“Wrath of the Titans” brings the battle back
to the mythical land of Gods and monsters in a fight of epic proportions;
bigger and bolder than ever before. We spoke with stars  Liam Neeson (Zeus) and Sam Worthington (Perseus) about bringing the Gods to life and the
importance of family this time around.

The film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, is now playing.

The film also stars Ralph Fiennes (Hades) and newcomers  Edgar Ramirez (Ares) and Toby Kebbell (Agenor).

For our hero Perseus, this time it’s
personal. Having survived his first encounter with the Underworld in Medusa’s
lair ten years earlier, Perseus has tried to forget the demons of the past and
lead a peaceful fisherman’s life with his son. But he’s given no choice when
the war comes to him and he can no longer deny his demigod identity or his
place on the battlefield.

H: How does “Wrath of
the Titans” differ from “Clash of the Titans”?

Liam Neeson: Johnathan (the director) hit on something really important; he always
brought it down to the story. We knew there were going to be 257 explosions in
this particular instance, but he always brought it down to our characters and where our journey was at that moment.

H: It was great to
see Mount Olympus come to life on screen again, but this time the role of
family seemed more important, even to the Gods – why is
that?

Sam Worthington: I think with this Greek mythology thing, it’s not
a history lesson, these movies have never been like that for me. We just
utilized and mined this great field of characters and creatures and situations
and journeys to create our own
mythology and create our stories. And I get excited by that.

H: You guys are
playing some big names here – Perseus, Zeus, Agenor –  as an actor, how do you prepare to play a
God?

LN: I think you need to treat them as ungod-like as
possible otherwise you’d be totally intimidated.

SW: Yeah, he’s dad. Ares is my brother. You kind of have to do that a bit to be grounded. Don’t
get caught up in the fact that these guys are Gods.

H: Sam, Liam, what did
you want to do differently in ‘Wrath’ compared to ’Clash’?

LN: I just wanted more interaction with my son and my
brothers essentially, which I think this certainly provided. It touched on
those dynamics of how Hades and Zeus became separated and the jealousy that
drove them apart. And a father son relationship we can all relate to.

SW: I’ve been pretty vocal about how I felt about the first
one and what I did in the first one. I haven’t done that in a way of putting
the first one down at all, I just think for me it’s my responsibility to try in
this one to create a character rather than just do it for the action. I think
that by coming up with a different dynamic or the theme of responsibility for
basically a dysfunctional family who just happen to be gods, or monsters, you
just keep going back to that. Liam said it earlier, an action theme is always
okay, but, does this relate to a family? If you look at the first Chimeron chase,
it’s me chasing after my son, it has nothing to do with a monster.

H: Liam, what was it
like working with your old friend Ralph Fiennes again?

LN: Friend? You said we were friends? (Laughs) No, he is, he’s one
of my dearest, oldest friends. It was terrific, when we did the first one,
‘Clash of the Titans’, we found it hard to act with each other, so I would look
at his forehead and he would look at my forehead because sometimes if we made
eye contact it got quite silly. But we were more restrained this time and we
had a lot more deeper darker issues to act so we didn’t laugh as much.

H: Sam, did you get
hurt in the film?

SW: I don’t like to talk about that. I have mates who play
rugby so they think I’m a pussy actor. I
got nothing. A couple of odd bruises but
that’s the nature of this type of film. That’s just part of investing yourself
in these weird action things where there you are fighting a guy in a green suit
or some type of a monster. Maybe it’s because when you do Australian films you
only get one or two takes. You’re told to keep going no matter what.

H: Sam, this film has
more complex special effects and an even larger sense of scale than the last. Did
you take the same approach to the CGI this time or find a different way to
interact with it?

SW: A more
improved version of interacting in the sense that in this one Johnathan is very
good at combining the practical with the special effects. A lot of the explosions are real, a lot of the trees
going up are real, so you’re dealing with an abundance of practical kind
of stuff to interact with. And then both he and I, we would bring the special
effect guys on set a lot more. We realized that you have to work in tandem because the special effects can
come in five, six months later down the track… You just keep improving and refining it. Therefore the interaction between us and the CGI becomes more organic.

H: Liam, you
also have to deal with special effects although not as frequently as Sam. How do you
approach CGI and how do you maintain character throughout?

LN: Well I’m from the old school, from the first “Star Wars,” in
which we used colored tennis balls and I kind of like my tennis balls. I got used
to them you know. So, we had a lot of little bits of colored tape as well and
if you have to act sometimes to bits of tape, that’s okay. 

H: Now that 3D movies
are no longer a novelty, what do you have to do to attract an audience?

SW: Make it good! I’ve been in the one that
was most revered and most hated…But if used correctly I’ve always
said it can draw you into a world and with movies like this CG is perfect. If used incorrectly,
you can give someone an aneurism. It takes you out of the story. Audiences are smart, they know when you just
put the 3D on to get money…

H: Growing up I
always liked to watch villains more than heroes. Who was your favorite villain
or monster to fight in this movie?

SW: I like all of
them. It’s how do you make them different. As I said before, me and Johnathan
looked at movies like “Die Hard” and “Lethal Weapon” and Westerns. It’s how they kind of take these action scenes and ground
them and create a villain that’s worth booing. Hades, to his credit creates a
villain worth booing at the start. Kronos itself is a villain worth booing.

H: You went to
the Canary Islands to shoot at least part of the movie in its perfect landscape
– did you have any trouble shooting on location?

SW: Johnathan
and I talked about it – the great thing about these movies is that you have to
have them going to these great ethnic places. That’s what helps you tell the
story, you can’t buy Tenerife, you can’t buy the big pit Mayans of Wales,
you couldn’t build that in the back of a studio. So it’s a lot of fun and when
you’re in those situations I love it. I think its gets you out of the green
screen for a bit.

H: Director Johnathan is in the room and it’s a perfect opportunity to ask him about adding a Latino actor to the cast. Could you tell us about casting and bringing in newcomers Edgar Ramirez?

Johnathan: For me what was incredible about the first film was
the cast – this very unexpectedly incredible cast for a spectacle movie. So, we
wanted to at least maintain that level of interesting casting. Edgar had a great
role in ‘Carlos’ and what he brings to Ares which is surprising is a real
vulnerability and a hurt. Because Ares you could easily see as someone who is
just cardboard and evil. But Edgar really focused on making Ares a hurt vulnerable
character.

H: Why is it
important to continue to tell these stories and why do you think they’ve
survived?

LN: These stories tap into everyone in the
world…any time you go through a trial or ordeal you have the opportunity to
learn something that advances society onward. I should write that down (laughs).

SW: (Laughs) Yeah, I’m going to write that down.
I just feel that there were themes, big themes (in this movie), like destiny,
and responsibility and these big kind of family values that are
still relevant to us today. And, that’s why you’ve  got these mythological tales or Shakespeare
or these big folk-like tales that survived, because we can find
relevance in them and our own society, in our own way now. That’s why they
survived.

LN: They explain our place in the world.