With Thor: Love and Thunder opening in theaters on July 8th, I recently spoke with Tessa Thompson about playing King Valkyrie in the MCU sequel. During the interview, Thompson talked about working with director Taika Waititi, what it’s like being on set in the middle of the chaos, why the Volume technology is such an innovation, why she loved the New Asgard set, and more.
Check out what Thompson had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. You can also watch what Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi told me about Thor: Love and Thunder's four-hour cut here.
“Thor: Love and Thunder finds Thor (Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Thompson), Korg (Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.”
The film also features Peter Quill aka Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Nebula (Karen Gillan), Mantis (Pom Klementieff), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), and Zeus (Russell Crowe).
COLLIDER: Taika is what we call talented, but the one thing I'm going to say is I keep hearing from people that there were a ton of deleted scenes. So, I am curious if you could put something back in the movie that you shot, that wasn't in it, what would you put?
TESSA THOMPSON: Well, this isn't even me saying it, but there...what can I say...
I can hold it till after release, if you would like.
THOMPSON: I can't say, Steve, but there's a lot in the movie that I would put back in, but nothing salacious, nothing crazy. I think what actually exists in the movie is fantastic, and maybe things will be released in in the future in other ways.
Yes. I'm very much hoping for that.
THOMPSON: Yeah.
One of the things that I love about this is it's clearly Taika's imagination running wild on screen. I love this. What is it actually like to work with him and see the way he works on set and the energy that he brings to something like this?
THOMPSON: I think there's a fair amount of organized chaos, which apparently comedy is the introduction of chaos into an ordered system. So it sort of makes sense that we work the other way around, that we first create the chaos, and then, this is what Taika does I think, is creates the chaos and then after it creates the order. So it's sort of like you have fair game to go down whatever rabbit hole seems to be the most intriguing, interesting. It's like we're always trying to get ourselves on the precipice of breaking, of it being so funny that we can't contain ourselves, and that it's sort of after, figuring out like, "No, actually we need to pare this back because we need to understand story, we need to understand stakes." But it's kind of this imaginative space to go there if you were doing it the other way around, and trying to, in a really didactic way, tell a story and then infuse a sense of play and chaos. It's kind of harder to get there, in a weird way. If that makes sense?
Completely. Was this your first time working with the Volume technology?
THOMPSON: This was not my first time actually, because we work with it on Westworld a little bit. So I had been around it in that context.
I was going to say, I've heard of that show as well.
THOMPSON: Yeah.
That one's also kind of good. But I am curious, with that technology, because I've seen clips and I've spoken to a lot of people that use it.
THOMPSON: Yeah.
I hate the term game changer, but it is such a revolution in the way you can tell stories.
THOMPSON: It is. It's really, really immersive, because for people that don't understand, it's essentially like you're inside of the picture. So the backdrop, instead of it just being a green screen or a blue screen, you're inside of the actual environment and it's moving, and it also creates light and shadow and dimension. So it's fabulous. But the thing that, I mean, all the technology is amazing, the thing that I still feel so wowed by in the context of making these movies is all the practical stuff. Like New Asgard, they built that town in the middle of Australia somewhere, and it's like you go into all the little bars and nooks and crannies of the town and it feels like you're in some Norwegian seaside town, and that's the artistry, that's human hands. And all the incredible things that people do with the CG world and the digital space is just like human brain mastery, but still, all the stuff that's made with hands, I'm just a sucker for.
Yeah. I wish they would save that kind of stuff, so fans could actually go and visit.
THOMPSON: I know. New Asgard would really, like it would've really, I thought that so much with just being there. I was like, "God, fans would love to be here. This is so cool."
And that note, I need to go. I'm just going to say, seriously, congrats.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters July 8.