Godzilla Vs. Kong: Alexander Skarsgard on Connecting With Titans, CGI Experiences

Alexander Skarsgard and his family are no strangers to movies with aliens, animals, clowns, super heroes, or monsters that are not really present on set. Skarsgard appears in the upcoming Godzilla vs. Kong, a film which pits two massive Titans against one another and introduces a slew of other beasts along the way. Needless to say, Legendary and Warner Brothers did not throw out the extra money to build 300-foot-tall animatronic Titans, nor did they rent out entire city blocks to completely destroy the buildings occupying them. The monsters and their destruction are computerized in impressive form with the cast selling their existences, and Skarsgard knows a thing or two about using his imagination for acting in such sequences.

"It's very different on Tarzan," Skarsgard says of Godzilla vs. Kong. [Tarzan animals are] mostly eye level, interacting with apes or lions, it's kind of more intimate when you have a creature the size of a skyscraper who also by the way rarely looks at us cause they're busy doing other things." In this case, for the actors, "it's more observing than interacting with," he explains.

The scale of the monsters in Godzilla vs. Kong also means that direct interaction with the Titans calls for something new. "When you do have these moments where you're actually connecting to Kong or Godzilla, they are crucial because you gotta tie the Titans to the human character somehow so it's not two completely separate movies," Skarsgard explains. "So, it was very important to map out those and find those beats in the movie where you have that connection. And in our case, on Team Kong, the characters that follow him a lot of that is through Gia, Kaylee [Hottle]'s character, the young girl who is teaching Kong sign language cause she's the only one he's comfortable around and communicates with and has a connection to, so a lot of the moments were, at least in the first half of the movie, reacting or communicating with Kong is basically through observing Gia who's with us doing all the communication. So it's a lot of observing basically."

While the human element of Godzilla vs. Kong doesn't seem to be the main draw of this movie, breaking down the wall between the human cast members and their CGI co-stars was an integral part of the film to add an important bit of perspective. Plus, the actors were really put through some intense sequences on set.

Are you excited for Godzilla vs. Kong? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram! Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters and HBO Max on March 31.