Actor Liev Schreiber Discusses Videogames, Wolverine and Convergence

Fans who’ve been waiting anxiously to see the complete version of 20th Century Fox’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine will get their wish on May 1. While Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, wasn’t a fan of comics as a kid, his co-star, Liev Schreiber, who plays Sabretooth, was a devoted X-Men fan. Schreiber also grew up on arcade games and Intellivision, making him the perfect cast member to talk about the new movie, its comic book roots and Activision’s videogame adaptation. Schreiber talks about making the blockbuster movie, why he identifies with the dark side of his character and why gamers will probably never like a Hollywood adaptation of their favorite game in this exclusive interview.

What videogames do you like to play?

I love Rock Band and I’ve had a considerable amount of fun with Halo and Call of Duty.

What opportunities are videogames opening up to Hollywood creatives these days?

What are they opening up to creatives? Well, certainly they’re providing us jobs as long as we get to do the voiceovers. Let’s just hope that the technology doesn’t get so good that they replace us altogether.

What’s this experience been like for you, not just being in the game but the whole Wolverine movie experience?

I was always a huge Wolverine fan when I was a kid. It was such a departure from other comic books. Before that everything was like Justice League and men in tights jumping over tall buildings. Wolverine was like the introduction of the anti-hero. I think for a lot of kids, particularly those adolescence who feel like outsiders and pariahs, the concept of the mutant as hero was something that was really infectious and really took off. It’s cool to be a part of something that was part of my childhood and something that I know that is still attracting hundreds of thousands of fans every day.

With the success of The Dark Knight and now Wolverine, what impact do you see these types of movies having on getting kids back into comics?

I’m pretty certain they will. For me, there’s no replacing those comics that I was reading back in 1977 or 1978. They were so good.

What was your favorite moment in making this movie?

I think it was working with the stuntmen on the wire for the four-legged run. Coordinating that movement where I leap into the air and the guys assist me with my rear end as I landed on my feet and then assisted me on my front end as I picked up. It was incredible. I must have gone upside down and done flips at least eight times every time I got in the wires. Learning to do that was such a treat.

It must be cool to be in the movie after reading these comics.

Completely. I felt like pinching myself every day.

What do you like about Sabretooth?

For me it was his darkness. There’s something about Victor (Creed) that he represents the dark side in all of us that we’re at war with. It’s like that old ying and yang concept that there can’t be great good without great evil. There can’t be light without darkness. Everyone wrestles with their own nature. For me, Victor is the embodiment of that nature that we’re trying to suppress and that we’re trying to deal with. It’s so much fun to play that.

We waited a long time to get to the great comic book movies out there today. Do you see any correlation in videogame adaptations for the big screen, after sitting through so many of them that just didn’t work?

It’s possible. I don’t know. It seems like there are a lot of them going into production right now. I’m not really sure which ones they are.

They did Tomb Raider in the past.

Oh yeah, Tomb Raider did pretty well, didn’t it?

Yeah, it did well, but gamers didn’t like it. Do you see games as good fodder for movies?

I’m not sure about games. Part of the thing for gamers is control, you know what I mean? It’s first-person control. It’s their world. They’re moving through the world. I don’t know if gamers are up to let go of that control because that’s kind of the pleasure of the videogame. But we’ll see.

Where do you see the future convergence going with movies and videogames?

I think it probably has something to do with the Internet. I just think it’s this huge content monster that is really still in its infancy. And as people network on it and develop it more and more we’re going to see more interesting outlets for content and networking.