Imagine being an actor that was just gifted with a role of a lifetime. Now imagine having that gift repeat itself, not once or twice, but three times. In a world where consistently working actors are one in a million, Andre Tricoteux is about to break the mold by landing roles in two blockbuster films.
Next year he’ll be starring in the highly anticipated Deadpool. After that we’ll see him as an Orc War Captain in Warcraft. Let’s not forget to mention that he’s starring in Kindergarten Cop 2 alongside “The Governator” himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger. However, right now, he’s talking with The Koalition about what we can expect from these two major adaptations.
In Fox’s Deadpool, Tricoteux is replacing Daniel Cudmore as Piotr “Peter” Nikolaievitch Rasputin. A Russian mutant, the character is a member of the X-Men who is by far the physically strongest member of the team; being able to transform into a powerful metallic form. Even without his powers, he is a physically imposing figure who stands at six feet-seven inches tall. As seen in the hilarious red band trailer, he goes one-on-one with Ryan Reynolds, who plays the titular role of Deadpool. Unlike the character’s appearance in previous adaptations, we will see a lot more of the metal behemoth.
Becoming Colossus and becoming an Orc would seem like a lot pressure, right? Not for Tricoteux.
“Not really, actually it’s just a lot of excitement and anticipation. I’m just one spoke in the wheel, right? So the pressure is kind of spread out. It would be different, I guess, if I was in Ryan’s shoes or Travis’ shoes, or Tim’s or Duncan’s shoes.They carried a bit more of the load.”
Unlike other roles Tricoteux has played, these two movies are adaptions, one from a video game (Warcraft), and the other from comic books (Deadpool). For some actors, approaching an established character is different from playing an original creation. However, the process for this actor was the same as any other character.
“It’s the same if I’m playing any other character. I do my research, figure out what’s on the page in terms of what the story is and how your character fits into that story. I then hone my character, figure out who he is, how he fits into the world around him, and bring myself into it.”
One of the many processes Tricoteux had to undergo was the use of special effects. While we’re sitting comfortably in the movie theater, all we see is the final product. We often forget about the multitude of cameras, heavy makeup, and green screen that is behind the scenes. As Colossus, he had to deal with a mo-cap suit, dots placed all over his body, and a tennis ball on his head as a frame of reference for the special effects team.
“It’s definitely challenging. I’m used to it now because I’ve had quite a bit of experience with it. There are different challenges with all actors in different roles, you just have to take those challenges and learn to work with them and kind of ignore them or not let them affect your performance. Those are challenges in every role. I wouldn’t say they hurt, you just have to learn how to work with it. Some prosthetics, depending on if it’s real prosthetics, I actually enjoy since it helps you get into character. The time in the makeup chair gets me centered and focused on the day. In terms of the CGI cameras and the motion capture, it’s just a challenge you have to work with.”
For fans of the Deadpool comic book and the World of Warcraft video game, one of their many fears about movie adaptations is that they’ll deviate away from the original storylines and make a complete mess of characters that were held in admiration. We’ve already witnessed Deadpool’s character be mishandled in X-Men: Origins, and while the Colossus character wasn’t completely decimated, he was greatly underused in X-Men 2 and 3. However, this time around, things will be different.
“Tim had a really clear vision of what they wanted from the Colossus character. It’s very important for them to present what was true to the original comic book story. So we really concentrated and focused on keeping it true to the comics. That being said, Tim [Miller]’s a very generous director, he gives his performers a lot of leeway to bring themselves into the role. He was pretty generous in kind of letting me do my thing, but it was very clear from the onset when we first met and talked about the expectation of the role and what they were looking for, so we kind of focused on keeping it true to the original comic books while also bringing my own personality into it. [In regards to Warcraft], the game producers were partnered with the studio on Warcraft. They really wanted to make sure their core fan base and hardcore Warcraft fans would be happy with this movie, so they kept it very true to the game. The fans of the game will be very happy.”
Fox’s Deadpool will release in theaters on February 12, 2016, while Warcarft is coming to theaters on June 10, 2016. Check out the Warcraft teaser trailer below. The full trailer will be released this Friday.
