leading from
Still collating
a) Changes for Noomi from her previous reserved behaviour
Normally Noomi didn't want to talk too much on the set, such as when she did the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, she would spend most of the time sticking to herself and sit in the corner, drink her coffee and not interact with people, and so she couldn't explain her behaviour on the set of Prometheus because she was in for conversation
While on the set, Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace didn't really talk about what they were doing with their characters to each other. Noomi would be about to tell him "I might do this"
Michael was more the sort of person to say "show it to me and surprise me in the scene. Just do it, you know. It's my job to be able to respond to you".
Later they would reflect on their roles through interviews.
b) Noomi differentiates between Fassbender and his character David
Noomi looked at people through the idea of energy, and Michael's energy was so different on set and she was trying to work out what was going on in him trying to read him and she couldn't understand if he was being sarcastic or ironic, or if he was trying to make fun of her.
It was if the character David the robot was coming through which was different from the way that Michael normally was.
c) Puttng together the David character
See: Michael Fassbender plays David the android
d) Comparison's between David and Elizabeth Shaw
Noomi saw a childlike similarity between David and her character Elizabeth Shaw, since he is also childlike and curious about the outside world.
Fassbender agreed that he thought that was why David took a particular interest in her, even while she was in cryostasis, while she's asleep and he goes into her dreams and Fassbender thought that this was an intrusive things to do to her, but he was curious about her throughout.
Her character would be seen to make making her various discoveries and there's something about her that's different from the rest of the crew members, a certain curiosity.
So Fassbender thought that David was investing in her more than he is any of the other crew members on board, and so found her a interesting case.
Perhaps David was fascinated that she was a scientist and yet she had a belief, this faith which we know little about but she is using science to prove her faith and so David likes the the film Lawrence of Arabia and so David would be comparing her to Lawrence of that film, having a clear vision and going to get tto it no matter what
 |
| Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw |
Noomi thought of Shaw as being innocent at the beginning.
She has built her whole life on the idea that when she was young, she made a decision to believe, to search for answers and not just accept the things we see instead of going down a path of destructive living that could have been a result of her father dying when she was young and her mother dying when she was a baby.
So she was geared into thinking outside of the box.
But it resulted in a sense of conflict, a contradiction between being an archaeologist, a scientist and a believer, but being a believer made her strong in the most critical part of the movie.
 |
| A shot from Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O'Toole |
f) David in relation to Lawrence of Arabia
In the movie, one sees how David likes the film Lawrence of Arabia which starred Peter O'Toole.
One might take a look at the Lawrence of Arabia character and see that he was someone who was thinking as both an English man and an Arab and didn't seem to belong to either group in the end, being an outsider which David also was, as the only robot on the expedition.
The human's treat him with a fair amount of contempt.
However Noomi's view was that people treated David with contempt only when he misbehaved and that when he did what he was programmed to do, everybody was nice to him.
g) Holloway falls victim to David
It would be Fassbender's first scene with another actor in the movie, and David was wandering around the ship and he needed a guineau pig and the reason was purely scientific.
The reason why he went for Doctor Holloway, the character presented himself to David.
Noomi thinking as Shaw might wonder why he didn't pick one of the cruel people in the ship, but then it was Holloway who was being mean to David anyway.
But since Holloway was Shaw's boyfriend, Noomi's view was that Holloway was like an open target because he was so restless, childish and immature in a way, and desperate and angry, so perhaps he would do everything and anything without thinking, but she was not entirely sure, and neither was Michael
h) Noomi's realisation about David
Noomi understanding was that David was not supposed to have his own agenda and when Noomi was being Elizabeth, she would have to correct herself and remind herself that David was a robot, a computer and then at one point in the movie, she would feel this huge rage, and anger towards him and then remind herself that he was a hard disk with no soul or emotions, and he wouldn't really understand her as a human who has a soul.
Elizabeth Shaw would be the heart and soul in the movie and David the brains, and they could be a good team.
