Disclaimer: All business expenses of this trip were paid for by Disney. All opinions are my own.
Ever wonder about the Marvel-ous women in the Superhero World? They are pretty kick butt! I had the opportunity to meet and interview Jaimie Alexander who plays Sif in Thor & Thor: The Dark World. She is Thor’s little love in Asgard! There are plenty of looks and hints and chemistry with Sif and Thor in the film to keep you on your toes!
What I learned about Jaimie is that she can’t only kick butt in the movie but she is pretty awesome in real life! She has a passion for working with kids and helping them with building self-confidence with their self image. She shared with us that she has her own hang ups like being not the typical “Hollywood” measurements from the waist up.
Since my “real” job consists of working with teenagers I understand the true struggles that come about in dealing with the way your look, feeling of being judged, and more. On Jaimie’s twitter she promotes her #UltimateMentoringAdventure.
Thank you to the young women I met through the #UltimateMentoringAdventure program. Truly inspired. #ThorTDW http://t.co/mtLlafE5Lw
— Jaimie Alexander (@JaimieAlexander) November 11, 2013
During the interview she was truly outgoing, sweet, and drop-dead gorgeous! Her performance in Thor is awesome; I can’t imagine her not being asked to be in Avengers! I guess we will find out SOON who is going to be cast! It usually takes about 18 months to make a film, which means we should find out any day who will be the cast!
JAIMIE : Just for the record, this is fake. But I am trying to discreetly cover my gown until the carpet. (Pointing to her fake fur coat as we chuckle). Mainly because parts of it are open, and it’s a little uncomfortable. One second. I just have to, uh…oh. Yeah. Not used to wearing a catsuit, okay. How are you guys? Do I look like a green Wookie? I do a little bit, a little bit. You guys look amazing, by the way. I love, like, all of the blues and the greens and the reds. Silver. I can appreciate that. I’m wearing black myself. Black and a little bit of netting here. All right. Yes?
Q : How does it feel to be a female character in a Marvel Movie?
JAIMIE : Oh, man. That’s loaded. It’s an amazing feeling. Especially when the character is written so well like my character is. You know it’s about her, personally, and the physically follows. And I think that’s the way to write a female character really well, and Marvel does that. So, for me it’s been a dream come true for me. Yeah.
Q : Your character in the comics has a romantic relationship with Thor? Will we get to see any of that, the triangle they have going on?
JAIMIE : You know, there’s — it’s always going to be a little — you know. They hint at it a little bit. They can’t go fully there, you know yet, but, they definitely hint at it. And it’s always fun, because that’s, you know, in the comic books, and we definitely want to appease the fans. So, we put that in there. I look at him a few times. Unfortunately he’s not shirtless in front of me, but that’s fine, it’s all right.
Q : How did you prepare yourself for this role?
JAIMIE : You know, I worked with a dialect coach to have a British accent,although in this film, it’s a little bit more relaxed. And then I also trained for about two months, um, weight lifting, yoga, Pilates, on the Reformer. Which was something new for me. You give me a machine like that, it’s like you’re asking for me to just hurt myself. I did that, and I did a lot of fight training with a wonderful stunt girl named Chloe Bruce. She is a world champion martial artist and she’s a little scary. I mean, when you first meet her, she’s great. And then you’re like, “Oh. Whoa. You can bend your leg that way. I’m gonna go over here.” Yes? Okay.
Q : Is there a side of your character we’ll see in part two that we didn’t see in the first movie?
JAIMIE : Yes, actually. She’s — you get to see a very vulnerable side of Sif. And you also get to see what her fellow Asgardians mean to her. Now, in the first movie, we explored that a little bit. She’s very protective. Her first priority is to protect her fellow Asgardians and the throne. This one, there’s a little bit of heartache, but it’s really amazing, because she’s very selfless. You know. The heartache is definitely an underlying tone to her. And then she kind of puts it aside and says, “You know what? I have lives to save. I’m gonna put that first,” so you kinda get to see what she’s made of a little bit.
