Things You Probably Didn't Know About MCU Villain Actors

Tom Hiddleston has played Loki in a ton of MCU movies, and it's hard to think of another actor in the role. After all, he brought his unique charm and charisma to the villain turned... well, slightly less villainous. As it happens, Hiddleston initially tried out for the part of Thor (a role that ultimately went to Chris Hemsworth).

Hiddleston went on a strict diet to prepare for his screen test and audition, even going so far as to pack on 20 pounds of muscle. Fortunately, his screen test has been put online, and you can watch some of it right here. It seems he wasn't a bad fit for Thor, but as soon as he read the lines, the casting people immediately recognized that they'd found their Loki.

Michael Keaton has been acting in comic book superhero movies since 1989's Batman, including his role as Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Still, he may have had a hard time letting his Dark Knight persona go, according to co-star Tom Holland.

In an interview with ShortList magazine, Holland was asked what it was like to work with Keaton, to which he replied:

Pretty cool... We have a fight in the movie, and I punch him. He turns around and says [in a deep voice], "I'm Batman." He kept doing Batman quotes on set.

When Heath Ledger passed, he had filmed only part of his scenes for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Fortunately, the nature of the film made it possible for other actors to portray his character in three different segments, allowing the production team to complete the movie. Jude Law, who expertly portrayed Yon-Rogg in Captain Marvel, joined forces with Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell to finish Ledger's work.

What's even more special about the trio taking on the part was that they didn't accept any money for their work. Instead, all three actors happily donated their wages to Heath Ledger's daughter, Matilda, who was 2 years old at the time. Their interest was in seeing their friend's daughter taken care of financially to secure her future. Director Terry Gilliam explained their decision in an interview with Britain's The Sun newspaper:

They didn't take money - it goes to Heath's daughter. That's extraordinary! And wonderful... and when you're part of that, you think, "Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning." I thought it would be full of wonderful people. We've got a movie full of wonderful people who did extraordinary things to help.

Josh Brolin's Thanos is one of the best villains the MCU produced in its first three phases, but it almost didn't happen. Brolin had passed on a ton of other comic book projects, but when the MCU came calling about a Thanos cameo at the end of The Avengers, he went ahead and did it. Even so, he wasn't particularly interested in playing the character outright if he ended up only fighting one or two superheroes. He explained why he ultimately decided to take the role:

I turned down quite a bit of those things, and again, people were like "money!" When I said yes to Avengers, it was a small thing. It was basically a cameo, so there was not a lot of money involved. So that wasn't the reason. But when they came to me, they gave me a big bible. I loved that it was all [of them]. If it had been one of the Avengers - and I don't mean this, I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm just gonna say it - I probably wouldn't have done it. But the fact that it was all the Avengers against this one guy. I liked that aspect of it.

Years before he took on the role of Ulysses Klaue in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Black Panther, Andy Serkis brilliantly adapted Gollum for the silver screen. In creating Gollum, Serkis used an unusual source for the vocalizations of the character. In the books, Tolkien established that Gollum is the name given to Smeagol due to the guttural coughing sound he makes, but instead of coming up with a sound out of the blue, Serkis said he looked to his cat:

I actually watched one of my cats, Diz, cough up a furball on our kitchen floor, and that was a really significant moment. Because, you know, when a cat coughs up furballs, he goes hack hack hack from the top of the head to the tip of the tail, and this kind of movement happens, which I began to use. And that was how the sound began to emanate.

Originally, Serkis wasn't even going to play the character - he was hired only to provide the voice for the computerized version seen onscreen. When he started moving about and getting into character, Peter Jackson saw something, telling CBS, "We started to look at Andy, thinking: is there a way that we can get what he's giving us actually in the film?"

Ultimately, Serkis provided the motion-capture and the voice for Gollum, bringing him to life in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as the Hobbit trilogy.

Typically, when a biopic honors someone from history, the actor who plays them has a decent chance of scoring an Academy Award. For whatever reason, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science loves historical roles, and it can work out well for an actor portraying someone interesting and famous. In Cate Blanchett's case, she was able to play Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator, a role that earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Katharine Hepburn was herself an Academy Award-winning actress, having taken home four statues during her 66-year-long career. Interestingly, this makes Blanchett's award noteworthy, as she is the only actress in history to receive an Academy Award for playing another Academy Award-winning actress. It's a distinction that could disappear some time in the future, but her status has remained intact for 16+ years.