Fassbender agreed with this point of view although he saw his character as a hard arse/ass rather than a hard disc.
i) Shaw comparing to Noomi
In comparison to Noomi, Shaw was much more fragile, humble and vulnerable, but she is a survivor with the kind of instinct of never giving up or giving in, and always found a way to pull herself together and stand up again.
Source Quote;
- Charlie: Who is David?
Michael: Erm, I don't know. I think he's a walking question mark. That's what I, sort of wanted to give to him.
Charlie: There are a lot of questions in this movie
Noomi: Oh yeah
Michael: Yeah
Charlie: Big questions
Noomi: Big questions is funny because we've been doing interviews together now and obviously we see David quite different. You know, for me , he's erm, because Michael's energy was so different on set, it was quite, it was really interesting you know, because I was trying to figure out what was going on in him, and trying to read him and I was really like, because I couldn't understand if he was sarcastic or ironic, or if he was trying to make fun of me, because your energy was really different from today and that must have been David. You know, and I realised, like when I met you afterwards when we finished Prometheus, and I was like must have been the robot in you
Charlie: So what was that in you?
Michael: Er, I expect
Charlie: Is that how you saw David
Michael: Er, you know, and that was something that Ridley and I sort of discussed right at the beginning, he was like "I want this quality of this character, where you're looking at him and you're like, is this guy, you know, messing with me or is he being serious, is he sarcastic or sincere and that's kind of like throughout the whole time with the audience and the other crew members," we wanted to sort of have that, that quality to the character. But essentially for me, he he's a he's he's somebody who's curious, he he his whole thing is information, to take as much information, to get information, process it and he's quite child like in that respect, you know the way with children, everything is new to them, and
Noomi: It's kind of interesting, I never thought of that before, they are actually similar in that sense. You know, Elizabeth, because she was also childlike, and and curious
Michael: And I think that's why you know, David does take a particular interest in in in Elizabeth, i, even while she is in Cryostasis, while she's asleep. I think it's because you know he finds her a fascinating case, she's a scientist yet she's, she's got this belief, this faith, er, which you know, nothing sort of, well she's using science to prove her faith
Charlie: Is she at the beginning, an innocent?
Noomi; Yuh, I think, I love that line, she, you know, I have in the movie when I say "this is what I choose to believe" because I really think that she kind of, she built her whole life on that, she made a decision when she was young to believe, instead of, instead of going into destructive living, you know, because she lost her father when she was young, she lost her mother when she was a baby, erm, so she could have gone a totally different direction, but she, she made a decision to believe and to, to search for answers and not just accept the things we see, kind of look behind, erm, and think outside the box, so I think she kind erm, and in the, it's the great conflict, it's a contradiction in her between you know, the archaeologist and the scientist and the believer, and I think it's actually the believer in her that makes her strong in the most, erm, critical moment in the movie.
Charlie: Now, is this a prequel to, to Alien?
Michael: Erm, no
Charlie: Ridley has talked about this, been saying that it is or isn't
Michael: Er, well, you know, we've been told to say that it is (laughter)
Noomi: Well, maybe it is
Michael: It it, you know. I think that maybe the origins of this project, it was, it was, erm, it was looked at as a prequel, and then I think it er Ridley sort of started to delve more into this idea about who is this guy in the, in the space ship in the first alien
Charlie: The one they found then
Michael: Exactly who became the...
Charlie: Who is he
Michael: Well this is it. He's
Noomi: Is this it. But that's Ridley, you know, you never know, maybe he has a masterplan. Maybe we are just you know,
Michael: We are part of it
Noomi: Very stupid. We're just on board to say "No it's not a prequel" and then it's going to be revealed, oh my god, it was a prequel, we're just so screwed.
Charlie: So tell me the relationship between the two of you
Noomi: Okay, are you going to ask me or him. Because we have different answers.
Michael: Erm, well, I think you know er, again when we're introduced to David we see kind of like the butler in space. He's looking after the spaceship and he's making sure that the.
