Interview: John Goodman & Brie Larson Discuss KONG: SKULL ISLAND

In theaters this weekend from Legendary and Warner Bros. is Kong: Skull Island, and during the recent press day for the film, Daily Dead had the opportunity to join several other journalists in speaking with two of the movie’s co-stars, John Goodman and Brie Larson, about their experiences working on the adventurous project, the parallels between the story of Skull Island and the Vietnam War, and the allure of working within the realm of a cinematic universe, both in this film and others.

Brie, what was it about Kong: Skull Island where you knew you really wanted to be a part of this project? Was the message something that resonated with you?

Brie Larson: Well, I have always been really picky about the films that I make, because I think that there's such an incredible opportunity to bring up questions when you’re making movies, and some of my favorite films bring up big questions. They are movies that, when you walk away from it, it hits you as something deeper, and it's a great, fun way to be able to bounce around some of these harder concepts in our heads.

I don't really want to be this huge, famous person, so there's a trade-off for doing a big movie like this, because it means less privacy and you give up something of yourself every time you do another film. I have to ask myself what the trade-off is, and for me, with this movie, it is bringing that message. Do we really need to control and dominate everything around us, or can we just allow things to exist? Can we love something by giving it room to grow? And, so, that is exactly why I did this film.

I also think the film goes against convention in a lot of ways. You do have the archetypes that are quite normal that you've seen in Kong films before, but at the same time, you have more complicated dynamics like the one that I have with Tom [Hiddleston’s character] in the film. It's not a romance at all, it's just two people who do care about each other and would step in front of a bullet for the other, but it's not because of anything more than just a deep human connection. And Mason is also someone that, in bigger movies, and also, in particular, the Kong films, I don't think we've seen before.

One thing I really liked about the movie was how it drew those parallels between invading Vietnam and invading Kong’s island. Can you talk about that a bit?

John Goodman: Yeah, we went into Vietnam on a policy of containment, of Communism, and it’s amazing how the best and the brightest got us into that mire, and kept us there because we didn’t want to be proven wrong, or voted out of office because we were soft.

My character in Skull Island was damaged in WWII by what he thinks is one of these creatures, and it has marked him to the point where he spends the rest of his life trying to prove himself right, to the point where he’s become this Captain Ahab kind of person. The harder and the further he goes into the darkness, he’s got to be proven right and he doesn’t care about the collateral damage.

John, seeing how your career has spanned over so many genres over the years, on both television and in film, what keeps you excited these days as an actor?

John Goodman: Not much [laughs]. Yeah, I’m like a burned-out old whore. Time to take me to the clinic for a while [laughs]. Yeah, I’m tired, but things keep coming up.

Brie, you’re working on a Marvel movie soon, and I was wondering, how did it come about?

Brie Larson: I’m not one of those “ambition” people. I don’t necessarily have specific goals. Being an actor, you’re actually more passive, and so there’s the material that’s created from a very specific time, and I think you can get blinded by the concept of trying to check things off a list. So I haven’t really thought about it in terms like that.

John Goodman: It’s just lovely to see someone who hasn’t been crushed by life yet [laughs].

Is there something in particular that intrigues you, then, about the idea of these cinematic universes?

Brie Larson: I just always loved mythology, ever since I was a kid. Greek mythology was something I remember learning about in fourth grade, and Egypt, too, and something about both those things just clicked with me. I just thought they both were so beautiful and interesting to learn about. So, I like the fact that these characters take a face that is an allegory, and it’s less about being so specific.

It’s not about this world so much, it’s not about one country against another, we’re dealing with planets, we’re dealing with a completely different set of terms, so I think it becomes a safe place where people can bring up certain questions, because it’s not about pitting people against each other in the real world. It’s safe.

You mentioned earlier that you didn’t really have a goal or a desire to become a famous person, and I was curious, where does that come from exactly?

Brie Larson: From being very introverted and really loving my privacy. And because, for me, being an actor was not easy. I was constantly on the verge of being completely broke and having to move back in with my parents, up until Room came out. People think I’ve had this very lucrative career, but I got paid something like $800 to do Short Term 12, and then I spent a year promoting it. It’s not a glamorous industry. It’s really, really hard, and you get told all the time, “You’re not this, you’re not that,” and so you have to find a center.

I spent a lot of time getting knocked down, wondering, Why am I doing this? Why do I keep collecting myself, to just go back out there and do it again? I had to realize this was bigger than me, this was bigger than myself, and I want to go out there and service these characters, and I want to service these stories. I want more awareness of humanity in this world, so I don’t want this to be about me.

When I take on a character, it’s a sacrifice. There’s something that you give up every time. I want to become these characters, and I want to be mysterious, but if you know too much about me, it’s not going to be too much fun watching me play a character, because it’s just going to be me with a mask on, instead of you believing what the mask is.

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Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more interviews with the cast and crew of Kong: Skull Island, and check here for our previous coverage.