Wondercon 2011 – Green Lantern Panel

Green Lantern Movie Actors

This panel has something to say all on its own. Present was Geoff Jones, one of the heads of the present Green Lantern series, Ryan Renyolds who played Hal Jordan and Blake Lively who played Carol Ferris. Of all the Green Lanterns in the DC Universe, and there are a good number, Hal Jordan is the single most recognizable one. This particular movie focuses on Hal Jordan becoming a Green Lantern and his early adventures, though plot details were scarce.

After the introductions, we were shown a clip from the movie where we Hal Jordan receive his Power Ring, fly to the Green Lantern Base Planet and begin to understand just what the Ring can do.  It was a good sequence to start things with. After the lights came up, Reynolds remarked at how amazing it was to see the final product of his work. Immediately both Renyolds and Lively were talking about their characters. Renyolds was making jokes about his diet to get in shape for this role (all the orphans he ate) while Lively talked about her body guard after many years of short, concise statements revealed himself to be a great Green Lantern fan and insisted the blonde actress dye her hair brunette for the role of Carol Ferris. Ryan also talked about learning to do some gymnastics for the role just so he could get more used to spinning in the air. They found in this movie that they worked together  very well. That even in the earliest readings they did there was some chemistry between that and that was crucial. Renyolds commented that even with all our technology there is no way to substitute that kind of connection.

One classic question for these panels was asked, if they had read any of the comics. They were able to cite the fact that Geoff Jones, the present head of Green Lantern Mythology was on site to answer all their questions about the characters as well as keep them from slipping too far from them. Still, both Lively and Renyolds did say that they had done some research into their characters and came to understand them fairly well. Still, when asked what makes this Super Hero movie different from other, Renyolds gave a humorous comment to the audience about “how they hated being bombarded by Super Hero movies”. Of course Renyolds was asked if he liked playing a hero or villain more. Renyolds made a good comment on how Deadpool was not a villain as much as he was just an a—hole. He enjoyed playing the “Merc with the Mouth” but would have changed a few things in the movie himself now. When asked if he was going to do a Deadpool movie, he said that he would insist on doing one that got it right. He explained that he grew up a Star Wars kid but could still appreciate this part of things and still managed to get everyone at the panel to recite the Green Lantern's oath. He took some time to explain more about his own past, how he got into acting through improv and that it was just doing something that got you to be able to live your passion. He was given some license to ad-lib lines but Jones was there to make sure that they were still in-character for the dry wit of Hal Jordan. He talked very little about the experience of where a mo-cap suit in Lousiana during the summer, likening it to being in a coffin with a zipper. He did explain a bit about one thing, that he career let him play a great variety of different characters and he was grateful for his slow rise to fame so that he was not type-cast as many performers are if they get famous quickly.

Blake Lively was asked on a few questions,  some about her character's eventual appearance as a villian, Star Sapphire but also what it was like to work with such a CGI heavy movie. She commented that she would have loved to play Star Sapphire so she could do some of the stunt work that she saw Renyolds doing, and maybe add a little more cloth to the costume. She felt that it was great to finally see things in a finished state after all the work she put in during the filming. She talked a bit about having to do full-day stints working on “Gossip Girl” while she did the six month filming for the Green Lantern. Once in a while she would show up with brownies that Ryan couldn't eat because of his strict diet, explaining it as she couldn't sleep because she made brownies.

While there was a lot of stuff said at the panel, it was truly an experience for those who were there. Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively both showed a great sense of humor making jokes with the audience. There was no lack of laughter throughout the panel itself. It was a great event to cover and this panel definitely put a very good spin on the movie.