Thor: The Dark World actor Christopher Eccleston criticizes Marvel Studios for not informing him of the grueling demands of his role as Malekith the Accursed before he signed-on. The actor was particularly irked about the long makeup process that needed to be done in order to get into his character as the movie's big bad.
It feels like it has been a lifetime since The Dark World came out, especially with the release of Thor: Ragnarok, which, being the bright, funny and quippy film that it is, is almost an exact opposite of its predecessor. But there is a reason why they needed to change the tone since there were elements of Thor 2 that didn't work well. Unfortunately, Malekith was one of them and it turns out, even Eccleston has a gripe about the character - although quite a different one from audiences.
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Appearing on BBC 2's The Graham Norton Show (h/t Digital Spy), the Doctor Who alum admitted that Malekith was "not my greatest moment, it has to be said," and that he only took the role for the huge payout. He, however, quickly regretted his decision after realizing that he was in for more work than what was originally presented to him by Marvel. He shared about the makeup proccess:
"The first couple of days it was about seven hours, eight hours. I think we got it down to six and a half. It's a day's work before [anything]. Marvel were dishonest to me. Because they never, ever let me know that there'd be that amount of makeup. So yeah, that was not my finest moment."
Eccleston's comments may cause many to wonder how Marvel actually pitched the role without him realizing he was up for massive makeup and prosthetics. Even with a few differences from the character's look in the comics, it's pretty much straightforward that whoever took the role would have had to spend a lot of time in the makeup chair. Unless, of course, the film studio said (or he assumed) that the look was going to be added with CGI and his performance was going to be motion-captured, similar to Mark Ruffalo's Hulk.
Eccleston's frustrations could have been also intensified by the fact that Malekith is often named one of the worse, if not the worst, villains that the MCU has had thus far. And that's saying a lot because as much as the franchise comes up with one blockbuster hit after another, arguably the weakest point of all their projects are the underdeveloped villains - with a few exceptions, such as Thor's own Loki and Spider-Man: Homecoming's Adrian Toomes aka the Vulture. Of course, it's also possible that Eccleston would be more forgiving of the amount of time he spent in the makeup chair to become Malekith if the villain was positively received by fans, making all the effort worth it, but that's not the case.
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Source: The Graham Norton Show (via Digital Spy)