Q : What did you like best about Sif?
JAIMIE : You know, again, I like that she’s selfless, and, actually, in a way that’s one of her greatest strengths, but it’s also her downfall. She really puts everyone else first, and also she’s not afraid to give her opinion. She does it respectfully, but she definitely stands up for what she believes in. So, I can appreciate that, and I try to adopt that in my own life as much as I can. Without scaring people. I don’t carry a weapon. [LAUGHS] Not that anyone can see anyway. All right. So, yes, ma’am?
Q : I have a ten-year old daughter who loves you. You know. How many girl warriors are there? So, have you gotten a lot of feedback from younger girl fans that are following you?
JAIMIE : Yeah. You know, it’s great, because I actually speak at schools, and I speak out about positive body image. I know, you guys look at me and, you’re like, “You’re tall. You’re kind of thin. Blah blah blah.” Um, I have less than A cup, okay? So there are things about me that aren’t Hollywood standard. And I actually really like it. I have tattoos. Uh, I grew up with four brothers. I was a high school wrestler. I did all of these things that aren’t typical of a young woman. So, for me, I like to embrace that side of my personality and let my, I guess my uniqueness, show, and I try to say to young women, I say, “Don’t be afraid of yourself.”
You know. “Work what your momma gave you, and appreciate it, because everybody is different, and nobody is duplicates, so no one can actually be you, so you have that above everyone else.” And I try to incorporate that in Lady Sif, where her costume is — she’s covered. She’s not revealing anything. Yet, she’s feminine. But she’s also tough, so you really see her personality before you see her physicality, and that’s most important. [LAUGHS] Thanks. Good thing I got that memorized before I got in here. Teasing, teasing.
Q : Along the same lines, for young girls looking to you as their superheroes, is there anyone that you looked up to, growing up?
JAIMIE : Okay. I know what you’re getting at lady, but, yes. There was a superhero named Wonder Woman that I definitely looked up to growing up, and actually, Sigourney Weaver. She was always my favorite. She seemed to embody a sense of humor, while being stoic and being powerful, and also being feminine. And, to me, she is the ideal woman. So, if I was a guy I would probably be like, “Go out with me,” but, yeah. She’s amazing. She’s incredible. And, I always looked up to her and the characters she played.
And, actually, Walt Simonson, who had a great deal to do with my character back in the Seventies saw Sigourney Weaver walking down a street in a red trenchcoat in the 1970s, and said, “That’s gonna be Sif.” So, actually my character is modeled after Sigourney Weaver, so, to me, that’s come full circle.
Q : Are we going to see you pop up in “Avengers 2”?
JAIMIE : You know what? I would absolutely love that. But they haven’t told me a yes or a no, so I have no idea. And I think that they did that on purpose, so I wouldn’t spill the beans. So I’m not sure. But, fingers crossed, that would be a very fun thing to do, yeah.
Q : What was your favorite part of the film?
JAIMIE : Ooh. Um. There’s an opening battle sequence that I had a blast doing. I got to do a backflip off a horse. Which, you know, if anybody knew me really well, they’d be like, “Let’s not put her anywhere near a horse.” But… I did it, and it was a lot of fun, and several wires involved and stunt women….There’s a lot of humor in it and that sort of thing. And, um, there’s also another part that we did, uh, but you guys will have to wait to see it. It’s a corridor scene with Thor and Loki. And it’s pretty funny. [LAUGHS]
Q : Did you do the action stunts by yourself?
JAIMIE : I do, yeah. I like it. I’m like, that right amount of crazy. But, um, there are certain things that I’m not allowed to do… anything with fire. I can’t be lit on fire, clearly, because I wouldn’t be able to finish the film. I would look a little different. And, uh, but, yeah, as for the jumps, the fighting, the weapons, I do most of my own. There are some things that Sif does that are just completely impossible for any human being to do, and that’s when the CGI comes in, but it’s rare.
