VENOM Behind The Scenes (2018)

Not so tough with that, your friend. Venom's not all good, which I think is just so much more interesting and complex than, like, a typical superhero. And what are our chances? Pretty much zero. Venom and Eddie both become reluctant heroes throughout the course of the story. You are making us look bad. The combination of the symbiote and Eddie Brock creates an entity. It's an alchemy of two very different beings. So you're just a parasite. Parasite? Venom is unchecked fury. And we will eat your face right off your head. There's this delicious darkness, and that's why the fans love Venom in the first place. He's quite badass. So many snacks, so little time. He's unapologetic, he's fun, he's scary. He's an anti-hero. Venom is this incredible character with this amazing history that goes all the way back to the 1980s. So there's a lot of stories, you know, real wealth of ideas to draw on. He became the Wolverine of Spider-Man villains. Instantly started going right to the top. You slap him on a cover, people are going to buy that issue. People loved the character. So when we started to approach this story, we knew that we wanted to tell a Venom story independent of Spider-Man. We wanted to be as true as possible to the nature of the characters from the comic books, and tell his story with Eddie Brock. We're not finished. Yes you are, Mr. Brock. Is that a threat? Have a nice life. Venom went through different stages of development, and I believe that really we are at the right time in history to tell this kind of story. Javi and I have talked about this for, I don't know, 15 years. When is the right moment? Because the Eddie Brock Venom character is very sacred to people. You're fired, Eddie. I can't trust you. Have a nice life. Eddie Brock's this former reporter who has been brought down. He's not the kind of guy who's like Captain America who believes in everything's great and hunky-dory. He's definitely more of a glass half-empty kind of guy. Ruben said you had to read Lethal Protector and just kind of see what we're creating here, and how we're developing and bringing this to the screen. Eddie Brock is in the Brock Report, the Lethal Protector. But for all his good intention, he gets in his own way. So when we meet him in our movie, he has paid the price for that. And he's lost pretty much everything that he cared about. You ever feel like your life is like one monumental screw-up? Nope. Aren't you Eddie Brock? I used to be. His search for the truth is rather self-serving. He's not the greatest fundamental base for an altruistic hero in any aspect. If there's a black and white world of good and evil, he's definitely gray. So when he bonds with this alien and has these incredible powers, it's not necessarily going to be used in the most positive way. Venom just sort of amplifies whoever his host is. Hungry. And I think it's what's so special about him. He's got his heart in the right place, but a lot of other things in the wrong place. Guys, you do not want to do this, trust me. Mask! Copy! What the hell is that thing? Venom is very pure in his intentions, which is essentially to consume anything that will allow him to go on surviving. Otherwise, you'll never... It's starting to look really, really good. It brings with it a complexity where you have to face kind of your true self. That's the nature of Venom. And the one thing we're not going to do is soft-shoe it, you know? We got Tom Hardy. And action! No! I must get in the mood. I'm going to call the police. No, no, please don't call the police. He's killing people, and I have proof! There's just a volatile thing that happens when he steps into this role. Tom brings a lot of the traits that are true to Eddie Brock and true to the character of Venom. There's a danger to Tom in most of his performances. Everything he brings to life is exciting. He really is so concerned with everything being honest. Can you tell that it's an emergency? Food. Ah! Who said that? What's easy about playing two characters in the same piece is that you know what's going on between them, so you can control what's going on between the two. So it's more freeing than just playing one character because you can't control what your other actor's going to do. He's able to make illogical leaps. All of a sudden, you find yourself in a totally different place inside of the scene than you ever would have logically imagined. Who exactly was I kissing just then? Mostly me. Well, actually, it was mostly me. Oh, God. It's been pretty amazing watching Tom every day on set, because he's so methodical and very rigorous. He's had an awful lot of input into the way that the character has developed primarily through the vocal performance that he's giving for Venom. And action. Can you fix it? No, I've never seen anything like this before. This parasite. Parasite? It's eating you from the inside. The huge element that we had on the film was the sound department led by Coffey and Patrick who were literally on the day cutting and pasting and interacting with me from the sound desk below the stage. He wanted to have us there and have it ready to record playback within moments before shooting. If Venom plays in the scene, Tom reads the entire scene through every character. Once he's done with that, myself and my playback operator, Patrick, create individual files with just the Venom dialogue, add special effects to the voice, and then as soon as Tom is done going through hair, makeup, wardrobe, he stops back with us and we put an earwig in his ear. Venom was coming through my earpiece or any other actor who wanted to wear the earpiece. So really it was a radio play in some aspects that was going on at the same time as acting out a normal scene. We need to get you to the ICU. Am I, Eddie, am I dying? No. You're killing him. They do not know what they are talking about. We don't have a lot of time here. Oh, God! We have to get out of here. Stop! I'm killing you, I'm so sorry! Cut! When he's doing the alien inside the body stuff, I bring a bag of popcorn and I'm just like, I'm here to watch. Oh, my line? Sorry, sorry, I was just watching the way that the alien lives inside of you. It's great to be around because I think it forces everyone to do the same and to really kind of hone in on their work. I can't even begin to fathom what it's like to try to put this character together because his character is having this seeming nervous breakdown. He's being, for lack of a better term, possessed by this alien. Hey, hey, hey! It's been amazing to watch him do it. I know he's exhausted. I don't have a problem with you staying and sticking around, but, you know, we do have to have some ground rules, right? You know that human beings are the highest form of evolution. Yeah, well, that's bullshit. Eddie and Venom play the Jekyll and Hyde of it, which is fantastic, but this thing gloms onto it and has a mind of its own, so you're fighting yourself. These are two characters who, from the moment they're paired, their goals are very much in conflict. Are you going to eat anybody else? Most likely. What I like a lot is the vulnerability of both. Venom recognises Eddie's weakness. The moment he's inside him, he will know everything about Eddie, things that Eddie will never talk about. On my planet, I am kind of a loser, like you. But here, we could be more. Excuse me? In a weird way, he has to grow up enough to take care of this thing that's inside him. You can't have him just be this, you know, total murderous creature and then crept. I cannot. I mean, I guess you could, but they found a way to kind of flip it in the movie and bring out the hero of him in terms of, like, hey, man, we're only going to eat bad people. But how does one tell the difference? It's super simple. I mean, you can intuit it. Whatever you say. But can we get something to eat now? Venom holds Eddie's feet to the fire about his own ethical framework, so for the first time, Eddie becomes a reluctant hero. You want up? Oh, I knew you'd say. So you have this awesome duality of a non-human and a human. Eddie is trying to change his ways, but the circumstances make them both change. Cut the bullshit. What really made you change your mind? You. You did, Eddie. Cut! The whole concept of this character that fills a void in a person and helps that person cope is really fascinating. Let's go save the planet. But there's also a sincere darkness that can jump out any time, literally. By the end of the movie, they become one. You know, we are Venom is sort of the classic line from the books. We are Venom. Hopefully we've really developed something that feels like it really respects the heritage of the Venom comics whilst also offering something new. Oh, yeah! And the fact that it can be so dark and so funny is really, really exciting. Then what were you gonna do? You were gonna go and feed on the whole planet? Yes! You wake up every night like, oh, my God, are we embracing the spirit of the character in the right way? You have to start from loving the character. You can't fake that, and that's the thing that allows you to go back to sleep at night. Whoa, that was pretty cool, actually. I'm not gonna lie. Venom is an anti-hero. Let him be a bad guy, let him eat heads, but you gotta make him a hero of some sort. I'm gonna rip your tongue out of your mouth. This movie delivers all that bone-cracking awesomeness that is Venom.