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Spider Man Lizard Transformation

Rhys Ifans has proved to be a very versatile actor.Source:National Features

The serum regenerated his right arm, but it also transformed Connors into an inhuman reptilian creature. Seeking refuge in the sewers, he became an urban legend, dubbed 'The Lizard' by the press. A sympathetic Spider-Man sought out Conners who attacked the young hero until the Man-Thing happened upon the scene and restored Conners to human form.

WELSHMAN Rhys Ifans lets his lizard side loose as Spider-Man's arch nemesis, writes Neala Johnson.

You've played Hugh Grant's loopy housemate Spike in Notting Hill, Luna's dad in Harry Potter and the Earl who wrote Shakespeare's plays in Anonymous. Given that range, do directors cite very different reasons for wanting you?

  1. We all know the origins of Spider-Man, but what if an accident led Peter Parker on a different path, one a bit morescaly? Well than say hello to Your Friendly Neighborhood Lizard-Man! Taking place in the.
  2. Publication history. A junior high school student named Yu Komori (小森ユウ, Komori Yuu): A bright and intellectually-gifted, yet outcasted and withdrawn teen genius, is bitten by a radioactive spider during a scientific demonstration, which imbues him with spider-like superhuman abilities, like the U.S. Spider-Man, Peter Parker and after a tragic mistake committed by accidentally mis.

Yeah. Let's take Spike as a benchmark. The directors I admire are the ones who say, 'Let's obliterate that'. Because they know I'm versatile, they'll go, 'OK, let's get him doing something completely different'. If a director asks me to do that, that in itself is a reason to work with them.

Do you want to obliterate Spike?

The Amazing Spider Man Lizard Transformation Scene

I wouldn't obliterate him, but I'd like to maybe maim him.

You play the nemesis of Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. How do you describe Dr Connors?

He's a passionate, renegade scientist. He is at the foothills of a science that is very tangible in this day and age - it's just we haven't arrived at a point where we can explore cross-species genetics like we should. I guess, given his passion and his drive, he doesn't take the conventional route to support his scientific discoveries with any validation - he just wants the end result, which is his achilles heel.

Roland Emmerich said you would arrive on the Anonymous set as yourself, disappear into your trailer then emerge as a dandy earl. Did you emerge in full mad scientist mode on Spider-Man?

It's not that you take the role home. but I found with Connors, he's a very isolated man, very lonely, and I did have residual feelings of that at the end of the day. He's also a man with one arm and his mission in life is to regrow that arm. If you look at reptiles and lizards especially, as a species that's what they're able to do, regrow their limbs. So you can understand his obsession.

How did it feel to be transformed into a giant lizard?

Spider

Fantastic, really sexy. My closest friends would probably recognise me more as the lizard than they would as Dr Connors, to be honest (laughs).

Are the roles you're offered getting more interesting?

Well, they've always been interesting, they're just getting slightly bigger. Especially the last four or five years ... Sometimes a good wine takes time to mature. I'm very happy I have to say, particularly with the directors I've chosen to work with - Marc Webb, Noah Baumbach and Susanne Bier to name but three. Really interesting directors ... and interesting directors seem to like me.

Spider Man Lizard Toy

What do you think that says about you?

I don't know, it's a bit of a worry (laughs). I just think my approach to the work is very proletarian, if you like. I just do the job, it's very cut and clear.

The past five years, did something in particular change?

I guess I have. My focus has changed, I've got older ... it happens to people (laughs). I've matured as a person and consequently as an actor. There were periods where I wasn't enjoying my work so much, it flat-lined for a bit. I guess Mr Nice (a biopic of notorious Welsh drug smuggler Howard Marks) gave me an opportunity to play a larger role, and then Anonymous ... I just reminded myself, 'Hang on, I am capable of more than what I've been doing'. And if you feel that, people sense it.

So you were the veteran on the Spider-Man set with Andrew.

I was the daddy! A nice feeling. Andrew didn't need any advice. It's hard to advise a man in a Lycra suit as to what to wear!

Did you bond with Andrew?

We're both British, you know (laughs). I mean, please, we would have moments where we would be standing on this huge set and I would be in a white coat with round glasses like the most intelligent scientist in the whole world and Andrew would be there with his big Spider-Man costume and I would just be like (mimes elbowing his co-star), 'Can you f---ing believe this? I mean, my God!' And he's going, 'I know, I know'. Come on, you have to embrace the surrealism of it all.

Were you into Spider-Man as a kid?

I had no memory of being a Spider-Man fan as a kid until I was offered the job and then suddenly all these memories came flooding back. I remember getting a comic, I must have been six or seven, and you had to cut out the Spider-Man mask on the back of it, along the dotted line, and put two little pins where the eyes were and colour it red. I remember making that and wearing it and pretending to climb the walls in the house. Although it was my mother actually climbing the walls in our house (laughs).

You were able to do something different in Anonymous. Are you sad it flopped?

Yeah, I was disappointed. I do think it's a beautiful, graceful piece of work. I was prepared for it to cause a stir in England - a very necessary and healthy stir - but I had no idea the British press and academia and theatrical circles would respond so jingoistically towards it. I mean, they were vicious. It was like I'd done the Queen over the gates of Buckingham Palace, it was that bad! Which of course puts a huge smile on my face. Really, wiping your a--e with the Union Jack, that was. But sadly it did affect the film. I'm still approached by lots of people going, 'I don't know what the f---ing fuss was about'. The press really went to town. Even to the extent that they went to town on Roland because he's a German - I mean let that war go, guys! It all became about protecting this nebulous bastion called William Shakespeare. It was very revealing.

Do they still let you into the country?

Well, I've had no calls from the Royal Shakespeare Company, but who wants that?

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Originally published asRhys Ifans' Lizard transformation