Q : Growing up with brothers, what do they think of you? I’m loving the bad-a**, tomboy, super-beautiful thing you have going on. So, how do your brothers think of what you’re doing?
JAIMIE : They love it. [LAUGHS] When I got the first “Thor” movie, when we shot the first “Thor,” they asked me to give their phone number to Natalie Portman. Uh, so that was awkward. And I said, “I don’t think so, but maybe I’ll tack it up in her dressing room, and if she calls, hey, go for it.” But, no. They said that, and then as time went on, I did a movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger called “The Last Stand,” and my little brother, I went home for Thanksgiving, and in my suitcase, when I got back to work the week after, I found a bunch of DVDs with post-its.
And I was like, “What is this?” And he wanted Arnold to sign all of his DVDs and all of this stuff, so Arnold obviously happily obliged. He’s a great guy, and he said, “Absolutely,” and he sent my family Christmas presents for Christmas. So, they were completely stoked. So clearly I’m the favorite sibling.
Q : How true to life is your action figure?
JAIMIE : Not very true. I mean, come on now. [LAUGHS] I don’t carry a sword around. No. I’m just kidding. Look, I gotta say, I wear two corsets in the movie and a padded chest, so I would say everything from the waist up is pretty inaccurate. Um, but everything else, I mean, I think they even put a like, a little mole on her, so I was like, “that’s kind of cool — different — detail oriented…”
Q : Sif really cares a lot about Asgard. So, if she could only choose one person from Asgard to leave with, who would she pick?
JAIMIE : Oh, wow. Um, I would have to say Thor, and the only reason is because he is the future of Asgard — as you will see when you see the movie, he is — he’s still a bit of — can I say “smart-a**”? Or is that a bad — okay. He’s still a bit like that, but he also is very noble, and he’s very humble, and I think for her that’s partly why she cares so much for him, even more than she used to. So I believe that she would choose him, because that would ensure the safety of all of the Asgardians. And he has a hammer.
Q : So, what would you like to see your character do next? If you had the opportunity to play her again?
JAIMIE : You know, I think it would be fun to play two different characters. So I would love to see Lady Loki come into the picture, because I do believe that they would have me play both, which would be fun. So, selfishly, I would like to see Lady Loki happen. And your dress is very Asgardian, by the way. I like it. I love that, I do that all the time. I’ll be like, “This looks like something my character would wear. I’ll take it.” I think I don’t want to miss anyone, so…
Q : When you were in your corsets, did that make it extremely difficult to move around and do all those — everything?
JAIMIE : The first movie, I thought I was going to die. Ken Brannagh made us leaning boards, like they would use in Shakespearean costumes. So, we, instead of sitting down, we had to lean against a wall like this, like Frankenstein. And, then, eventually, the costumes, they warm up, and they move, and when you break some things in, you can move. But, this time around, anytime you get a second go at something, you get to make adjustments and make things a little bit easier, better. And, uh, we did that with the costumes and we made Sif’s costume a little bit more feminine. A little bit easier to move in.
A lot of new materials were looked at. You know, and, um, the first corset is actually a lace-up corset, which, I’m sorry, but I would have hated to have lived back then. And then the second one is metal. So the metal one gets a little annoying after a while, but it’s actually surprisingly — it’s surprisingly easy to move in. Yeah. Yes?
Q : Is there any adlibbing that goes on at all, or is it all really just scripted? Do you have any chance to sort of play off of each other throughout the movie.
JAIMIE : It’s pretty scripted. Uh, when it comes to these big-budgeted films, there’s very little room to change things up. However, when we do present something and we say, “Look, we — I really feel that this would be a better option for her,” they are very open to that, and they listen, and then we kinda sometimes will film two different takes. So they have it in the editing room if they need it. Um, however, when the cameras aren’t rolling, uh, usually we make fart noises to make each other laugh. Yeah. That’s what you get, being around a bunch of boys, but, yeah. It’s like being at home. [OVERLAP] Yeah, sorry about that. So, if you hear anything weird during the movie it’s Zachary Levi.