Charlie: It's sort of the Dirk Bogarde thing
Michael: Exactly yeah, and erm, and we see that he's taken some sort of special interest in Noomi's character, you know, Elizabeth, because he's going into her dreams, and that's quite an intrusive thing to do to her, he's sort of curious about her throughout, and then we see as she's making her sort of discoveries, there's something about her that's different, you know, to the rest of the crew members, and erm, and so, I think, yeah, there is this a certain, you know, beyond a curiosity there, I think he's investing in her more than he is any of the other crew members on board and er, and finds her as I say to be very sort of fascinating case, in some respects like the Lawrence character, you know in Lawrence of Arabia, she has this sort of clear vision you know, that she's going to get to no matter what.
Charlie: And also Lawrence was somebody who was both arab and in a sense in his head
Michael: Yes, exactly
Charlie: Arab and English
Michael: He didn't belong to either of them in the end, so he's kind of an outsider which David is also, you know, he's the only robot on the planet. The human beings treat him with a fair level of contempt
Noomi: No, that's no true
Michael: it is
Noomi: it is when you start to misbehave. As long as you do what you're programmed to do, everybody's very nice to you.
Michael: Exactly, exactly
Noomi: It's weird because well you're supposed to, you're not supposed to have your own agenda. But honestly I think it was both me only and Elizabeth, it was like, it was almost like correct yourself and remind yourself that he's a robot, he's a computer, so at one point in the, in the , in the movie, I felt this huge rage, you know this anger towards you and it was almost like she, I had to kind of remind myself, he's a hard disk, there's no soul, you know, he's, he doesn't have emotions, he doesn't know, he doesn't understand me because he doesn't understand the soul. I would say that Elizabeth is the soul and the heart in the movie and he's the brain. And we could be a good team but.
Charlie: Do you differ with that
Michael: I think it makes perfect sense but I'm a hard ass not a hard disc
Noomi: Oh, yeah
Michael: That's roughly translated
Noomi: That's what you want
Charlie: Is there any of Lisbeth in her?
Noomi: Erm, I would say that
Charlie: Self sufficient
Noomi: Elizabeth is more, she's much more fragile and more erm, humble and and vulnerable, but that this kind of survivor, the kind of instinct of never giving up, never giving in, always kind of finding a way to pull yourself together and stand up again. I think they have that in common.
Charlie: She's become more of a survivor as the film goes on
Noomi: Yes, absolutely
Charlie: Tougher and more able to be
Noomi:Yeah and a trooper. You know, she's erm, she's very committed and she, she would kind of
Michael: She's very open as well
Noomi: Yuh
Michael: She was sort of you know, very sort of confident like and from what I got of the Elizabeth character, she's much more protective.
Noomi: Yeah locked down
Michael: ... her
Charlie: Here's my question. Do you guys have these kinds of conversations before the movie begins or during the movie. In other words
Noomi: I desperately wanted to talk to him and he was like, keep it to yourself
Charlie: Is that right?
Noomi: Don't talk too much
Michael: I don't want to talk too much, you know. I like er, 'cause sort of , Noomi was like I might
Charlie: Was this in your head, when you start up or
Michael: Well, yeah, I think this is you know, show it to me and surprise me in the scene, you're like, I might do this and you know. I was like, just do it, you know. It's my job to be able to sort of to you know, respond to
Noomi: And normally I don't want to talk so much. Honestly when I did you know the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and many films I've done, I'm most of the time, you know, stick to myself and I sit in the corner drinking my coffee and not interact with people, so I don't know what happened to me on this one
(chuckling)
Noomi: I was way into talking too light
Charlie: We'll see both clips that I'll bring in. First is a clip in which David and the scientist Holloway discuss the mission that they're on. Here it is.
(David enters the room "Am I interrupting, I thought you might be running low... The scene where David puts a droplet of the dark matter into the glass of wine and Holloway drinks it.)
Charlie: So tell me about that scene
Michael: Yeah, that was erm, I think we filmed that pretty early on, I I I it's, I think that was the first scene I actually had with somebody else. The rest was sort of me wandering around the ship, and again that is a sort of, there is something there to be looked at with David, the character David because he one, he needs a guineau pig and it's purely scientific
Noomi: And why did you pick him, why my man
Michael: He presented himself to me
Noomi; Why my boyfriend?
