LOS ANGELES — As a grieving, vengeance-ridden father in Friday’s “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” Kyle Chandler flirts with the dark side. And the digital one.
Creating in a CG world demands an actor focus on a tennis ball rather than the angry behemoth that moviegoers see and understand distances and size as the action unfolds.
“The greatest benefit for us when you’d have only tape or a tennis ball there was our first A.D. (Assistant Director) Cliff Lanning, who is the greatest at what he does,” Chandler, 53, said.
“He has this energy and is just a good human being. He kept us very in tune with what was going on and that made it.”
Chandler plays Dr. Mark Russell, a specialist in animal behavior and communication, who is no longer Mr. Nice Guy.
His only son died in Godzilla’s San Francisco rampage that ended 2014’s “Godzilla.” As this sequel begins, Russell’s long been estranged from his daughter Madison (Millie Bobby Brown) and his ex (Vera Farmiga).
Determined to murder mighty Godzilla, a bitter Russell cut ties with his wife and key members of Monarch, the crypto-zoological agency that tracks Godzilla.
“I could see where my guy comes off pretty strong at first,” Chandler said, explaining, “These are big movies with big scripts that have to be cut down. So things get trimmed — and some of the things you work for don’t necessarily work.
“My character at the beginning is angry. Look, I’ve been part of (Monarch) and all these people before and I left it. Some of the characters I knew intimately.
“Later that changed to ‘Who are you?’ And Thomas (Middleditch as the Monarch technology director) turned on me to keep my wife involved.
“When they first land I know bad things are coming. Did I know my daughter has been kidnapped? No but I knew they were responsible.
“So that was my choice: I’m angry at this group, I’m angry at the world.”
As one actor able to choose his roles, like the current Hulu series “Catch-22,” Chandler found “Godzilla” irresistible because, “The 10-year-old in me said, ‘Yes, Kyle, it’s Godzilla.’
“But there has to be a heart to the story. I understand family, I have a family, and those dynamics are really fun to play. I am blessed to have variety to do. The next thing is a little small project, very intimate.”