Godzilla vs. Kong is putting all eyes on the titular Titans who are about to throwdown but the human element of the film will be a key part of the story, likely tying to why the two are feuding. Newcomer to the franchise Brian Tyree Henry is joining the fold in what is a role which has been a particularly exciting one, as he professes himself to bee a lifelong manga fan and huge lover of Godzilla content. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Henry checks in as Bernie Hayes, a former employee of Apex Industries who has teamed up with Millie Bobby Brown’s Madison to investigate and infiltrate the seemingly evil tech conglomerate.
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While visiting the Australian set of Godzilla vs. Kong in March of 2019, ComicBook.com heard from Henry and learned the first real details about Bernie Hayes. “He lost his wife along the way and kind of turned in on himself and decided to expose Apex for what it really is,” Henry explained. “He’s kind of like an inside conspiracy theorist, he runs his own podcast that kind of exposes what’s going on in this random world of technology we have found ourselves in and the corruptness of it all. Nobody knows that it’s his, because that’s just how Bernie flosses, and he ends up being befriended by these two kids – Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) and Josh (Julian Dennison) – to kind of embark on this journey with them to expose this industry that is kind of bringing amongst the destruction with Godzilla – and all the things going on with Godzilla and Kong.”
On the day of our time on set, Henry as Bernie was sneaking around beneath a control room set up inside of Ghidorah’s skull, avoiding armed Apex Industries guards and presumably Shun Oguri’s Ren Serizawa. “He just really wants to do what’s right for mankind and do what’s right for these kids and do what’s right for what he believes in himself – because he kind of saw this coming – like he kind of knew these things were gonna happen,” Henry says. “So he joins the adventure, and as we go along the way, there becomes this kind of bond between him and Madison where he understands what she’s lost and what she’s fighting against. He understands the work of her mother (Vera Farmiga in King of the Monsters) and father (Kyle Chandler) and he wants to continue that, but at the same time, he wants to make sure they’re safe.”
Henry, Brown, and Dennison are all quick to laugh together, in addition to separately praising each other’s work and the relationships they have developed. Together, this trio is firmly Team Godzilla when it comes down to a fight, but Bernie is above all “a defender of the truth.”
“He wants the truth to be revealed, and it just so happens that the team of Godzilla came to me first,” Henry explains. “He’s more intimate with the inner workings of Godzilla because part of him was there crafting and mastering whatever Apex told him to do, and I think because of his consciousness and because of his understanding that it’s not really providing a great service to the world, he left. He was like, ‘I can’t. I can’t do this. This can’t be it.’ But I think in the end, he’s a defender of humanity, he really cares about the human condition and how the human condition is kind of being diluted and no one really seems to care about the fact that Godzilla – be whatever god he or she is – is still a god and still living and breathing, and Kong is the same way.”
Want to talk more about Godzilla vs. Kong? Drop your thoughts in the comments or hit me up on Instagram. Godzilla vs. Kong hits theaters and HBO Max on March 31.
