“Morbius” stars Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona and director Daniel Espinosa discuss the comic book genre, what sets “Morbius” apart, the Marvel vs. DC debate, and much more in this exclusive interview with CinemaBlend.
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00:00 We'll see what happens, but I think, I don't know.
00:05 I think Morbius, Spider-Man,
00:08 that's a meeting that has to happen.
00:09 (dramatic music)
00:15 I do love horror.
00:25 I love elevated horror, elevated genre in general.
00:29 And I think that's what makes this different.
00:31 It's a big Marvel movie, but also has elements of horror.
00:35 It's a little darker and scary,
00:36 and that kind of makes it stand out in the crowd, I think.
00:40 Yeah, you know, I think what's really interesting
00:42 about the genre is that as a form,
00:45 it allows you to be quite, almost like Shakespeare does,
00:49 you can be quite big, you can make quite bold choices
00:52 because the universe is in itself quite big.
00:55 So you can be quite bold with the brush strokes
01:00 that you throw at the canvas, as it were,
01:01 for the less boring analogy.
01:03 And, you know, there's, I think there's a lot
01:09 of interesting parts being written
01:11 by a lot of great writers and a lot of great directors
01:13 are gravitating towards that sort of universe.
01:16 I love playing Michael Morbius.
01:19 I love the fact that I got to interpret this character
01:22 for the first time.
01:23 I don't look down on this movie.
01:25 I don't look down on the character.
01:26 I don't apologize for it.
01:28 I put it up alongside anything else
01:30 I've ever done in my life.
01:31 And I think audiences deserve from me my very best,
01:36 and I did my very best in this film, as best as I could.
01:40 I worked as hard as I could to bring this character to life.
01:43 It's very, it has a transformation that was very challenging
01:47 and for me, creatively exciting.
01:48 But no, I mean, I think that, you know, the best of Marvel,
01:53 the best of DC stand alongside the best of any other film.
01:56 I think it's ridiculous to suggest otherwise.
01:59 - I am Venom.
02:01 [gunshot]
02:02 I don't lose kids.
02:03 What's up, Doc?
02:04 - In almost all Spider-Verses or, you know,
02:07 the verses that existed in the Marvel universe,
02:11 if you read the comic books,
02:12 the whole idea of those kind of,
02:14 of that kind of, the Marvel string theory,
02:17 if you would call it, it's very related to, you know,
02:20 if you remember the alternative Seinfelds, you know,
02:25 it's that you have like a world
02:27 where you have the same characters
02:29 and it's all of the characters,
02:31 but they are slightly different, you know?
02:34 So in almost all the verses, you have Spider-Man,
02:38 but they will be different, you know, in tone.
02:42 That's not quite the way that the kind of
02:44 Marvel cinematic universe are approaching the idea.
02:49 Then you have the second kind of legend,
02:50 which is about the totem,
02:52 is that in all universes that there is a spider totem.
02:56 So, which means that in all universes,
02:58 there have to be a Spider-Man.
02:59 - We'll see what happens, but, you know, I think,
03:03 I don't know.
03:05 I think Morbius, Spider-Man,
03:08 that's a meeting that has to happen.
03:10 - You know, once you make a movie like this,
03:12 once you make a Marvel movie,
03:13 I think the second you finish the movie,
03:16 it's no longer yours.
03:17 It almost never feels yours.
03:19 You have a responsibility to sort of
03:22 make this movie for the fans.
03:25 And I think that's what we did.
03:26 So I felt it.
03:28 I was feeling the pain.
03:30 I was like, I just want them to see it.
03:32 I want them to enjoy it.
03:33 And I want them to be introduced to Michael Morbius
03:37 or reintroduced to Michael Morbius
03:39 and to meet Martin and to meet Milo.
03:42 And, you know, I'm very proud of the film that Daniel made.
03:46 - I have increased strength and speed
03:48 in some form of bat radar.
03:51 What else can I do?
03:53 - If you think of his power,
03:56 one of his powers are echolocation.
03:57 And the first time we saw it,
03:59 Noah was in, you know, Ben Affleck's "Daredevil," you know.
04:04 And there, what we always have done
04:06 is that the people that have echolocation have been blind.
04:09 So it's always been like this representation of a dark room
04:12 and then you have some kind of wave that goes through it
04:15 and you can see things in the dark room.
04:17 But what happens if you see,
04:18 if you are a seeing human being?
04:20 'Cause then you have to kind of adapt that kind of next,
04:23 you know, your third eye, if you would call it,
04:25 upon the visions of how you really perceive the world.
04:30 So then I thought "Psychedelia," man,
04:33 or, you know, that kind of vibe.
04:36 So then I thought, okay, it has to become "Psychedelia."
04:40 And then I started, you know, I'm a big comic book lover.
04:42 So I always loved how they drew powers, you know?
04:47 So then, you know, I was watching "Pokemon"
04:49 and I was like, I like that.
04:51 I like those waves.
04:52 I like those colors, you know?
04:54 I like that kind of expression.
04:55 And then we put that together
04:57 and started working out this idea
05:01 of the psychedelic version of the third eye.
05:05 - Just accept who you are.
05:07 - The bad guy.
05:10 You know, I love that kind of,
05:12 that ambiguous place between good and evil
05:16 that we dance in.
05:18 And I think that's exciting.
05:20 There's some complexity there
05:21 and I'd like to continue down that path for sure.
05:23 - Well, I think whoever you play with,
05:25 you sort of, on some level, you agree with them
05:29 because you're investing in their train of thought a bit.
05:32 Do you know what I mean?
05:33 And you can't really judge them too much, I find, you know,
05:37 because you've got to be on their side, bad or good.
05:40 Particularly if they are bad,
05:42 you've got to convince everyone that they're truthfully bad.
05:45 But I suppose, you know, the interesting thing about it is,
05:47 is can you find something in there that people latch onto,
05:50 whether they disagree with him or not and still like?
05:53 - You know, I hear people talk about Marvel DC,
05:56 but I think, look, there are great actors,
05:58 great directors, great writers, great artists,
06:01 great, you know, creative people on either side.
06:06 And, you know, a lot to enjoy with either side.
06:10 You know, a rivalry is not such a bad thing.
06:13 A little competition goes a long way
06:14 and it really helps, it pushes people to work harder,
06:18 to dig deeper.
06:19 And so I think that audiences probably benefit from that.
06:23 And I love Zack, I love the Snyder-verse
06:27 and, you know, I hope they keep on putting material,
06:30 putting work out.
06:31 - Jared is obviously, you know,
06:33 he's had 20-odd years at a really high level
06:36 and thrown out some great performances in many, many films.
06:40 So it was fantastic.
06:42 Yeah, yeah, he, you know,
06:44 he's obviously got a very invested process
06:46 and it was really interesting to sort of be part of that.
06:50 Yeah, it was a pleasure to see him work.
06:54 (dramatic music)
06:57 (dramatic music)
07:00 (dramatic music)
07:03 (upbeat music)