According to The Mary Sue on March 18, Ben Kingsley, who is playing The Mandarin villain in "Iron Man 3", has stated that he cares not of the nature of the character that is portrayed in the comics. He prefers to do it his way.
Ben Kingley's portrayal of The Mandarin
Kingsley describes his own spin on the character, in fact he's never read comics nor is familiar with the Marvel franchise. It seems that his portrayal of the villain would be best suited for the Marvel cinematic universe. Also, a lot of the movies seem to have their own twist of the comic book version.
“I didn’t have any template to copy. I’m under educated as far as Marvel comics are concerned, and that can be a good thing, like coming to a Shakespeare play fresh rather than having done it 20 times… [It’s a] human portrayal of evil, on a grand scale. [Mandarin] released demonic layers in me…I did go a little crazy! Plus, did you know that the Mandarin in the comics is, like, crazy racist?”
Kingsley approaches his limited knowledge of the Marvel universe with gravitas
Kingsley takes his role very seriously and apparently it's effective and he had his own viewpoint about the Marvel cinematic universe. It seems he had a peripheral vision of the idea of how the whole universe worked. He was approached by Marvel Studios' CEO Kevin Feige about the movie and the part he will play. He again, expresses his limited knowledge of the Marvel stories.
“I hadn't seen them. We sat down and had a nice conversation. My garden looked splendid, which I think helped".
Kingsley may not know the character, but he'll dress it
The Times in India seemed to have stated that Kingsley might be planning to attend the "Iron Man 3" premieres dressed like The Mandarin.
“Ben’s designer will travel to the state soon to narrow down on the details of the dress, namely the fabric, colors and designs. Ben wants to wear something different for all the premiers and since he had a connect with Gujarat, he decided to go for a Gujarati dress".
That being said, it's good to know that Ben Kingsley just simply reinforces Marvel's continuing slant on their cinematic versions of their films.
"Iron Man 3" is scheduled to be released in theaters May 3.
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