With the notable exception of Chris Pratt’s very human Star-Lord, virtually every member of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise’s principal cast needs to spend at least a little time either in the makeup chair or kitted out in a motion capture leotard.
It’s something Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, and many others had gotten used to over the years, but it was a brand new experience for Will Poulter, who makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as the godlike Adam Warlock.
While he’s surprisingly been singled out as one of the threequel’s weak links, the rising star did at least master the art of self-deprecation when discussing the process of transforming him from mild-mannered English gentleman to golden-hewed superhero in an interview with IndieWire.
“It was just a gold dunk tank, and they’d just wait for me to dry by leaving me out in the sun. It was a paint and a spray, rollers, they did it all. It was a slightly longer process because there’s many layers of that gold. You can roll a turd in glitter, is the point I’m trying to make.”
Based on the polarizing early responses to Mr. Warlock, he might regret using the word “turd” in such a specific setting. To the shock of many, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is currently the worst-reviewed of the MCU’s three cosmic capers, but it’s surely guaranteed to shrug off the widespread apathy to have greeted a worrying number of Multiverse Saga projects to conquer the box office in its opening weekend and well beyond.