Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star Jonathan Majors has revealed his villainous Kang the Conqueror was heavily inspired by Heath Ledger’s Joker.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the actor explained that seeing Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight was a turning point in his young life.
“Okay, first of all, he’s gorgeous,” Majors said. “He’s got this fucking jawline, and he didn’t care. He threw his body away. He was so full. And I was like, ‘I’m going for him. “I am inspired.” It takes a lot, you know what I mean, to be inspired.”
But it wasn’t just Ledger’s physique that inspired him. In December, Majors penned an essay on The Dark Knight for Variety, drawing attention to its complex portrayal of good and evil.
“The Dark Knight so vividly records the agnostic morality of survival and the discipline of kindness,” he wrote. “Each stage of our life leads us to be the hero or the villain of our story.”
The actor also spoke about the difficulty of navigating between good and evil, having been surrounded by crime during his childhood.
“People I grew up with, drug dealers, murderers, everyone was coming out of jail. They all had ankle monitors. So I knew the complexity of the guys I grew up with,” a- he explained, “Yeah, they did that, but they also did this. And what I saw in Heath, and in everything he did, is: it’s this and that .
Elsewhere in the interview with EW, Majors discussed the daunting task of becoming the MCU’s next big bad.
“I’m stepping into something that’s so huge, so mega,” he said, “I’m humbled, I’m excited. I’m full of energy. I have an undying passion for it, and I know that I don’t do it alone.”
And he adds: “There is the pressure and all the support. Of [el presidente de Marvel Studios Kevin] hasta fig [el productor Stephen] Broussard, passing Tom Hiddleston, [que] He texts me from time to time saying, ‘What’s up?’ It was amazing.”
Early reactions to Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania have been mostly positive, with most critics focusing their praise on Majors’ performance.