Russell Crowe did all of his Zeus scenes in 'Thor: Love and Thunder' twice because Taika Waititi couldn't decide on which accent to use
The actor did the scenes once in a Greek accent and then again in a British accent. Waititi said he decided on Greek during post-production.
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- Russell Crowe wanted to play Zeus with a Greek accent.
- However, Waititi wasn't sold and had him shoot his scenes once in a Greek accent and then in a British accent.
- "Russell was right all along," Waititi said. They went with the Greek accent.
It might seem like a no-brainer that Russell Crowe would be speaking with a Greek accent to play Zeus in "Thor: Love and Thunder," but writer-director Taika Waititi wasn't convinced when they shot the movie.
In fact, Crowe did all his scenes twice, one time with a Greek accent and a second time with a British accent, Waititi told Insider.
"We actually talked at length about the accent," he said. "We wondered if someone did a Greek accent of a Greek god, is it going to be a farce? Will it be too silly?"
However, Crowe was very much in the camp of doing the god with a Greek accent. So Waititi came up with a compromise.
"We ended up doing two versions of every take with Russell," he said. "One in a Greek accent and then another in a British accent. Because I felt people would think Zeus would sound British like Laurence Olivier in "Clash of the Titans." In the 1981 movie based on the Greek myth of Perseus, English actor Olivier plays Zeus.
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"It's actually more offensive to the Greeks to have Zeus sound like he's British," he said. "And test audiences loved the Greek accent. I'm really happy with it. But, yeah, he had to do every take once in the Greek accent and once with a British accent because I couldn't make up my mind. But Russell was right all along."
In "Love and Thunder," Thor (Chris Hemsworth) looks for the support of Zeus to take on Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). However, it leads to Thor not getting help and instead has his clothes flicked off by Zeus.
"Thor: Love and Thunder" is currently playing in theaters.