Marvel Gave Brett Goldstein Just ‘Two Weeks’ to Prepare for His Hercules Cameo in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
Playing a Marvel superhero is a demanding task, especially in regard to the workout process. Actors like Chris Pratt and Kumail Nanjiani have undergone impressive transformations to become heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Brett Goldstein recently made his debut as Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder but he only had two weeks to get in the proper shape.
Brett Goldstein was surprised when he learned he was playing Hercules
Brett Goldstein had a brief cameo as Hercules, son of Zeus (Russell Crowe), in a post-credit scene in Thor: Love and Thunder. After Zeus is attacked by Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and survives, he tasks his son with fighting Thor in an act of vengeance. Many Marvel and Ted Lasso fans were pleasantly surprised to see Goldstein joining the MCU but no one was more surprised than the actor himself.
In an interview with The Playlist, Goldstein shared that his casting was announced to him “literally out of the blue.” He jumped on a zoom with Marvel and they explained to him what was happening.
“I was told that some Marvel people would like to have a Zoom with you, and I met with them and it was just so surreal because…it was literally out of the blue one night and I was very busy and it was like, ‘Can you make time for a Zoom?’ ‘Yes, sure.’” Goldstein said. “And they go on Zoom and they just told me what you see in the film, which is they sort of opened with, ‘So Russell Crowe is Zeus,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, OK, go on.’ And blah, blah, blah. And then they turn around and they reveal ‘It’s Hercules; it’s you.’ And I went, ‘What?’ Just like, ‘Are you serious? Are you f**king with me? Is this a wind-up?’ So yeah, it was as surprising to me as I think it has been to other people.”
Goldstein only had two weeks to prepare for Hercules
After getting the role, Goldstein was told by director Taika Waititi that the film was set to start shooting in two weeks. The Ted Lasso star said he was just a “skinny comedian” so he did not have a lot of time to get the muscles going for Hercules.
“When I spoke to Taika, I said, ‘You know I’m basically like a skinny comedian?’ I said, ‘When is this filming?’ It was like in two weeks, and I was like, ‘I mean, I’ll do my best, but two weeks feels …’ I said,’“He doesn’t have to be as big as Thor, does he?’ And look, on the day, I mean, I’m doing 400 pushups that day. I was fit to explode. I did the best I could on that day.”
For those who have seen Brett Goldstein as Hercules, he looks pretty great, so he must have worked very hard in the short timeframe he had.
Will Goldstein return in a future Marvel project?
The post-credit scene of Thor: Love and Thunder appears to be setting up a confrontation between Hercules and Thor. So, Brett Goldstein will most likely reappear as Hercules in a future project. What that project is still hasn’t been confirmed. Goldstein himself told The Playlist that he doesn’t know what his Marvel future looks like.
Thor: Love and Thunder is still in theaters.
