Actor Joe Morton, who plays Dr. Silas Stone, father of Victor Stone / Cyborg (Ray Fisher) in Justice League, revealed in a new interview that the half-cybernetic superhero will have to overcome a major fear when he steps up to help save the world.
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Morton, who may best be known to audiences for portraying Dr. Miles Dyson — inventor of the apocalyptic Skynet — in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, believes he owes his casting as the elder Stone to his role in James Cameron’s sci-fi epic, where he “played the scientist who rebuilds something that’s not quite human.”
“Miles was, in a way, the modern day Frankenstein,” Morton told IGN. “And I suppose in a certain sense, so is Silas Stone.”
When asked what Dr. Stone thinks of what he’s done to his son — as glimpsed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a frustrated Dr. Stone employed alien technology to create a body to save his son, who had less than a quarter of his biological body intact — Morton shared that, like Dyson, his benevolent actions had unintended consequences.
“It is unintended consequences and then at first it’s not looked upon by Victor as something that’s correct. Unlike the other members of the Justice League, Victor has no alias, he has no way of hiding behind another personality or some sort of mask in order to protect themselves. He is very much like Frankenstein [Frankenstein’s Creature] again in that there’s no disguising who he is,” Morton said.
“So that what I think ends up happening is that section of the movie and certainly that character, Cyborg, is a metaphor for being The Other. Which is why I’m glad it’s being played by — that I’m playing dad and Victor is a black, young man. Because I think that is the metaphor in a certain way, that it is talking about what it means to be The Other. Even if you have something that you can contribute to society, very often society doesn’t view you that way. Because when you are The Other, the first response by the mainstream, if you will, is to ostracize. So I think that’s what Victor’s fears are. He has to figure out how to overcome before he then eventually becomes benevolent and understands that the powers that he has can be used for great good.”
As a football star turned disembodied head turned Justice Leaguer, Victor Stone’s story might get pretty heavy — but according to Morton, who returned for work on the film under reshoots with Joss Whedon, “there were some adjustments that [the filmmakers] made in terms of the tone” regarding Fisher’s Cyborg.
“I think what I heard was that there was a need from the studio to lighten up the film in a way, that the film felt too dark,” Morton said. “I don’t know what that meant in terms of how it actually got translated in terms of the reshoots, but that’s what I heard. That’s what I thought some of the reshoots were about.”
In Justice League, fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes — Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash — it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Justice League is directed by Zack Snyder, from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, based on a story by Snyder and Terrio, Justice League stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Ciarán Hinds, Amy Adams, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Eisenberg, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, and J. K. Simmons.
