Jonathan Majors Improvised in LOKI, Says "I'm a Classically Trained Clown" and It was Fun for Him to Exercise That

Jonathan Majors was originally cast to play Kang The Conquerer in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, but he ended up making his big debut as “He Who Remains,” a variant of Kang in the first season of Loki.

Majors ended up giving us a very different and unexpected version of Kang. He was played as a goofy and eccentric character. Majors had to make an impression on the fans; after all, he is going to be playing the next big bad Marvel villain. When talking about casting Majors in the role to make this happen, Kate Herron said:

"[The character's appeal is] in the writing, in the sense that we want to know who is behind the Citadel and who could be there. I think the exciting thing was he tells this story about his past and who he is. For me beyond that, then, it's, which actor are we going to bring in? Because it's got to be an actor with presence that immediately grabs you, because not every actor can do that, and Jonathan is one of the best actors out there. The fact that we got him to do this, I was just so happy because I was like, 'We're gonna be in really safe hands now.' He just commands attention. That for me was the real key thing for me, just getting the casting right. I was so excited that I got to be part of the conversation about the casting of his character with the studio and Peyton [Reed, Ant & The Wasp: Quantumania's director]. It was a massive honor and very exciting, and he's just an actor that we all loved."

Herron also explained that Majors also provided the voice of the animatronic Time Keepers in the series, which I wasn’t previously aware of.

"Something that was really fun for me was we hadn't, for example, cast the voice of the Time Keepers yet, because you know Wizard of Oz was an obvious reference of ours. I was like, 'Oh, let's get Jonathan to do it, because he's an amazing character actor.’ We sent him the art of all the characters and it was really fun [because] he was sending us all of these different voices he could do for each character, which was great."

Majors shot his scene over the course of a week, and it turns out that the creative team behind the series allowed him to do some improvisation to bring the character to life. While playing this character, the actor explains that he drew his energy from his clown training at the Yale School of Drama. He explained:

"There's more smiling in that one performance than there has been in my other performances combined. It's just what it calls for. I'm a classically trained clown. That's part of my training. I've been at it for a long time, and to be able to exercise that was a lot of fun."

The way he played Kang now makes a bit more sense to me. I can definitely see the clown-like aspects that he brought to the character. As for the improvisation of the character, Herron reveals that when he rattles off what his variants said to each other when they met for the first time, "'I love your shoes.' 'I love your hair.' 'Oh, man, nice nose.' 'Thanks, man.'" That wasn't scripted, and neither was the moment when he jumped up on the desk:

"He was never meant to get on the desk. That was the fun thing with the improvisation. [The camera team] saw him start to move, and Autumn [Durald, the cinematographer] was like, 'Okay…" and then you saw the cameras start to move; it was almost like a dance with him. But that was not planned. It just blew us away because it was just so cool. That was the fun thing with him: I love the way he brought movement to the character in different ways, because I think that was really important as well. Where are we going to go for that big energy moment? Where are we going to draw people in? I love the bit when he sinks into the chair and he's like, 'I'm old and I'm tired,' and you feel his frailness in a way, you feel his aging, [even though] he's obviously a young man."

For a character who is so old and tired, he sure did have a ton of energy! Majors added:

"The things that come out that aren't scripted only come out because the script is the way it is, and the world is what it is. A lot of it was through collaboration with Tom, Sophia, Kate, and Kevin Wright, the producer. They really let me run. And that's the best thing you can hope for."

I’m more excited for the future of Kang and how Majors will portray these other more sinister, evil, and terrifying versions of the character. It’s good that they cast an actor with a lot of range because it seems like he’s going to need it when he plays these other versions of the villain in future Marvel projects.

Source: Entertainment Weekly