Getting to Know the Man Behind Fandral: Zachary Levi Interview

*I attended this event as a guest of Disney/Marvel/Dreamworks and any opinions are 100% my own.

Chuck Fans and Flynn Rider Lovers unite! Zachary Levi stars as Fandral in Thor: The Dark World and he brings fun fight scenes and an amusing Bris-guardian accent!

When we were in LA for the Thor: The Dark World Red Carpet Premiere, we got the amazing chance to interview Zachary Levi.

From the second he walked into the room, I couldn’t stop smiling. He has a contagious fun and happiness about it him that filled the room.

Question: (One of you Sweeties Fans sent in this question via Twitter!) How battered and bruised did you get during filming and what was the remedy for the pain?

Answer: Overall it was a pretty well oiled machine of a set and he didn’t get that battered and bruised. He never really felt at risk of injury as he wasn’t doing nearly as much stuff as Chris Hemsworth was doing.

He was reasonable safe and didn’t get too hurt other than a dislocated rib that was a freak accident and he slammed his finger in his trailer door, which is pretty unglamorous. The remedy was ice and alcohol.

Question: Were you nervous about taking the role of Fandral and being apart of a huge franchise?

Answer: Levi was nervous about coming in and having any ill-will, if there was going to be any, knowing that Josh ??? played Fandral in the first Thor. Levi was originally going to be Fandral but his schedule with Chuck prevented it.

Not everyone knew that and he didn’t want anyone to feel like he was coming in and taking someone’s job away. Josh did a fantastic job playing Fandral but his schedule on Once Upon a Time prevented him from doing Thor: The Dark World.

So what happened to Levi, happened to Josh and came back around. Being apart of the Marvel Universe is nothing to be nervous about. You should celebrate that. You get to be apart of this incredible comic book and the incredible lineage, family, and universe they have built.

The first day on set, Tom Hiddleston gave him and hug, said, welcome, and that he was glad he was able to finally come do it. He wasn’t nervous beyond that.

Question: Did you bring a little bit of Flynn Rider’s charm to your role as Fandral? (This question was asked by a blogger whose 4 year old daughter loves Flynn Rider. When Levi heard this he said: Oh fanta….well you tell her Eugene Fitz Harbor said hi! How cool is he?! )

Answer: Sure, yeah. You bring a little of yourself to every role and it’s really just a matter of like. Lots of dials of characters from charming, to trustworthy, loving, menacing, nerdy.

He feels like he has played his share of nerdy characters and that’s an easy dial for him. But, Flynn Rider was a dream come true. He grew up doing nothing but watching Disney Cartoons and Movies, and particularly musicals and loving all of them.

He dreamed about getting to do just that. Flynn Rider and Fandral the Dashing are much more similar than people realize. Flynn ended up becoming more of his own intonation voice. but there is a parallel charm with Flynn and Fandral.

Fandral is much more British as he is Asgardian and they speak with a British accent. So Bris-guardian as he called it.

Question: Were you a fan of Marvel comics before starring in Thor: The Dark World?

Answer: Absolutely! He went through phases depending on how old he was. He really liked X-Men and the whole mutant category like X-Force and X-Factor. Also Spiderman, Iron Man, and Captain America to an extent.

Mutants were relatable because as a kid you thought maybe I have that in me and it just hasn’t manifested yet. Like I can get to place where I will realize I am superhuman and it’ll be great.

Thor is actually a unique character among all the comic books because he wasn’t an irregular guy thrust into extraordinary situations. He’s a god. How do you relate to that guy?

Marvel has done a very good job bringing  the god down to earth and having him relatable to human beings. They did a great job bringing Jane Foster into Thor. Having Thor fall for a human and be able to realize what it is to be humanly through her, a little bit.

The other humans he interacts with and  encounters in Thor continues into The Avengers and Thor: The Dark World. Kudos to Marvel for understanding Thor is a difficult character to relate with on the surface. He’s not a human being, but every other Marvel character is. When you get everyone into one comic, it’s a one stop shop, like The Avengers.

Question: How was it performing the Tangled Song at the Oscars?

Answer: The most nerve-racking experience of his life and he’s surprised he didn’t wet himself at any point during the performance. It was a dream come true and one he didn’t even realize was a dream until it was happening.

As a performer he has dreamed of performing on Broadway and now he has finally gotten to do that, which is incredible. He feels so incredibly blessed to have that opportunity in his life., blessed on every level.

Since Levi was a little kid, all he wanted to do was entertain people and do film, television, and theater at the highest level. God continues to go “Here You Go”, “Here You Go”, Here You Go” and he knows that doesn’t happen to most people in the world so he doesn’t take it lightly.

Rarely does he think people sit around and dream about singing at the Oscars. It’s such a weird niche little thing. Then he got to do it and and was like “oh my god”, not only am I doing something that very few people get to do, but I’m doing something that very few people even think about doing.

It’s monumental and you are doing it in front of the largest audience that see anything televised. He thanks god his publicist didn’t tell him that a billion people would be watching worldwide.

It’s nerve-racking though. You come out and everyone you could ever dream about wanting to work with, or work with, or hire you, or don’t hire you depending on how bad you bomb.

You know, Halle Berry is sitting up front. Basically all he was thinking was don’t look at Halle, don’t look at Halle, don’t look at Halle, don’t look at Halle, Halle, Halle, Halle, Halle, don’t look at Halle. It’s very intimidating, she’s a beautiful woman.

They rehearsed a lot and he was nervous. He prayed about it a lot and was like okay I got peace about this and we’re going to do good. Then the days comes and he was doing the Red Carpet for the Oscars and was like “This is insane!” Then he got his cue and got pulled from the crowd and was like “Okay, I’m cool. I’m cool. I’m cool.”

His heart started pounding out of his chest when they introduced him and Mandy Moore. He was like “Oh my god, I can’t do this. I can’t do this.” He was looking for a stage manager to get a couple more minutes but you can’t because it’s live. So he went on auto pilot and blacked out a little bit.

All he was saying was “Look at Mandy. Look at Mandy” and he finished and they finished strong. If you look back at the taping you will see him look over, smile and wink at Moore   to say “hey we did it, we made it through.”

Question: Coming from Chuck and Flynn, what is it like to play a badass?

Answer: Bad ass is what it feels like. He got to do some really fun stuff with Chuck, kissed a lot of beautiful women, and had some great fight scenes. Getting to play a guy that is bad ass is fun. Plus he’s blonde and British.

A lot of people didn’t know Fandral was Levi until the credits. He got tweets saying “oh my god that’s the guy who played Chuck” and that is the greatest thing he could ever hear.

He thinks any actor hopes their performance and look  and whatever you do is so transcendent that people don’t even know it’s you. They’re lost in whatever the character is until the end. He really liked playing a bad ass, Fandral, and hopes to play more roles like that.

After the interview, Zachary Levi took a few second to snap a photo with all of us! Isn’t he wonderful?!

Photos Courtesy of MomStart.com, Disney, and Marvel

*I attended this event as a guest of Disney/Marvel/Dreamworks and any opinions are 100% my own.