In een interview dat op Comics Continuum verscheen, beantwoordt Taylor Kitsch enkele vragen over de peperdure Walt Disney productie John Carter, de sci-fi film gebaseerd op de boeken van Edgar Rice Burroughs. Kitsch, voornamelijk bekend van zijn rol als Remy LeBeau / Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, gaat o.a. in op vragen over zijn karakter John Carter, de meest opzienbarende details van de film en hij praat over de wijze waarop Carter naar Mars wordt getransporteerd. Het laatste is niet in de boeken beschreven.
Op de vraag hoe hij als acteur omgaat met het diepgaande personage, waarover negen boeken zijn geschreven: "When I first read the script, I was drawn to the character-driven story and the fact that it will benefit from being a big studio movie. It gave the filmmakers a chance to make the film in an amazing way. You get to know John Carter's background with his family, the Civil War and everything. It's heavy to play but it gives me such a base to draw from through the whole movie. For example, in one scene, you'll see Carter playing with his rings and you'll know what that truly means to him. It's great as an actor because it's something to really dive into. It's great."
Ook geeft Kitsch een uitleg van het personage: "Carter is a man who has lost everything he ever cared about. He comes back from the Civil War to find his wife and child dead. He basically goes into this recluse mode of living and is driven to mine for gold. It's like a Band-Aid solution -- he's covering up what he hasn't dealt with, the guilt and the loss of his family, whom he went to war to protect. He has a fear of taking responsibility again and that's what he's fighting through the whole movie. He lands in the Civil War between Helium and Zodanga. He's on Mars but their conflict is incredibly relatable for him, so he just wants nothing to do with it. You have Dejah, Tars and everyone reminding him or literally telling him that there's a cause here and you have to be part of it whether you like it or not. He's made that choice before and everything was just ripped from him, so obviously there's that fear of actually engaging in that again. So that's what he's always pushing away from."
Aangezien niet iedereen bekend is met de boeken over John Carter wordt Kitsch gevraagd wat het publiek het meeste zal aanspreken in de film, waarschijnlijk het eerste deel in een uitgebreide franchise: "There's a lot. I keep saying that the great white ape scene is worth the price of admission alone. Visually it's going to be incredible. I think they'll like the characters; they're going to be able to relate. It's not just a special effects movie with things blowing up and basically one guy that you don't care about. You care about John Carter and you care about his journey. You see an incredible arc of who he is, his new beginning and rebirth, and although you have special effects, you've also got the brilliant actors whom I've had the fortune of working opposite as well."
Lees op de website Comics Continuum het volledige Q&A interview met Kitsch, aangeleverd door Walt Disney. De film van Andrew Stanton draait vanaf 8 maart in de (3D) bioscoop. De trailer:
