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Its not the first time Stevens has co-starred with giant monsters.
To stand out, Stevens had to see to it his monster dentist could chew the scenery himself.
Is it a challenge?
Obviously, the threat of peril is there, but you want to see some fun, some humor.
Its the reason why the humans are there; you want human responses.
Especially when the two main events are not physically present.
Whats it like slotting into a franchise that has such a wide range of tones?
Thats one of the foreboding things about franchises sometimes.
Oh God, do I need to have seen every other iteration of this to understand whats happening?
The answer should be no.
This has the tone of adventure movies.
Theres an 80s-throwback feel when youre in the hands of Adam Wingard.
Rebecca and I talked a lot about things likeRomancing the Stone.
Its an adventure where theyre having fun.
Sure, theres peril, but you know theyre going to get out of it.
That, for me, fits in this world.
It was nice to pop that piece in the puzzle.
Youre doing the same thing here too.
An artist in every sense of the world and a master at her craft in many different guises.
Its a real skill that not everybody can do, and she does it amazingly well.
The fun of this movie is that its pretense on such a grand scale.
Sure, acting is imagination, its pretending this is just titanic-size imagination.
We all know how silly it is.
Its part of the fun of these franchises, really.
And youve worked with Adam Wingard before this.
Does this feel like some sort of natural culmination?Oh God, I hope its not a culmination.
I hope its a continuation.
Adams a terrific filmmaker and somebody Ive been lucky to consider a friend.
Hes such an enthusiast for the cinema, really.
Hes so steeped in it.
I hope that there are more things to come from the two of us.
I have a lot of questions about Trappers backstory.
How does one become a kaiju dentist?I think hes had a bit of a checkered career.
We had the thought that perhaps his parents ran a zoo.
And he would go off around the world on these wild trips.
There are very few jungles or deserts that he hasnt been to.
So therefore theres very little that fazes him, and he could transition to treating titanic-size creatures very easily.
Were there any other inspirations behind Trapper?Definitely some 80s Kurt Russell or Michael Douglas vibes in there.
Movies likeRomancing the StoneandBig Trouble in Little China, which Adam and I have always been fans of.
Those have characters who have a certain kind of movie cool about them.
Even though in Trapper we kind of send that up a little bit.
Hes not quite as hard as youd expect.
Hes got a curious softness to him but also pulls off cool moments when you need them best.
Those are all great, but Im not looking to repeat anything anyones done.
Its an Adam Wingard kaiju movie.
We want to make that very clear.
It will have an incredible soundtrack; its like a dance party.
And then frequently the human characters in those movies are not the most memorable parts of those movies.
Those, for me, are the characters that I remember from my moviegoing upbringing.
Like Jeff Goldblum fromJurassic Park.
It sticks in the memory in the midst of total chaos.
Did you have any input in Trappers wardrobe?
I think Adam had a pretty clear sense of who he wanted Trapper to be and look like.
There is a character fromG.I.
He wanted to have the 80s-action-figure feel to Trapper, and I think they nailed it.
Trapper seems pretty nonchalant when hes giving Kong a root canal.
Where has he practiced this before?Do you think hes taken out a Titan tooth before?
I kind of think he has.
Hes worked his way up the creatures.
Say his parents did own a zoo.
He probably started off treating some lambs or some bunny rabbits.
I definitely wanted the feeling that youre in great hands with Trapper.
They drop him in, hes got an awesome tune blaring.
Dr. Andrews knows exactly who to call when she sees that abscess in Kongs mouth.