Michael: He presented himself
Noomi: There were cruel people you could have taken
Charlie: Erm, why do you think he picked him?
Michael: Because he was mean to me
Noomi: Yuh, you think so. I don't know, he was, he's kind of like an open target because he's so restless and so childish and immature in a way and desperate and angry and so you feel like he would probably, as you say, do everything and anything, without thinking. But I'm not sure.
Michael: Neither am I
Noomi: No
Charlie: This was a good experience for both of you, was it not?
Michael: Yuh, absolutely it was,
Noomi: Yes.
Michael: Yes
Charlie: Right, here's a clip in which Doctor Shaw tells a crew they need to stay and you'll see yourself
Scene where Doctor Shaw is crawling out of the entrance into the Juggernaut's landing bay trying to warn the Prometheus
Noomi: Yuh, that was Iceland, I was running for so many
Charlie: ... he shot it in Pinewood, he also shot it in Iceland
Noomi: That's right, yeah
Michael: That right, yeah
Charlie: It's kind of a star geography
Michael: It's just a sort of you know, even the, like the the, yeah, just the landscape it looks lunar, it looks, it looks like I've never seen anything like that anywhere, before the dark sands of course, you know, down to the sort, of you know, volcanoes there, er, and they have really good hotdogs, you remember that little hotdog place we went to
Noomi: Yuh, I grew up in Iceland you know, so I lived there when i was a kid, and it was kind of weird to come back. You know, my family lived just like an hour from where we shot, i was seeing so
Charlie: Are they still there?
Noomi: Yeah, they are
Charlie: Ooh, great, so you had a chance to spend some time with your Maam
Noomi: Oh yeah. I went home to them over the weekend, I was so tired though, they had a big barbecue, and I was like, I had one piece, small piece of meat, and then I was like, I have to go and have a nap and then I crashed and then I slept for five hours and the party was over when I came down then and they were like "what is ridley scott doing to you?". So yeah.
Charlie:Here's a scene with both of you in ( Charlie Rose, Published on 14 Nov 2012 show , part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2jN4vvFhBY) part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXxzcl_W_os ) - Genevieve Loh: Congratulations Michael and Noomi. Excellent film, tell me and I can not imagine the Singaporean audiences, they just can not wait to see Prometheus, but what was it like on set, I mean, Ridley's supposed to be a perfectionist but what I get from him and talking to him, he's such a warm and
Noomi: Yeah
Genevieve Loh: And intimate, tell me what it was like working with the great Ridley Scott
Naomi: Well, I was um, I was terrified, you know, before I you know, before we started, because you know, it's like, it's so big, it's this huge film, you know, big studio movie and it's Ridley Scott doing a scifi movie and again and I'm supposed to the lead in it, and it was just erm
Genevieve Loh: You are the lead
Noomi: I am
Naomi: I am the lead in it. And it was a, I was, I was qu... I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to to to do it, to actually find a way into it and to to to um to feel free in there but as you said, Ridley is fantastic in, you know, he creates, he creates an environment an energy, erm, that just is so relaxed and so easy to work in and he's so passionate and he's so curious and he never felt like, you know, I kind of forgot everything else , I forgot that I was nervous the whole you know the pressure and expectations and everything outside the studio, you know, outside Pinewood, it kind of that, that became my reality and then you, and then as soon as you step in and start to kind dig and prepare and work on the character you it's kind of like everything else kind of fades and working with him was erm er, fantastic
Genevieve Loh: How about you Michael, I mean you seem to have a short hand with him as well as what I gathered talking to him
Fassbender: Yuh it's, it's sort of very quickly you know erm, you, yeah we just sort of, it was easy, you know, because it was like, erm, there, the realm of of just sort of trying things out, you know, just putting it on the floor and if it works, it works. If it doesn't it's no big deal, you just sort of move on, try and find something else, so, I would like come in in the morning and it would be like, what do you think about this idea, you know or this line that I just came up with er, er last night I was thinking, and he was like great, I was like let's do it, let's try it out, take a look at it if you like it, you know
