Avengers: Black Widow, Hawkeye and Baddie Loki

By: Lynn Barker

Kidzworld is back in the hills of Beverly talking to the hot cast of The Avengers. First up: a superhero duo and their colorful enemy.

In the entertaining superhero movie The Avengers, on screens May 4^th, not only do Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) join forces against that power-mad baddie from another planet Loki (Tom Hiddleston) but so do Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Seems those two have a hot past. She once was in the Russian KGB and he was on a crime spree.  They had some hot hookups until both came over to the good guy side joining The Avengers team.

Kidzworld wanted to know how Scarlett dealt with all her major kick-booty action in the film and did Jeremy actually shoot Hawkeye’s arrows? How does a nice guy like Tom Hiddleston get into playing an arch-villain trying to rule Earth? Check it out!

Kidzworld: Scarlett, the Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) character was in the second Iron Man movie. What has changed with her on this one?

• Scarlett: Well we didn’t know much about the character then. She was a slippery fish so to speak but we get to see a little bit of her history, her shady past.  When we first see her she is on assignment in Russia taking care of business until she’s sent for to join the Avengers team by Nick Fury.

Kidzworld: What was the most difficult of all the Black Widow’s skills for you to learn?

• Scarlett: Probably the Wushu (a martial art) work and fighting with a big alien gun. The thing was just impossibly heavy and when you learn how to do that, you’re learning with a broomstick and all of a sudden they hand the gun to you and you’re like (she indicates almost falling over) Ugh! What a weight and I’m meant to swing this thing around my head like it weighs two pounds? It was painful! But all of that stuff is painful until you “get” it, then..you get it. I thought “Oh my God, I’m never gonna learn this” but you do.

 

Kidzworld: Black Widow is a loner but has to prove she can be part of the Avengers team? How did she do that?

• Scarlett: I don’t think Black Widow really feels the need to fit in anywhere. She’s just on a job and she is, in some ways, the ultimate loner. She now works for S.H.I.E.L.D. and is tasked by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) for this mission but it does become personal at some point but up until then, I think the “Widow” is just doing her job.  If she wasn’t the “Widow”, I don’t think she has the social skills to blend in. The darker part of the character was always very appealing to me.

Kidzworld: Does the Black Widow have any trait that you, Scarlett would love to have in real life?

• Scarlett: In real life, I would love to be able to kick some major booty. Hey, I have a question about the Hulk. How does the waistband on his pants stretch so big? No waistband is THAT stretchy! [laughter]

 

Kidzworld:  Good point! We asked Mark who plays him and he has no idea! Tom, you’re the bad guy. What was your most memorable moment making Marvel's The Avengers?

• Tom (Loki): There are so many things that are memorable about it because it was such a long shoot. It was the whole summer for all of us and, and we had so many different experiences together. It was amazing for me to work with some of the greatest actors in the world.

The first day on set that everybody was there together, it was sort of insane.  The picture of everybody in costume, of all of these actors and all of these characters in their chain mail and their capes and their armor and, except for Mark Ruffalo in his grey and white pajamas in the back.(As the Hulk, Mark’s transformation was done in computer so he didn’t have a Hulk costume).  To see everybody finally assembled, it was an extraordinary moment, just amazing. 

• Jeremy (Hawkeye): Ah, it's the same thing.  It's when everybody was together.  That's the most memorable, and creepy, and funny. I got to play with Thor's hammer while he stroked my bow. Just getting all the actors in one room all in costume, it was like Halloween. I was fans of the other actors as humans  and now they're dressed up like silly people and it’s great to laugh at each other. That always stuck in my mind.

 

Kidzworld: Can you tell us which are your favorite video games? 

• Jeremy “Half Life”: I like a first-person shooter.  That got me hooked on gaming. 

• Tom:  I think we did “Dance Revolution” at your house Jeremy. There should be an Avengers edition of Dance Revolution.  It should be videotaped at your house. I don't know video games. The last video game I played, apart from Dance Revolution at Jeremy's house...

• Jeremy: Nobody (dances) like Loki! [laughter].

• Tom: The last video game I played before that was “Super Mario Kart” on the Super Nintendo.. I’m so from the Dark Ages!

Kidzworld: Jeremy, if Hawkeye were in the Olympics, his sport would have to be archery but what about you Tom/Loki?

• Tom: The javelin or maybe pole vault? I’d have to be creative.

Kidzworld: Jeremy, talk about preparing for your Hawkeye role. Did you go into some kind of archery training? Weren't you injured during filming?

• Jeremy: Yeah.  I broke my heart (laughter). No, I stretched a lot, and I prepared by stretching.  Yeah, I did take some archery, but I realized very quickly that I couldn't really use it in the film.  It ended up being superhero type archery. It’s nice to know the technique behind it but then, shooting behind my back and over my shoulder and using fake arrows… can’t really do that. I gave it a go.  I shot a few bales of hay and missed a few. You get injured, banged around every day when it's hand-to-hand stuff and Scarlett and I, we beat each other up pretty good. I love getting beaten up by Scarlett!

Kidzworld: I’ll bet! Tom, you are old school on the video games, what about comics? Read any growing up?

• Tom: It’s funny because in, in the U.K., I grew up on these U.K. comics called “The Beano and The Dandy”. Access to Marvel and D.C. comics was later and through cartoons and trading cards. I was introduced to American comics really through the movies. It was Christopher Reeve, his Superman was the first superhero I ever conceived of when I saw the movie when I was six or something. Also, Tim Burton's Batman. Those were my first early superhero contacts.

 

Kidzworld: Were you a little worried about playing an iconic evil villain like Loki in Thor and now this movie?

• Tom: I never get afraid of things.  I only get excited. It’s just so much fun.  It’s such a great character.  He’s just a treat. It's like playing an iconic Shakespearean character or something.  A character like Loki has got so many levels of complexity and so many layers to him.  So many things for an actor to explore.  I looked at the script and Loki was on almost every page. It was darker and funnier too (than Loki in Thor). Just a huge amount of fun.

Check back soon for our interview with the rest of The Avengers cast! 

The Avengers Trailer