first time playing this type of character.
So for me, I already got a big sense of who the character was going into set, but there was something about playing this character where you slowly layer on the actual physical attributes of what this character looked like. Then by the end of that makeup session and you’re fully done up, you’re just like, “Ah, there he is, there’s that evil bastard.”
Miriam Shor: Then you walk onto those sets. You cannot believe what it feels like to walk onto those sets. You’re like, “Oh, so just made a spaceship. Then we’re flying in it. That’s what’s happening.”
Nico Santos: Yeah, it was like doing Broadway. I was like, what is this, Broadway?
Miriam Shor: Honestly, beyond that, it was like you were there. The level of artistry is shocking. I love all the practical things. There’s a scene, I don’t know if we can do this. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is a scene, a pivotal scene for my character, and there is a creature in it who was flying the [ship]. We could not stop laughing at the amazingness of that creature. I was like, “Stop the presses. What is happening? What is this? What?” There were so many times when James would give that creature direction where we could not continue the scene because it was just too gleeful.
Nico Santos: This is also my first time working in this genre. So, you hear all these stories of you’re just working with a blue screen. You’re acting with sticks and stuff like that, but with this one people were in costume and makeup and there was so [many] things that [were] tangible. That you could hold, feel, touch, and talk to that really added to our performances because it was just easy to play off of.
What did you learn from your time on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 that you want to take with you to maybe your future or next projects?
Miriam Shor: I think you have to trust your imagination. You’re being tasked, and I’m not going to let the Marvel fans down, dammit. Right? If there’s ever a fan base I’m not going to mess with, [that] I’m part of it. I think I learned to trust myself. And I think that’s every job in some ways that you learn a little bit more to trust yourself, but this one was like, no, no, no. Trust that you can take the stakes to the highest they can go. Believe in the emotional truth of the story and remember to trust that because it’s a lot going on. As Marvel can get in some of those moments. Nick and I talk about having an out-of-body experience and trying to stay in it because you’re also a fan, like, “Oh my God, look what’s happening. This is incredible.”
Nico Santos:
That’s true. Yeah.
About Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
In the final chapter of the trilogy, the Guardians of the Galaxy are adjusting to life on Knowhere while Peter Quill is still reeling from the loss of Gamora. When a new threat from Rocket’s past resurfaces, Peter rallies the Guardians to save one of their own and once again protect the universe. However, failure could mean the end of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
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This story originally appeared on Screenrant