Genevieve Loh: He was open to
Fassbender: Fantastic
Genevieve Loh: Like sort of communication
Noomi: Oh yeah
Fassbender: We moved fast
Naomi: Absolutely
Fassbender: You know and erm, also, you know nothing you know although we all sort of you know, I've done the preparation and you know, he has more than anyone. Nothing is too precious, you know, we're not hanging on too tight to anything
Genevieve Loh: That's the point isn't it
Fassbender: Yes, so that's
Naomi: And you never know, you can't really plan it and you know decide exactly what it's going to be, because you don't know. We, you know, so you can only, erm, prepare yourself as much as you can and go into the situation with the other actors and see, I don't know, I didn't know what you were going to do, so if I already made up my mind I mean, this is what I'm going to do, and you're doing something completely different, not going to work, so it's like you have to come in with an open you know, erm, yeah
Genevieve Loh: Obviously what will be at the back of people's minds, but I have to say., I saw Noomi, ice... of course the tough heroine was there, but I also saw Noomi, how did you, did you try and compartmentalise the whole legacy of Ripley and Sigourney Weaver.
Naomi: No, I think, um you know, I saw Alien when I was young, when I was a teenager, er, and and and she made a strong impact on me and I you know, I've been inspired by her and her you know, Sigourney's erm other characters and erm erm her work because she's an amazing actress, but not, I didn't really so much about Ripley to be honest and I think, but that's always the case, because like you have to find a way to to make the character kind of let it move in and and and um, and I had to to translate things from my life into it, so so it becomes really personal and very precise. It's not, it's never going to be be anything else than Noomi, Noomi trying to melt into this person that is on the page
Genevieve Loh: And about you Michael, I mean, you've gone on record to say and David Bowie, you know, and got inspiration from David Bowie, from Peter O'Toole, from Greg Lougainis' walk, but yet, it was really original, I mean, David as an idea, as a concept, is so original, how did you, how did you sort of workshop towards then, that process of it
Fassbender: I don't know, it's like lots of different things again, it came down to you know Ridley as well, you know, he was very open to ideas, you know, there was this thing that I thought of at the beginning, you know, because Ridley had the look of the blond hair and the you know, it was going to be sort of you know based on Lawrence, Lawrence of Arabia and that whole theme and then I thought well you know, there's a certain amount of vanity to this character, it's almost like he would be performing plastic surgery on himself if he could. Probably does
Noomi: Probably does
Fassbender: But you know, like, you know
Genevieve: in his spare time
Fassbender: Just little sort of nuances about the character which kinda made him sort of particular like and and and Ridley would allow me to do it, I said, do you think we could do a scene where maybe I'm sort of putting highlights in my hair while while I'm watching
Genevieve: That is so there, everyone in the house was just screaming with laughter
Fassbender: And he was like let's do it. You know, he was like, let's try it out. So it was erm. It it was fun to get like all the little details about it and the great thing I had the advantage with Daivd was that, you know, the audiences was introduced to him on his own, so you get to see him in his private moments
Genevieve: Yeah
Fassbender: Which can be very revealing about
Genevieve: Yeah
Fassbender: The character, and a great help for me to help sort of reveal the character to the audience, you know
Genevieve: I had to ask though, is it weird because everyone's like you're the it boy at the moment or the man or the actor at the moment, you've done so many films, you've been Magneto, you've done Shame and everything and then but you've been a working actor for a very long time and same for you Noomi, everyone is like you're the girl to watch. How weird is that because you've both been working actors for so long and have actually proven yourself way before. How weird is it to be known as Hollywood's It thing? Up and coming It thing right now.
Noomi: I don't think we really thing about that. You know, it's like you... do you?
