Alfred Molina Details His Return to the Role of Doc Ock in SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
Marvel has a track record of at least trying to keep the surprises in their films under wraps. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, and the details surrounding the upcoming threequel Spider-Man: No Way Home are no different.
The cast list for this movie is bonkers, with returning cast members Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, Zendaya, Tony Revolori, and Jacob Batalon. Benedict Cumberbatch is appearing in the film as Doctor Strange, J.K. Simmons, Jamie Foxx, and Alfred Molina are returning to their past Spider-Man franchise roles, as well as Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire in their versions of the webslinger, and their former film love interests, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson, and Emma Stone, who could “reprise her role as Gwen Stacy, pregnancy permitting.”
Not many of these cast members have spoken out about the roles, until now. Molina was interviewed by Variety about his role in the Oscar-nominated film Promising Young Woman, and he was asked about returning to the role of Doctor Octopus. He said:
“It was wonderful. It was very interesting going back after 17 years to play the same role, given that in the intervening years, I now have two chins, a wattle, crow’s feet and a slightly a slightly dodgy lower back.”
He said he questioned director Jon Watts about his character’s return, after having died in the 2004 film. Watts told him, “In this universe, no one really dies.” Molina also mentioned to Watts that he was worried about how much older he looks 17 years later. The director reminded him that de-aging is a standard procedure in films these days, citing many MCU titles, as well as the Martin Scorsese film The Irishman. Molina said:
“They made Robert De Niro’s face younger, but when he was fighting, he looked like an older guy. He looked like an old guy! That’s what that’s what worried me about doing it again.”
He continued:
“I don’t have the same physicality that I had 17 years ago. That’s just a fact. I then remembered that it’s the tentacles that do all the work! My basic physical move as Doc Ock, as the actor, is just this,” he said as he glared intensely at the Zoom camera and made a menacing noise. “I just do that a lot, and the arms are doing all the killing and smashing and breaking. I’m just going —” he glared again — “with a kind of mean look on my face.”
“It was fantastic.”
It sounds like Molina was able to have a lot of fun on set, and we can’t wait to see the end result! Spider-Man: No Way Home is currently set to be released on December 17th, 2021.