The movies Sam Neill “never understood”, even though he was in them: “I was baffled”
While he might be best known for his role in the Jurassic Park movies, Sam Neill has also been a part of some other huge franchises, actually featuring twice in the most successful film franchise of all time.
Dr Alan Grant can be found in two of the Thor movies, part of the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, but his character is a little complicated as he plays an Asgardian actor who plays Odin in a play in Thor: Ragnarok.
To put that into perspective, that’s Sam Neill playing an actor playing Anthony Hopkins playing Odin, and I’ll let you take a moment to absorb that. While you do, for some context, Neill almost certainly landed this role through his relationship with director Taika Waititi, which began with the Aussie turning in a stellar performance in the New Zealander’s 2016 film, Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
Neill’s complicated MCU cameo was so successful that he did it again in the next Thor movie, Love and Thunder, and while most actors would kill to be in the MCU, let alone more than once, so you’d think that such an opportunity would mean a lot to Neill. However, as he confirmed during an interview with Australian radio station Nova, he wasn’t overly fussed.
“I’ve never understood any of the Thor films,” he said. “In fact, the whole Marvel universe is a complete mystery to me… I was standing beside [New Zealand singer] Jenny Morris, and I said, ‘Do you know what planet we’re on?’ To be honest, I was completely baffled… I came back, and I was baffled again. I did my bit, I don’t know who is playing who exactly because they are sort of swapping roles.”
To give Neill some credit, his role is a little befuddling; when he found out he was going to be playing ‘Odin’, he probably jumped for joy, but when it was revealed to not only be the Marvel version, but not even the real Marvel version, his poor heart must have sunk.
Still, at least he was in good company, for his fellow ‘actors playing actors’ were Luke Hemsworth, who played a version of his brother Chris’ character, and cameo king Matt Damon, who gave us his take on Loki.
However, he’s not the only one to have reported finding Marvel a bit disappointing, such that Michael Douglas has spoken about still needing to ask questions about the series, particularly during the filming of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Christian Bale, who played Gorr the God Butcher in the aforementioned Love and Thunder, really didn’t enjoy spending most of his time in heavy make-up in front of a green screen. So while the MCU has provided many actors with a chance to strut their stuff, it certainly isn’t a magic bullet.
At the time of writing, Neill hasn’t appeared in any other Marvel projects, and hopefully, if he does return, he has a bit more of a clue about what’s going on.