Fassbender: I do on a daily basis. I'm like, I'm the It. Today you're it, tomorrow you're tit
(Laughter)
Fassbender: Er it's you know, I think it is what it is, you know, I'm very happy, you know, because I, I'm in a position where I can work with people like Ridley
Noomi: Yeah, me to
Fassbender: Noomi, and we work with the top of the people in the game
Noomi: That's everything. That's everything. And I never read anything about me. I can't
Genevieve: Really so
Noomi: I don't know what people say about me to be honest with you
Genevieve: I hear you do. Do you read stuff about yourself
Fassbender: Er, er, I try not to and then sometimes you find, well I find myself you know sort of googling a little bit, or reading 'cause somebody goes eh, I read this interview with whatever and then you look into that and then
Noomi: is it true that you have syphilis
Michael: And then
Noomi: You have to check it online
(laughter)
Fassbender: you got it in there, you got it in there
Genevieve: She's worked it in
Fassbender: You got it in there. It's so and then you're going down looking at the blog and then that gets, that's a slippery slope really and and you know, can be kind of depressing to go down that route, so yeah, I try not to. (TODAY speaks to Prometheus stars Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender Published on 3 Jun 2012) - Prometheus Star Michael Fassbender on The View, 9 Jun 2012
- Interviewer: I
got to say, it is so fascinating watching both of you guys on screen
together because you have so many different emotions you have to go
through and you almost have a challenge because you have a little bit,
lack of emotions so you have to pull back a little bit. What would you
say is his advantage by not having to share that many emotions, and
what's her biggest advantage by getting to show more emotions?
Noomi: Wow
Interviewer: Try asking you guys, I'm going to ask
Noomi: Yes that quite a good one. It was, it was qu... it was really interesting to be... every time I stepped into scene with Michael, I was really trying to, to , to read him, to kind of understand what is, kind of you know, what is going on in there, and I realised that I had to kind of remind myself that yeah
(Interviewer and Fassbender laugh)
Noomi: nothing, he's a computer, it's a hard disk, it's he doesn't have a soul, he doesn't have a
Interviewer: Is there nothing going on in David or nothing going on in Michael
Fassbender: In general
Interviewer: Alright
Noomi: No heart, no soul. And and, the weird thing was I was quite... his energy, Michael's energy on set, you know and around, (turning to Fassbender) you know from the first day I met you actually, you were probably already prepping, it's, it was very different from today, it was, you were quite weird and scary
(Noomi and Michael break into laughter)
Noomi: No, but it's, it's, it's interesting how much it effects you. And and, it was, you were very unpredictable and your energy was very um shifted very quickly, um, so that was, um, I don't know how you did it, how you, how, you became that, that robot
Michael: How you became that weird
Interviewer: Were you ever jealous of her getting to show those those emotions
Fassbender: No, I mean, you know you think, just sort of a respectful respectful really, I mean you know, the thing its like a you know, Noomi is is carrying the movie, you know, it's this sort of a, the, the, she's the vehicle that carries us forward you know, from Earth into space, and erm, and you know, I think, it's a pretty good sort of description that she's sort of the heartbeat of the film, you know, so, erm, and, and if, if , if she's the heartbeat then maybe, David is the head, you know
Interviewer: yeah!
Fassbender; There you go
Interviewer: hey yo, hey yo
Fassbender: Heyyy
Interviewer slaps hands with Fassbender
Interviewer: It's nice when you have that in those sort of lines are pretty clear, and then you sort of settle into that and then you realise that one hopefully compliments the other
Noomi: Drink my soul
Fassbender: Steal her soul
Interviewer: That's right, I'm looking forwards to that
Fassbender: Prometheus 2, soul stealer
Interviewer: Soul stealer, this time it's personal
Noomi: And it's all about him
Fassbender: This time it's spiritual
Noomi: And it's all about him
Interviewer:... naturally, quite rightfully so
Fassbender: Of course, of course
Interviewer: We don't need Ridley, we go this
Fassbender: We've got nothing (Jake Takes , Jun 2nd 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qz_hoOQ8GQ)
Prometheus :Exploring Shaw, Holloway and David. Published on December 16th 2016
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