Guardians Of The Galaxy Cast On Working With Kurt Russell

Excitement ran high among the cast and crew when it was officially announced that Kurt Russell had joined the cast of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The talented and beloved actor has been entertaining audiences throughout his impressive fifty-year career. There is no genre he won’t touch. He is one of those rare actors that can do it all: action (Escape from New York), drama (Silkwood), horror (The Thing), and comedy (Overboard).

During a Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 set visit, five members of the cast — Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Karen Gillan, and Zoe Saldana — were asked: What was it like to work with the Hollywood legend. Click on “Start Slideshow” for their answers.

Set to the backdrop of ‘Awesome Mixtape #2,’ Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 continues the team’s adventures as they traverse the outer reaches of the cosmos. The Guardians must fight to keep their newfound family together as they unravel the mysteries of Peter Quill’s true parentage. Old foes become new allies and fan-favorite characters from the classic comics will come to our heroes’ aid as the Marvel cinematic universe continues to expand.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is written and directed by James Gunn (Slither). The film marks the return of the original Guardians, including Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) as Peter Quill/Star-Lord; Zoe Saldana (Star Trek Into Darkness) as Gamora; Dave Bautista (Spectre) as Drax; Vin Diesel (Furious 7) as the voice of Groot; Bradley Cooper (American Sniper) as the voice of Rocket; Michael Rooker (Jumper) as Yondu; Karen Gillan (The Big Short) as Nebula; and Sean Gunn (Gilmore Girls) as Kraglin. New cast members include Pom Klementieff (Oldboy), Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby, Everest), Chris Sullivan (The Knick, The Drop) and Kurt Russell (The Hateful Eight, The Thing).

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is scheduled to hit theaters on May 5, 2017. Avengers: Infinity War is set to hit theaters May 4, 2018.

Chris Pratt

“For me, there are actors that I loved growing up – there’s a handful of them – and he is absolutely right at the top of that list,” Pratt said, “and has not once done anything to disappoint the inner child in me who was so excited when he got cast. He’s really cool. He’s absolutely an artist. Even though he’s kind of the ‘everyman’ kind of a character, he’s really an artist and he really cares deeply about all of the details of his character. We’re really kindred spirits I think. Me and Anna [Faris], and Kurt and Goldie [Hawn], I feel like we are the same in some parallel universe, you know what I mean? Anna’s often times been compared to Goldie Hawn, like in the House Bunny and things like that, and one of our favorite movies is Overboard. And I guess some people have made that comparison with me and Kurt, just kind of like a blue-collar type of dude, American actor. He loves to hunt and be outdoors and he’s, I don’t know, I just really, really love him. I’m in love with Kurt Russell. [Laughs]”

Interestingly enough, James Gunn wasn’t even considering Russell to play Star-Lord’s father, but after Pratt suggested him for the part, the director jumped on board the idea. And things went so well between the two actors, Pratt asked his on-screen daddy to be his real-life daddy as well.

“I’m still waiting to hear on that,” he remarked. “‘Cause he’s got other children so I think that he’s gonna have to check with them to see if they want a brother, but I’m hoping they all say yes. [Laughs] No, I have a feeling that it’s one of those relationships that you meet somebody and you know that the relationship – although some relationships you meet someone, it’s fine when you’re on set, you’re gonna have a great working relationship with them, but you know that when the movie wraps there’s a likelihood that you probably won’t see one another unless you work together again. But I think it’s not that way with Kurt. I’m sure we’ll go hang out and do things together because we’ll talk for an hour and not have once mentioned anything about work, you know what I mean? It’s pretty cool.”

Dave Bautista

“It’s pretty great, man. [laughs] It’s pretty great,” shared Bautista, who is a YUGE fan of Russell’s work in 1981’s Escape from New York and 1986’s Big Trouble in Little China. “It was weird. I felt like such a fanboy. The first day, I was like, “I’ve got to ask you about this, man: How do you feel about the Rock being cast as Jack Burton?” And he was like, “Yeah, great.” I wanted to hear the opposite: “I think it’s sh-t. I think it’s sh-t casting, man. They cast the Rock as Jack Burton, I just don’t agree. Like, Chris Pratt to me is Jack Burton,” but that’s the fanboy in me, man. I take things like that personally. [laughs] But he doesn’t take that personally at all. He’s like, it’s the character you’re portraying, now it’s time to move on. Next character. But yeah, a lot of Snake Plissken stories going around, stuff like that. Constantly bugging him about what we want to know. What’s really weird, especially for someone — because he grew up in Hollywood, grew up in film, so it’s kind of weird to meet people that grew up in films who are still in touch with reality. I’ve met a few people and they’ve been sheltered their whole life and just totally out of touch, and Kurt is not like that at all. He’s like super down to earth and just a real dude and real friendly to everybody, and that’s kind of cool to see, because I’ve seen the opposite, so it’s really cool to see someone who comes on and just is real down to earth. There’s nothing superficial or pretentious about him. He’s been just very patient with everything. He’s never in a rush, he doesn’t keep to himself, he doesn’t separate himself from the cast, so it’s kind of cool.”

Pom Klementieff

“Oh, it’s amazing!” exclaimed Klementieff. “He’s amazing. He’s really nice. He’s really funny. He’s really professional, and it’s great to see him work and to see someone who’s done so many movies and who’s so down to earth, it’s great. They’re all like that in this movie. I feel really lucky.”

Karen Gillan

“All I want to do is watch him work, and I have watched him work,” Gillan offered. “And it’s like just getting a lesson on how to act basically. It’s really cool, it’s sort of unbelievable actually. I’m just like, ‘What’s happening?’ We get this whole thing, and he’s amazing and his character is going to be brilliant and he’s just really charming.”

Zoe Saldana

“I am a fan of his,” admitted Saldana, who grew up in the ’80s and loved watching Russell in Big Trouble in Little China and Tango & Cash (1989). “To get to work with a veteran of that scale and I’m really humbled.  And he’s fantastic.  An incredible human being.  And I’ve been also a great fan because he’s always been someone we’ve always talked about, my family on about being a good Father.  A really good man to his family.  So I get to work with a decent human being.  I’m really happy about that.  When you get old, you know, your time starts to mean everything to you.  So how you spend it and who you spend it with is very important.  And if I’m gonna spend 16 hours of my day at work, I better be fucking spending it with great people.  And Kurt Russell is a great person I have to say.”