Chukwudi Iwuji is the latest big bad in the MCU, and while playing such a character can be a ton of fun, it’s not always a walk in the park. The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 antagonist is well-known for his arrogance, superiority complex, and, worst of all, his penchant for animal cruelty. Naturally, getting into the shoes of The High Evolutionary doesn’t come easily, but luckily, Iwuji had a trick up his sleeve.
As reported by DiscussingFilm, during the Guardians 3 global press conference, the actor revealed his initial thoughts about the villain’s introduction in the script, and how that shaped his view of the character:
“The first thing that’s written in the script when you meet [The High Evolutionary] is him listening to Space Opera. So, immediately, I knew classical music was going to be a big part of this character.”
The first step to connecting with The High Evolutionary, then, was for Iwuji to listen to the same type of music the villain would, something he made sure to do from very early on in the process. From then on, things started to fall into place.
“I thought I would just listen to a lot of my favorite operas and classical music and send them to James, and one or two of them actually made it onto the film! (…) A lot of finding this guy, for me, was saying… if he’s listening to opera and he’s in a space opera and he’s this mad scientist sort of person, I just thought of someone that doesn’t sleep.”
This attention to detail seems to have had a key role in helping Iwuji find how to best portray the character, but it wasn’t his only source of inspiration — some of the credit goes out to good ol’ Shakespeare, according to the actor.
A the end of the day, though, these aren’t in any way the worst or weirdest strategies an artist has used for getting into character (we’re looking at you, Jared Leto), and for that, we’re all thankful.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is out in theaters now.
