Answering questions from anxious comic book fans who were looking for a little insight into his take on the “Fantastic Four” villain, McMahon (sporting a Von Doom cap) made each of the brave souls who approached the mike feel like they were the only person in the room. By the time McMahon’s “Fantastic Four” presentation was over, the crowd had been given the opportunity to check out a new clip from the upcoming movie and had been reassured that Dr. Doom was in the hands of an actor who knew and thoroughly enjoyed the source material.
After finishing up his “Fantastic Four” panel, Julian McMahon took the time to sit down for an interview with a small group of journalists. Seeming to genuinely relish the part of the bad guy, McMahon talked at length about taking on the role of the “Fantastic Four” villain and about the physical aspects of getting into character:
You joked with the audience about being blatantly evil. Are you?
(Laughing) I am. My characters aren’t. They are not so blatant.
Was the mask hard to wear?
No, it wasn’t actually. Everything was very specific and very fitted. I can’t tell you what we went through for this job in regards to full body scans and the prosthetic process that you go through and all that kind of stuff, but everything was done very specifically to fit you perfectly. So the mask was just really easy, I’ve got to be honest. And it was great actually because it really allowed you to get into the character a little bit more maybe than without it, if that makes sense. It made you step over that boundary and go into something totally different. It was really interesting.
What was walking onto your ‘office’ set like?
That was a great moment for me because that was like the first moment I felt like I was on this $200 million movie. Up to that point I’d been shooting these tiny little scenes in little rooms. And then I stepped into Victor’s office and it was like bigger than this [meeting room]. And it’s so intimidating and it’s all made out of this cobalt, kind of cold material. It’s got all this material from the moon. It’s just bizarre. It’s made to dominate and made to make people feel inferior, and it really was just incredible. And usually when you see a movie and you get on a set, the room is half the size of what you thought it was because they use different angles and they can shoot around it. And this was kind of the opposite. Not the opposite because the footage on the movie looks enormous as well. But I mean the room was just huge.
You’re actually the fifth member of the Fantastic Four at the beginning of this movie and then you go evil, right?
Yeah. It starts off with five of us heading into space. I come back and four of them go on a very happy trip of being nice superhero-type of people, and I go the opposite direction.
Was it fun going the opposite direction?
Well, certainly. You know, it’s always fun to play the bad guy at the end of the day. And then secondly, it’s kind of fun when it’s you versus them. For most of the movie it was me against those four. And it was in many different ways. It could have been just through manipulation or it could have been through physical fights that we had, or through trying to kill them. Whatever it might be. So, yeah, it was good.
Did you have to do any wire work?
You know, there was not much wire work for any of us actors to do because the extent of what they did was so huge. I mean, they wouldn’t just throw you from this table to that wall. They’d throw you from that wall twice as far as that wall is there [said while we’re sitting in a fairly large meeting room]. I’m not kidding. So, you know, there’s just no way I’m going to do that first of all. And secondly, there’s no way they’re going to allow you to do it. There really wasn’t that much to do in regards to that type of stuff. It was done by all the stunt people – and very well done by all of them, too.
Julian McMahon on Fight Scenes, Green Screens, and Dr. Doom
