Hey folks, Thomas Haden Church was in Seattle today promoting his new film for DreamWorks Animation, Over the Hedge, in which he provides the voice for “the Verminator,” a pest exterminator brought in to rid the neighborhood of some pesky wildlife. Now, while I can’t give you a full review of the film yet I will say it is definitely one to keep your eye out for. On top of that I will be sharing the full interview with Thomas a bit closer to its May 19 release date. However, I was able to talk to him a bit about his part as Flint Marko, a.k.a. The Sandman, in the upcoming Spider-Man 3.
Filming on Spider-Man 3 has been going on for a while now and Haden Church even tells me he was been working out for 13 months to play the role. I was also told that the production still [teased above] that hit the Net is indeed an actual shot from the film, and not just a promo shot. It is from some filming that was done in L.A. a while back. As for what was said in the interview, here it is:
HADEN CHURCH: Going great. Sam is a terrific actor’s director. Tobey [Maguire] and the rest of the team, crew and cast, are very humble and very thankful for the success that franchise has had and it’s just really a pleasure to work on what is a huge movie, but it’s being crafted by very personally responsible and personable craftsmen.
QUESTION: What was it that attracted you to Spider-Man 3?
HADEN CHURCH: I wanted to work with Sam Raimi. That’s it, in the singular that’s it. I got very close to working with Sam several years ago on The Gift and I vowed if the opportunity presented itself I was going to do everything I could to close on it and Spider-Man came up and Sam asked me to play Sandman and I didn’t have to think about it to long. He is a terrific and truly brave director.
QUESTION: You look like you have bulked up, how much weight have you gained for that Spider-Man 3 role?
HADEN CHURCH: My weight is about the same as what I weighed in Sideways, but in Sideways Alexander [Payne] asked me to just get fat. For Sideways I gained about 20 pounds and then I dropped it after the movie because I felt horrible and I was horribly out of shape. On Spider-Man I have put on about 20 pounds, but it’s been lean muscle and I have a nutritionist and I have trainers in L.A. and trainers in Texas and it’s just been very intense for about the last 13 months. It’s been very intense weight-training regimen, but no cardio, because as I have learned cardio is the enemy of muscle. They wanted me more bulky than lean but my body fat is pretty low, but I have to attribute that to diet and pretty intense weight training regimen. I work out about 5-6 days a week for about an hour and a half every day. Pretty intense, you burn a lot of calories.
For more on Over the Hedge click here and for more on Spider-Man 3 check it out right here.
