Joss Whedon has been doing a lot of press recently for Avengers: Age of Ultron and he recently talked to SFX Magazine about what it was like to bring Ultron to life. Whedon talks about his inspiration for the character, James Spader’s performance and more. You can read some highlights below:
On giving Ultron a personality:
“You know, he’s really been a mainstay of The Avengers, but for me it’s a robot who’s angry,” Whedon told SFX magazine. “And that was a gateway for me to a robot who’s completely irrational. I wanted to write a robot what we really haven’t seen in this kind of movie, who can basically talk all the logical robot things, but then has hissy fits! He also has a real perspective on who the Avengers are, and a real beef with them.”
On if he used old Ultron stories as inspiration:
“I didn’t go back to them at all. I never looked to Ultron himself in the comics for why I love Ultron. I had an idea that I sort of extrapolated from that, so in that way he’s sort of a new guy.”
On James Spader’s performance:
“Everything I’ve ever given to Spader he’s just knocked out of the park,” Whedon said. “But – and James and I talked about this – every now and then he’ll have to do a non sequitur. And James is like ‘I have to pull out this emotion from something that’s not happening in this scene!’ But that’s who Ultron is. He’s clicking on all these different cylinders. And James really took to it. It means that you can pretty much say anything sometimes! He’s very much en scene, but at the same time, if he doesn’t have a little bit of free associative lateral now and again, he’s not going to be as much fun.”
