Going in to this interview, we had assumed by asking Sofia Boutella (Kingsman, Star Trek) on playing the eponymous antagonist in this rebooting of The Mummy franchise, she’d list off all the reasons why it was a role she couldn’t turn down. But we were wrong – for the actress instead rejected the part initially, only to be won round before donning the terrifying attire of this treasured cinematic villain.
“I said no, I was afraid to play a monster, weirdly enough. I was afraid of playing a monster who just walks around scaring people with no depth, because in the original, which I’m a massive fan of, and loved growing up watching, what I love are the layers you see Boris Karloff give to the character to make it relevant to the story and circumstances. We don’y exactly know the story but it’s felt and it’s done in such finesse, I admire it,” she continued.
“So when I was asked I thought I was just going to be the monster for no specific reasons, and I said that to representation and Alex [Kurtzman] still wanted to meet, and we sat down and he shared with me his passion for the originals and his wants and needs to give them a homage, and we made sure we were on the same page, which we were, and after I thought, I felt a great pressure to play this role now, over 80 years since the Boris Karloff one, and he had the character iconic and the movie iconic, and we all wanted to give it a proper respect.”
Boutella also discussed with the challenging on then making the character her own while remaining faithful to The Mummy brand, and how her own experiences as a dancer helped her with then physicality of the role at hand. Finally, since The Mummy is kickstarting the new Universal Monster’s Universe – we wanted to know if she’d be keen to feature as this character on another occasion…
Watch the full interview below…
The Mummy is released on June 9th
