Gael García Bernal made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the studio's first event film, Werewolf By Night, which premiered on Disney+ earlier this month. Directed by legendary composer Michael Giacchino, the film was met with critical acclaim by both critics and fans alike, earning the film an extremely fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Most of the praise for the film centers around Bernal's incredible performance as Jack Russell, which lent the film its beating heart, and according to Werewolf By Night's screenwriter Heather Quinn he was always who they had on mind for bringing to life the man and the monster.
Bernal was cast as the lead for Marvel's first Halloween special last November, but based on our interview with Quinn, it sounds like they always knew that he was going to be what made the film work. Quinn shared that she learned that she would be writing the script while she was still on set for Hawkeye in early 2020 and that the film's entire process from inception to premiere had an impressive 18-month turnaround. She explained, "We were always writing for him in mind before we knew we had him, because Michael was transfixed on the idea. We kept joking that if he says no, we don't have a movie, because that was just who he wanted. It's always who he had thought of."
One of the things that makes Werewolf By Night work as well as it does, is the connection between Jack and Elsa Bloodstone (Laura Donnelly) as they forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a very chaotic evening. Quinn shared that, while nothing major changed between the finished script and once they began filming, there were some small changes, which included adapting dialogue to match Bernal and Donnelly's voices. Quinn said, "Gael did come on pretty early, but I would say the biggest changes with him were on set, working with both him and Laura Donnelly to make sure that things were in his voice as much as possible. [It's] also kind of common [to work] with actors to make sure that those things feel true to them and to the way that they're trying to embody the story. So there were a lot of things and point of views, or his point of view brought about a lot of really beautiful sweet moments in the dynamics of the relationship and in how he really approached the character, which I think is really sweet and maybe surprising and fresh."
Quinn went on to describe a specific moment that changed on the day with Bernal, which is one of the highlights for audiences too. In Werewolf By Night, Jack is trying to rescue his friend Ted, who has been taken by the monster hunters to hunt in a competition to claim the Bloodstone. The scene where they reunite is easily one of the best moments in the film, which allows Bernal to exude old-school Hollywood charm and instantly endear audiences to both Jack and Ted. As Quinn explained:
A good moment that comes to mind is when we were shooting the moment where Man-Thing's hand reaches out through the bush and pulls him in. It's a jump moment and then there's a pause, and he laughs, and he falls back and grabs his hand and kind of hugs it. When we shot that, behind the monitors we all just kind of swooned because we were like, "Oh, that's like the love between these two." And that's just him being really in his character and knowing that and, to some degree, can't even be on the page. But that was some of the things of collaborating with him to really bring out that kind of truth of who he was finding I think.
Stay tuned for our full interview with Heather Quinn, where she discusses the connection between Jack and Elsa, the comic books that influenced the script, and how Bernal was always going to be their Jack Russell. In the meantime, check out our interview with the film's director: