In an interview with Insider, Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi reveals Russell Crowe shot his Zeus scenes twice with two different accents. In the released version of the movie we hear Crowe perform with a Greek voice. Of course, given Zeus was a Greek God, this kinda makes sense. Yet, I still found it rather surprising, and quirky.
Insider asked Waititi if Greek was always the call, and the director admitted that was not the case. In fact, it was Crowe’s idea to use a Greek voice, but Waititi wasn’t convinced. He therefore had Crowe shoot all his scenes twice, once with the Greek accent and once with a British accent. In the end, Waititi decided it was more offensive to have Crowe use a British accent and thus decided that the actor was right all along. Plus, test audiences preferred the Greek accent as well.
RELATED: It Seems Russell Crowe Wasn’t Always Zeus In Love And Thunder
Waititi was asked whether Crowe just turned up on day one with the accent?
“No. You would love to think that, I would love to think that. We actually talked at length about the accent. We wondered if someone did a Greek accent of a Greek god, is it going to be a farce? Will it be too silly? And Russell was very much wanting it to be Greek. But I wasn’t sure, so we ended up doing two versions of every take with Russell. One in a Greek accent and then another in a British accent. Because I felt people would think Zeus would sound British like Laurence Olivier in “Clash of the Titans.”
“But then I realized in post that it’s actually more offensive to the Greeks to have Zeus sound like he’s British. And test audiences loved the Greek accent. I’m really happy with it. But, yeah, he had to do every take once in the Greek accent and once with a British accent because I couldn’t make up my mind. But Russell was right all along.”
Very interesting. I can totally see why Waititi was hesitant. However I also agree that the end result was superior to a standard British accent and helped the character be unique in Thor: Love and Thunder.
What do you think of this as Taika Waititi reveals Russell Crowe shot all his Zeus scenes twice in different accents? As always, leave your thoughts below, or over on Discord.
FOR FANBOYS, BY FANBOYS
Have you checked out LRM Online’s official podcasts and videos on The Genreverse Podcast Network? Available on YouTube and all your favorite podcast apps, This multimedia empire includes The Daily CoG, Breaking Geek Radio: The Podcast, GeekScholars Movie News, Anime-Versal Review Podcast, and our Star Wars dedicated podcast The Cantina. Check it out by listening on all your favorite podcast apps, or watching on YouTube!
Subscribe on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | SoundCloud | Stitcher | Google Play
