Interviewing Actor Zachary Levi #ThorDarkWorldEvent

I was provided an all expense paid trip by Disney to Los Angeles.  All opinions are my own.

While in LA last week I had the chance to interview Zachary Levi, who placed the Asgard Warrior Fandral in Thor: The Dark World.  Fandral is one of the fighters from the group know as Warriors Three, who defend Asgard and help Thor along the way. Levi was lots of fun to interview, and he was genuine, open and very funny.

This role was a little bit of a challenge for Levi, because Joshua Dallas played the role in the first Thor movie. Dallas had to back out of the second movie due to scheduling conflicts, so Levi stepped in to take over an already existing character, which made him a little nervous.  But he found that once he got to the set he was made to feel welcome, and he enjoys being part of the Marvel Universe.

Being apart of the Marvel Universe is nothing to be nervous about. I think it’s, you should just celebrate that. Like you get to be apart of this incredible comic book lineage and family and universe that they’ve built, which is incredible.

Since Fandral is a warrior there are quite a few battle scenes in the movie, so Levi started preparing and training hard with a strict workout routine. He wanted to be ripped!  Then he got to London and discovered that his costume covered him from head to toe and there was no need.  Naturally he immediately ditched his training routine for something more enjoyable,

Once I learned my fight choreography I realized that I was more than capable of doing that in my physical state. So then my training just became drinking beers and eating chips.

He says the stunt coordinators were very good, and always felt safe, although he did dislocate a rib at one point.  Still he says his worst on set injury came when he unglamorously slammed his finger in a trailer door, not during any fight scenes!

One of the roles Levi is best known for is the title role in the TV series Chuck.  He says he really enjoyed the chance to play a definitively badass character in this movie after the more geeky Chuck. He describes Chuck’s fighting style as, “the nerdy version of Kung Fu”, unlike Fandral who is a skilled and trained fighter.

Another challenge of this movie is that Levi is not overly recognizable in the part, because Fandral is blonde.  Levi says he actually likes that,

I’ve had some people tweet and I’ve seen some tweets like, I didn’t know it was you until the credits. And I was like, that was the guy who played Chuck. And to me, that’s the greatest thing I could ever hear. I think any actor hopes that your performance and your look and whatever you do is so kind of transcendent that people don’t know that it’s you, they’re just lost in whatever the character is until the end.

Levi was a big comic fan growing up, although he was more into X-Men and mutant comics.  He said he would go through comic phases, with Spider-Man and Captain America also being favorites. The mutant characters appealed to him the most,

Because you felt like as a kid, you thought, well maybe I have that in me it just hasn’t manifested yet. You know what I mean? I can get to a place and eventually I’ll realize, I am super human and this’ll be great.

Levi’s interview was very engaging and frank, and he is a great storyteller.  A few years ago he sang the Tangled theme song live on the Oscar broadcast, and he told us all about how nervous he was about singing on TV live in front of billions. He really made us feel his nerves, and how much worse it was because he knew the talented Halle Berry would be sitting right in the front row! He came across as a nice, funny guy who loves what he does, and is grateful for the success he has. You can connect with Levi on twitter or Facebook.

Have you seen Thor: The Dark World yet? Are you planning to see it this weekend?