McMahon Hangs Ten In Four
Julian McMahon, who reprises the role of Dr. Doom in the upcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, told SCI FI Wire that he spent a lot of time dangling from cables 50 feet off the ground, surrounded by green screen. "I spent a month and a half doing that," McMahon said in an interview while promoting his upcoming film Premonition. "That was intense. The last month and a half of me shooting that was me in this outfit, which weighed, I think, between 40 and 60 pounds, depending on what cape I had on, which is a lot of weight to carry around. I was up on this [rig] about 50 or 60 feet high, with a half-cut-off surfboard."
At times, the Australian-born McMahon said he had to remind himself: "I am an actor!" He added: "Yeah, you just wonder what the hell you're doing there and if someone else should be doing this."
In the upcoming sequel, the title superhero quartet encounters a silvery extraterrestrial who is on a mysterious mission. Meanwhile, McMahon's villain from the first movie returns, with a nefarious agenda of his own.
Despite the discomfort, McMahon added that he welcomed the chance to perform his own stunts. "I didn't want anyone else to be doing that," he said. "I like doing the little things, like the hand stuff. No one else was going to do it the way that I wanted it to be done. I mean, particularly with Dr. Doom, ... and I only found this through the first movie, everything was happening through his hands. All the metallic stuff, it started in his hands, and he was doing all this stuff with his hands. So if they need a closeup of it or whatever it should be me doing it, because I know what I'm doing. It gives it that kind of feel. That's why I decided to get up on this green screen." Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer opens June 15. Mike Szymanski
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