‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Star Sean Gunn on Playing Two MCU Roles

When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sean Gunn plays two roles as the Ravager named Kraglin and the on-set motion reference for Rocket Raccoon. To date, Gunn’s played his live-action role in both Guardians of the Galaxy films while serving in his Rocket role in both Guardians films in addition to the last two movies in the Avengers franchise. Suffice to say, the actor keeps himself busy with properties under the Marvel Studios umbrella.

Speaking with ComicBook.com, Gunn revealed that both of the roles fell into his lap nearly at the same time. He arrived at set expecting to play Kraglin but since his brother James served as director, he found himself in the role of Rocket, something that just managed to stick.

“I had known that he was working on the movie and he told me that he had a small-ish role for me,” Gunn said of his Kraglin role. “I had to get approval from Disney, but that he thought it was gonna work out and that role was Kraglin. But he also said that he was maybe going to ask me to do something for one of the CGI characters, but he wasn’t sure what it was yet.”

Once Gunn got to set, he says the production team asked of him to stand in for Rocket, so that the actors had a live person to interact with rather than a dummy, tennis ball, or something of that nature.

“We didn’t know what that meant yet,” the actor says of standing in for a bipedal animal. “Like at that point, we thought that it might just mean me reading the lines off camera for the other actors because he wanted an actor doing that job and not a first AD or a PA or something.”

“When I arrived in London just about a week later, it all moved really fast. It was like, okay, you ready to go? You’re coming to London in a week for six months,” he continues. “And so when I arrived then we sort of figured out Rocket on the fly. I read Rocket in the first table read that we did, and then when we started rehearsals, I just got down on my hands and knees and started doing it from the character’s height and position. And lo and behold, that’s what ended up really working. And since the formula worked, we’ve stuck with it for four movies.”

Captain Marvel is in theaters now and will be followed by Avengers: Endgame on April 26th and Spider-Man: Far From Home on July 5th.

Who’s your favorite Guardian of the Galaxy? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or join the conversation online by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things cosmic Marvel!

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