THE BEAUTY OF THE BEASTS
Movie's stars say Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire offers a roaring good time
Rebecca Hall knows when you're starring alongside legendary movie monsters Godzilla and King Kong there's only one way you can describe the experience: “It's a romp.”
“That's exactly what it is,” the 41-year-old British actress adds with a laugh in a Zoom interview from New York City. “I had tremendous fun on the first one, so I was just thrilled to get the phone call to come back.”
Hall joined Legendary's ongoing Monsterverse cinematic universe as Dr. Ilene Andrews in 2021's Godzilla vs. Kong. Launched in 2014 with Godzilla, the franchise includes 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and the recent Apple TV+ series, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
The latest addition to the Monsterverse is Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, which opens March 29.
“I was momentarily worried about my hair,” Hall says of the close-cropped hairdo she sports in the new film. “I remember saying to (director) Adam (Wingard), `You do know I have a pixie cut that's blond now.' But he was like, `Cool, we can work with that. She's got a job promotion, new haircut. It's great.' So I couldn't be happier.”
After nearly killing one another in the last entry, Godzilla and Kong are forced to team up to battle against a colossal evil buried deep beneath the Earth's surface that threatens all of humanity.
Wingard returns to direct the sequel, which also stars Brian Tyree Henry (back as conspiracy vlogger Bernie Hayes) and Kaylee Hottle (who returns as Kong ally Jia Andrews). Dan Stevens, who worked with Wingard on the 2014 thriller The Guest, joins the fun as Trapper, a Titan veterinarian in a Hawaiian shirt.
Stevens, the 41-year-old Brit who got his big break playing the tragic Matthew Crawley on Downton
Abbey, says he had been hoping to work with Wingard again after their first collaboration a decade ago. They made sure to keep in touch. Seeing the director graduating to big Hollywood blockbusters isn't something surprising.
“We've talked about a lot of different things we might do over the years,” Stevens says. “But watching him work his way up to these big blockbuster movies was really amazing. The thing I found setting foot on this set was that he's preserved that same spirit of indie, fan-boy filmmaking, just on a larger scale. He's having just as much fun on these big blockbusters as he did on something like The Guest. It was nice to see him carry that spirit forward.”
Between the Apple TV+ series and recent Oscar winner Godzilla Minus One (which is a standalone flick set outside the Monsterverse), the undisputed king of the movie monsters is having a bit of a moment. But neither Hall nor Stevens are surprised that Godzilla and Kong are still standing tall as two of Hollywood's oldest movie stars who continue to draw crowds back to the theatres.
“They are larger than life, literally,” Hall says of the 354-foot (108-metre) Godzilla and the 337foot (103-metre) Kong. “It's what's cinema is built for, to feel something that is fantastical and huge and bigger than us. I think there's something oddly humbling in that and a little bit cathartic as we watch them annihilate people again and again ... There are things that we can't control and there's a pleasure in watching that kind of thing happen. I also think there have been a lot of different metaphors that have been put on them; they represent a lot of different things whether it's nuclear holocaust or environmental issues. So there's enduring meaning for everybody according to whatever we're going through, good and bad.”
“Every generation has managed to find something fresh and new in the giant metaphors they represent,” Stevens adds. “But the technology has evolved. So we've been able to explore their stories, and they've gone beyond these roaring creatures that just climb the Empire State Building to creatures that are characters in movies that have storylines that are heartfelt and ones we can connect with now.”
Stevens has no doubt the pair will be entertaining audiences for decades to come. But upon hearing their ages — Godzilla is 70, while Kong is 91 — Stevens pitches a new role for the elder Hollywood statesmen.
“They should be running for president,” he jokes, taking a swipe at U.S. presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump. “They're looking good.”
Hall bursts into laughter. It's the first time she's contemplated just how long the pair have been around, roaring across movie screens.
“They should ... They're looking great,” she adds with a giant grin. “They could keep going forever.”