Desde Hollywood recently participated in a recent virtual press conference with the stars and filmmakers of the new Marvel Studios series MOON KNIGHT:
Actors Oscar Isaac, Ethan Hawke, May Calamawy; directors Mohamed Diab and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead; and executive producer Grant Curtis.
Read below some highlights from the interesting conversation.

The first episode of MOON KNIGHT is now streaming on Disney+.

Diab on the importance of rehearsals during the pre-production:

“I have to thank Marvel for giving us the chance to play… I think [producer Grant Curtis] gave us the chance to develop this show, when you gave us the chance to have those table reads. Everyone who’s sitting here added his soul to that project. And I have to say that we hold the record of having the least additional photography in the history of Marvel, because we rehearsed a lot.”

Isaac on how much fun it is to have a protagonist that has very distinct personalities, like Steven and Marc:

“Marvel has done an amazing job at combining action and comedy, and with Steven, there was a chance to do a different type of comedy. He’s somebody who doesn’t know he’s funny or that he’s being funny. That was really exciting. The counterpoint of that in Marc is that I was leaning into a bit of the stereotype of the tortured, dark vigilante guy, but what makes him so special is that he has this little Englishman living inside of him.”

Isaac on how having his brother, Michael Hernández, to be his stand-in helped him:

“It’s the closest thing to me there is. He came in and he would play either Steven or Marc; he even did both accents! It was really helpful to have someone who’s not only a great actor, but who also shares my DNA to play off of. I didn’t anticipate how technically demanding it would be to show up and decide which character I was going to play first, then try to block that out, give my brother notes, do the scene, switch characters, and figure it out. One of the most fun things about acting is acting opposite somebody and letting something spontaneous happen. There wasn’t really an opportunity to do that.”

Hawke on the unique nature of his antagonist, Arthur Harrow:

“The histories of movies are paved with storytellers using mental illness as a building block for the villain. There are countless stories of mentally ill villains, and we have a mentally ill hero—and that’s fascinating, because we’ve inverted the whole process… That was an interesting riddle for me to figure out. Mohamed believed in embracing his mental illness as a way to create an unreliable narrator, and once you’ve broken the prism of reality, everything that the audience sees is from a skewed point of view. That’s really interesting for the villain.”

Hawke on how filming on-location deeply affected his performance:

“I loved getting to be in the deserts of Jordan, being on the same location where they shot Lawrence of Arabia. One of the things that surprised me about the Marvel Universe is that it’s fun acting in front of a lot of green screens. I come from a theater training, so I enjoyed pretending something was there. But then when you’re really in the desert, it’s so beautiful. I felt a connection to the cinema history of the desert, and the people in Jordan treated us so well. It elevated our collective imagination, and I think it broadened the scope of the show.”

Calamawy on bringing to life a brand new character, Layla El-Faouly, and collaborating with Isaac:

“I feel like I got to play the full gamut of a woman with her, because she’s strong, she’s for the people, and she fights for what she believes. But she’s also really vulnerable and scared. The more I ended up taking from myself, the easier it became, because I wanted to find a story that would work with someone who had a similar conditioning, who would deal with situations a certain way. What would that look like for someone raised there versus someone raised in the West? It was confronting in many ways, but when I felt OK to take that space, I felt it happened more fluidly, absolutely. Oscar really understands [his job] at such a cellular level and when he would be each character, it was really two separate people. I could feel the energy.”

The first episode of MOON KNIGHT is now streaming on Disney+.

Moon Knight follows Steven Grant, a mild-mannered gift-shop employee, who becomes plagued with blackouts and memories of another life. Steven discovers he has dissociative identity disorder and shares a body with mercenary Marc Spector. As Steven/Marc’s enemies converge upon them, they must navigate their complex identities while thrust into a deadly mystery among the powerful gods of Egypt.