Actor Josh Brolin, who portrayed Thanos in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, says that he had to experiment a lot with the character to achieve the acclaimed depiction on screen

Thanos is hands-down one of the best comic book villains of all time. Everything about him is very intimidating from his stature to his voice. However, to some extent he is very humane and someone whom we could sympathise with. In the comic books, the character has this weird motivation which was dubbed as ‘Obsession with Death’. The directors of Avengers Endgame, Russo brothers thought that this motivation was not impactful, mainly because there were elements of too much fantasy and the character of Lady Death had yet to be introduced.

Actor Josh Brolin who portrayed Thanos in Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, experimented a lot with the character to achieve the acclaimed depiction on screen. In today’s time, CGI has gone on to become extremely realistic. Despite this, the actor had a big challenge to portray an 8’3 tall formidable character so that the audience could connect with it and simultaneously, fear it.

Brolin said, “Earlier, we didn’t understand the nuances of the role. The Russo’s had the intentions and the relationship with Gamora, Nebula and all the others but it wasn’t until we started experimenting. We realised that there was a character where we could invest and everyone could sympathise with. I think that’s the biggest struggle we had to face.”

Fellow cast member Paul Rudd who portrayed Ant-Man in Avengers Endgame, said, “I think Thanos is a really complex and an amazing antagonist. When I saw Infinity War, I was thinking that what he is saying has logic behind it. Maybe, he is a psychopath and wants to destroy the world but he is equally soft at his heart. Nobody other than Brolin could have played it so well. It’s a perfect casting. He just exhumes the strength and poise that Thanos possesses. When you got so many heroes fighting, you got to be a formidable opponent which means you will be needing a formidable actor playing the character. Josh Brolin hit a home run with the character’s portrayal.”

(Catch the Mad Titan go against the Avengers on Star Movies on May 17 at 12 pm and 9 pm.)