I was lucky enough to sit down with Rebel Moon stars Ed Skrein and Fra Fee. These two actors play the villainous Atticus Noble and Regent Balisarius respectively. We talked about becoming the villains of Zack Snyder’s Sci-Fi epic and some of the weird and bizarre moments on set that made it so enjoyable.
Skrein, in particular, enjoyed how not all villains are fun to play, but Atticus was definitely one that was, “So much fun. So much fun, you know? Not every protagonist, not every antagonist is fun. This was fun. And as soon as I read the character for Noble I was like, wow, you know if I’m gonna dip into the villain realm again and you know, I do have to be a bit careful with it. It’s got to be something like this.”
Fra discussed how he felt only being teased in these two films, “This character is an intriguing one. More for the fact that he has been peppered throughout, in fragments. I’ve actually got quite a long timeline to play within the first flashback. And Rebel Moon – Part One is when I actually abduct Kora, you know, you’re talking 25 – 30 years, sort of until the present day. That’s why I’m sporting that awesome. grey beard, which I felt to me. Yeah, the beard that I could never in a million years even dream of, if I tried my very best.”
Fra spoke further on his collaboration with Snyder, ” I’m very grateful to Zack for his encyclopaedic knowledge of this universe that he’s created, which is just, totally mind-blowing. And he was able to give me Balisarius’ full in-depth backstory. It’s one I hope we actually get to show on screen one day. That would be brilliant.”
He also discussed his over-the-top assassination scene with Sofia Boutella, Cary Elwes and a string quartet in tow,” You know, you’ve got this beautiful string quartet providing the soundtrack for this just unimaginably devastating event. But it was a really, really cool day on set, you know? And Cary is just an awesome man. And Rhian who plays the Queen as well. I got quite close with Stella who plays Princess Isa. It was just a lot of fun. Also, it was the most action I got to do because Balisarius is the man behind the curtain.”
Perhaps my favourite little nugget of trivia that came from this interview involved Ed discussing how he got down and “dirty” in the trench scene. Ed described how the makeup department used Oreos to simulate the look of dirt covering Noble as he decimated the villagers of Veldt, “So my makeup assistant would come out with a sandwich bag full of crushed up Oreos, and then put vaseline on my head. This is the first thing that I think of now when I smell Oreos. Also, that scene was so much fun to do.
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver is out now on Netflix. Stay tuned to Scannain for more news, reviews and interviews.