Q : Were there any major differences from filming “Avengers” versus filming “Thor”? (I meant to ask the difference between the two Thor movies and misspoke…I felt like a bozo!)
JAIMIE : Well, I wasn’t in “The Avengers.” That’s okay. See? She’s putting it out there. I like her. I like her already. She’s putting it out there. It’s gonna happen. You know I — just talking to my friends who were in “Thor” with me, and then “Avengers” as well, they — it was quite different. I think when you have that many superheroes that were their own books in one room, you know…[OVERLAP] I know. I was waiting for you to cut in. I was like, “I don’t know where to go with this.”
Q : What about the first movie and the second movie? (Finally able to fix my question.)
JAIMIE : Yeah. There’s always a difference. We had two different directors, and they’d operate in different ways, but all in all, you know, it was — going back to set a second time was like going to a family reunion. You know, it was a lot of fun. People got married, they had babies, and all of this craziness. And it was just really fun, to sort of reunite with everybody. And, then, after you know, like, that awkward moment of “I haven’t seen you in three years,” that breaks, and then the fart noises come out. So it’s all right.
Q : Are you really good at sword fighting now?
JAIMIE : I am weirdly good at it. I won’t deny that. I gotta give myself props. I’m actually a little too good at it. It kinda freaks people out sometimes. I actually went to Comic Con — er, a ComicKaze convention a few days ago and there was a woman dressed as me, so I was like, “Oh. Let me see your sword.” And I was sort of like flipping around, just ’cause it’s — it just kinda happened, and then she was like, “Oh.” And I was like, “Oh, it’s okay, this is made of Nerf material, and it’s not gonna hurt anybody,” but I couldn’t help it. (Someone hands her water) Oh, thank you. I like Pelligrino. This is not a paid advertisement, by the way. Just, fizzy water makes me happy. Right? Am I right or am I right? I’m right, right.
Q : Do you prefer movies or television. I’m also a “Nurse Jackie” fan…which also has a Thor…
JAIMIE : Oh, yes. That was a lot of fun. Um. [OVERLAP] Yeah. I know. He lets me know about it all of the time, yes. He’s like, “Oh, now you’re with the real Thor. You can hang out with the real Thor.” I’m like, “All right, all right, Steven.” Uh, no, he’s fantastic. I actually — I really like movies. You know why? Because, in movies, you know when it’s gonna end, so it’s a little bit more, there’s a little bit of a bitter sweetness of it, and you want to make the most of it. When you’re on TV, you never know when it’s going to end. Sometimes, after years and years of doing, it can get a little boring, unless you’re on an amazing show.
Which, there are a lot of amazing shows out there, right now, I have to say. But, movies, it’s just fun, because, you know, I’ve got this short amount of time to play this character. And I’m just going to give it my all and give it my best, and hopefully it will come out okay. You can’t really — you don’t have a second chance. Unless you are in a franchise like this one. And then you get a second chance, and you really hope you don’t screw it up. But, yeah, I prefer film, yeah.
Q : Were you a fan of the comics before you did the first movie?
JAIMIE : You know, I didn’t know that much about Thor. We’d studied it in school, the mythology. I didn’t really know the comic books as well. However, a bunch of other comic books, I did. I always had my brothers’ hand-me-downs. So, Spiderman, X-Men. Jubilee was my favorite in X-Men. Mainly because she had an awesome yellow trenchcoat, and she hung out at the mall. So, yes. I’m a little girly. Last year I actually had a pixie cut and I did my hair as her secretly and did a photo shoot. So I paid my homage to Jubilee. So there’s my nerdery, for your guys.
**We then took a group photo with her!**
