Djimon Hounsou & Rhys Ifans Interview: The King’s Man

At one point, director Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man was scheduled to come out in November 2019, but it was delayed multiple times (primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Finally, the film is now playing in theaters, treating audiences to the origin story of the espionage organization previously seen in Vaughn’s original Kingsman movies from 2015 and 2017. Djimon Hounsou and Rhys Ifans are part of the ensemble cast, portraying Shola and Rasputin, respectively.

The two actors spoke to Screen Rant about the long wait for the film, their approach to playing their characters, and much more.

We spoke at New York Comic Con in 2019 for this movie, so now we’re finally here. How does it feel?

Djimon Hounsou: It feels great. It feels great. It’s way overdue. It’s about time. We’ve had this in the can for over two years now and we’re very excited for it to come out now. Especially now, given the fact that it’s Christmas. This is perfect for Christmas.

The Kingsman franchise, in general, is one of my favorites. It’s so much fun. What is your favorite thing about the Kingsman franchise? What excited you most about joining in the first place?

Rhys Ifans: I was a huge fan of Matthew Vaughn’s work as a director, regardless, and as well as the Kingsman franchise. He’s someone who was on my wish list of directors to work with. I was super excited to be involved in this, and particularly, with this prequel, which is set in a real period of history. It was just wonderful to excavate that period satirically, but also retain the real genuine horror and devastation that was the First World War, and to kind of dance that dance. Matthew dances that dance so deftly in the film, and to work with this cast. Like Djimon said, I’m just so relieved it’s out there right now because it feels, literally, like we shot it just after the First World War. It feels so long ago.

Djimon, how do you describe Shola and what you love about this character?

Djimon Hounsou: What I love about Shola is this sense of nurture that he has in this connection he has with the Duke of Oxford. We don’t make a point of trying to make a point of it. We’re not trying to put an accent to that relationship, but at the same time, you can feel like he was quite instrumental in the well-being of this household. And certainly, obviously, we find out later that he was quite instrumental in the formation of this first independent secret agency during the time that, to exist as a man of integrity was also a challenge.

Rhys, playing a historical figure, when you went and dove into your process or your research, was there anything you learned that took you by surprise or shocked you about Rasputin?

Rhys Ifans: Pretty much everything. As kind of grotesque and larger than life as he may come across in the movie, it’s not a long distance from how he actually was in real life. He had a demonic, hypnotic physical presence. He famously ate like an animal. Crowds would gather to watch him eat. He always had food in his beard. He stank to high heaven, and yet, people found him intriguing, attractive, even. He has a huge bourgeois female following — which baffles me, still. He was very aware of the power of his image. If you look at early photographs of him, he stares right into the camera, through the camera, almost into the photographer’s soul, which is kind of extraordinary given that photography itself was in its embryonic days. So even he was kind of aware of this, possibly one of the first figures who was aware that all publicity is good publicity. The power that he had over the Russian people, then and now, is kind of amazing. He was in real life, he was a mythological figure. So it kind of lends itself well to a movie like The King’s Man, where everything is kind of magnified, or exaggerated, or twisted or bent. But everything you’ll see on the screen is based in truth, which is mad.

The dance/fight scene. Incredible. I want to watch it on a loop. What was the build-up to that scene? How much training and rehearsal when to pulling that off?

Djimon Hounsou: I did not anticipate for it to be that demanding. It demanded so much physicality. We were training pretty much every day, or every other day we would have off prior to filming and continuing training throughout filming.  This particular scene that you’re referring to was a lot. I’m not sure how it was for Rhys, but for me, that was painful. I’ve done a number of action-driven sequences before, but this one, this particular one, was met with a bit of a pain and it was quite a challenge, bringing this to life, but quite gratifying, watching the finished product.

Rhys Ifans: Unlike Djimon, I was an action virgin. I’ve walked past many a gym, shall we say? So, yeah, we had to prepare for a couple of months, three months prior to shooting to get to a level of fitness that would enable us just to finish a day shooting this sequence, which took two or three weeks to shoot. We worked really, really hard in the gym and then, of course, with the stunt team, who were just an extraordinary bunch of people, high-functioning experts in this particular kind of skill set. It was a real honor and a privilege to work with this team. It’s a collective effort and that’s what makes it so gratifying to watch it because you know it’s the work of many, many, many very clever people. The challenge, for us there, was to find the physical language that was particular to Rasputin. Matthew just barged into the stunt room one day and went, “I got it! Russian dancing/martial arts! Mix ’em up!” So I mean, easier said than done, right? It took a while, but we got there along with the help of the stunt team, and also some Georgian dancers, who were just exquisite, who were trained to do these moves from the age of four. We all came together and slowly built this fight and then I would find moments to Rasputin-ize the proceedings, if you like.

I want to ask you really quick, because I believed myself to be done with Game of Thrones, and then the House of Dragon trailer drops, and I said, “You son of a bitch. I’m back in.” How do you describe that? What are we in for? It just looks so awesome.

Rhys Ifans: You have to wait and see. And I think you’ll have to wait a while because I’m not sure when it’s going to be released. We’re still shooting it. But yeah, exciting. Very exciting. I don’t I don’t want to give too much away. I can’t give too much away. But another prequel, though. I can say that.

Right? King of the prequels now.

Djimon, Matthew told me there’s a plan for the future. He loved to do another King’s Man movie. Where would you like to see Shola story go next?

Djimon Hounsou: I’ll leave it to Matthew to dress that up for me. I would love to exist, you know, follow up with this one. Absolutely. It would be an honor to be part of it again.

I love it. Thank you guys so much for your time. Really appreciate talking to you and congrats on the film.

About The Author

Ash Crossan
(225 Articles Published)

Ash Crossan is a Lead Content Producer & Host for Screen Rant. With nearly a decade of experience under her belt, Ash joined Screen Rant in 2021 as a lead interviewer. Based in Los Angeles, Ash is a fan of all things Star Wars, Marvel, DC, 90s Nickelodeon and rom-coms. Follow Ash on Twitter: @AshCrossan.

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