Q&A with ‘Kong: Skull Island’ star John C. Reilly
‘It upends expectations as it goes along.’
The veteran actor describes his newest movie as “just me and a bunch of great actors running around the jungle.”
In the movie “Kong: Skull Island,” which opened this past weekend, John C. Reilly steals the human part of the show in the role of Hank Marlow.
He’s a World War II pilot who, in the film’s prologue, crash-lands on an uncharted South Pacific island. He finds plenty of company there. The film mostly takes place in 1973, as the war in Vietnam hobbles to a close. Various civilian and military adventurers played by Brie Larson, Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson, some in the dark, others hip to the reasons they’re going, mount an expedition to the fog-enshrouded wonder of Skull Island. There, Kong is king, and life for the last of his species is a series of battles to the death.
I spoke to Reilly while the Chicago native was in London shooting a Laurel and Hardy biopic opposite Steve Coogan. Reilly recently wrapped a Sherlock Holmes movie there as well, with his frequent on-screen partner, Will Ferrell.
Some excerpts from our conversation:
Reilly: I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the movie (“Kong: Skull Island”). I got to watch it like any other audience member. I hadn’t seen any of the creature effects or anything like that.
Tell me what you’ve learned over the years, with green-screen and other visual effects, about acting in front of something that is not there.
My character doesn’t do too much one-on-one interaction with the stuff, the monsters, in the movie. We’re running from stuff. Trying to escape from things, you know. Fighting stuff off. But people make a big deal out of how it’s hard to do that without anything there. The truth is, it takes you straight back to your childhood. You’re out there playing make-believe with your friends, and there’s nothing “there” there, either. When you’re a kid, you’re just trying to make it all seem real and fun. It’s pretty dazzling, the creatures effects, in this movie. So many films these days move the technology bar just a little bit. And here, the emotion they got into King Kong was really impressive.
I sensed the movie was going right from the moment Kong’s paw — boooooom — hits the top of the cliff. A very shrewd character introduction.
You see Kong early and often in this one. The movie’s a little bit subversive that way; it upends expectations as it goes along.
Talk to me about your facial hair.
That’s pretty much me! There were a couple of scenes where they added to it, to make it really long, but for the most part it’s me.
Do you find a lot of big action movies …
Boring? (laughs). Yeah, I find a lot of big action movies these days a little bit boring, some of the superhero movies, anyway, because of the lack of humor. They’re so deadly serious, it gets dull after a while. I really love how our director, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, allowed us all to react to these absurd situations in an honest way.
Favorite monster movie as a kid?
The first monster movie I remember seeing was “Jaws,” although that was a smaller monster. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite, ’cause it kept me out of swimming pools for about 10 years. I did see the Jessica Lange/ Jeff Bridges “King Kong” in the theaters when it came out. That was a super big event movie when I was a kid. I remember that giant hand opening.
In the new “Kong” I’d say the balance between funny and serious is just about right. As is the degree of violence. So many moviemakers, whatever kind of fantasy they’re making, settle for simply amping up the violence, making it more realistic and explicit.
Yeah. I’m no glutton for punishment in that way myself, either. There’s violence in the movie, but it has an impact emotionally. I’m really glad when any movie I do succeeds. And this one felt like, well … from the outside, Kong looks like this massive, fantastical thing. But when we were making it, it was just me and bunch of great actors running around the jungle. And when you have talented people guiding the project after the fact, sometimes you get lucky. I’ve been lucky. And for better or worse, my career’s been nothing but variety.