Actress Paula Patton turns green and sprouts tusks as one of the crucial characters in Warcraft.
She spoke about wearing those tusks, delving into the world ofWarcraft(see what I did there?)
and more during a recent sitdown on the Universal Studios lot.
Den of Geek: So did you come to this as a gamer?
How were you introduced to this whole world?
Paula Patton: Honestly, I didnt know.
I read the script.
The script was sent to me.
I loved the character Garona.
They said, Duncan wants to meet with you.
So I met with Duncan.
And we had this incredible meeting, this creative, artistic meeting.
Before it got all legal we agreed to make it.
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Garona just sounded so exciting and compelling.
I got in my car and went, Oh, shit!
What have I just agreed to?
It scared me to death, the idea of playing half orc, half human.
Did you play the game?
I got a lot of information about it.
I mean you do your research.
The books, even.
I never played the game…Im not good at that.
I just have bad hand/eye coordination.
Its just never been my fate.
But I wanted to get the feel, the essence of it.
Our director is a huge fan, played it for a really long time.
You sort of have to inhabit a character.
You have to find it for yourself as well.
So its my interpretation of Garona.
I think its one of those things that people say, you know, How do you feel?
Are you nervous about how it will be perceived?
And I just thought, On the day when you are working, you cant think about it.
But then youve got to kinda just let it go and do what feels natural.
Thered be some nights wed go home and…With film, you put it away and its done.
They film it and unless theres something wrong with the take, you dont get another chance.
So (I had) a couple of sleepless nights about it.
I just have let it go now because I cant control it.
So hopefully people like it.
Did Duncan tell you at that first meeting you were going to be green?
If he did, Im sure this would be one of those things I kind of forgot.
And then we went to Vancouver.
And it was months before we even started to film.
We starting doing the hair and makeup tests.
I gotta tell ya, it was intense.
It was six hours after I started this hair and makeup.
I almost had a panic attack.
I was just like, Oh my god!
What have I gotten myself into?
Now Ive got to be in makeup six hours before you actually begin.
And I looked crazy!
I was beginning to look like the character.
But Duncan has incredible taste and we refined it and we came up with the Garona you see.
By that point it was like, You are going to be painted green.
And if Im running and my face is supposed to show feeling, youll see it, or sweat.
And so, it was better for the overall film not to have to paint.
I was not green on the day.
So they did the green in post-production?
I thought it really worked.
It made it much more natural and realistic.
They didnt do the tusks in post.
And I was nervous about it.
But once I got them on my mouth, I would just keep working with them.
Id go around the house and play with my kid with them on.
He thought it was so cool.
And then I grew to love it.
I just did not feel like Garona until I had my tusks in.
And also, the contact lenses.
They really obscured my vision.
But that was a great thing.
Garona is different from how shes portrayed in the mythology.
If we were to look up Garona, a lot of renderings of her are similar.
She and Durotan have the most pronounced internal conflicts in the story.
But I like what she goes through.
Shes neither orc nor human.
She kind of is on an island.
Shes this person who has come from suffering and is a survivor.
It was a fun thing to play with and explore.
I was grateful for it.
I mean it was on the page; thats what drew me to her.
What did they do to make the world real for you?
This wasnt just all empty green stages.
No, and thats what was so amazing.
When I got myself into it, I didnt know how little or much wed get.
Then when I realized…I mean, honestly, it was incredible.
Youd have these enormous sound stages in Vancouver.
They just look great on the outside.
When you see that in the film, thats happening.
And then its about the distance and where it goes on beyond that.
We were climbing up mountaintops, being in deserts.
For me, as an actor, thats so important.
It helps you feel like you are there in this world.
Now I really see the vision of the director.
Did you get to bring home any cool gear from your costume?
They were so tight.
I play by the rules.
They were cataloguing everything.
So the only thing I got was they would change my ear out maybe like every couple days.
So I took a couple rubber ears home so my kid could play with them.
He thought it was so cool that mom was an orc.
So he would have a go at like tape them down to his ears.
He thought that was so cool.
Warcraftis in theaters this Friday (June 10).
