Willow star Amar Chadha-Patel has opened up about how his character Thraxus Boorman pays tribute to Val Kilmer on the fantasy show, which shared news of a new cast member earlier this week.
The actor sat down with Digital Spy to talk about the way in which he paid tribute to Kilmer through his character.
“I think Val Kilmer sort of helped redefine what the sort of roguish archetype in those types of films is. His performance is so unique and bonkers and tonally strange and off-kilter, but it works,” he began to explain.
Related: Willow is better than other fantasy shows in one particular way
“And then there was obviously going to be an equivalent of that in this series that people would want and the fantasy demands. But I was never going to be able to do what he did, so I just tried to make that as much my own as possible,” he said.
“And Jon Kasdan, our creator, and Steven Wolfman, our first block director, we did a lot of work in our bootcamp of learning who these characters are. We just tried to create this sort of swagger, aloofness, like an almost drunken, carefreeness to this character that paid a bit of a tribute to Madmartigan but was still, in essence, myself,” he went on to say.
“I would never try and recreate what he did. But there was a tall guy with a sword and there had to be another one,” he added.
Related: Willow boss reveals what the show does that the film couldn’t
Chadha-Patel also talked about the challenges of doing stunt work on the show, which has included a fair few surprise plot twists.
“I've done a little bit of swordplay before, but the weapon that I have in this show is quite unique. And so I had to learn how to fight with a bo staff. So I spent like a month spinning a stick around for like hours a day. It was a whole new world. It was mad. It was like a brand new fight style,” he said.
Willow episodes one and two are available to watch now on Disney+ with new episodes dropping weekly on Wednesdays.
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Content Production Intern, Digital Spy
After completing her joint honours degree in Journalism and English Literature at Cardiff University, Iona joined Digital Spy as a Content Production Intern in 2022. In this role, Iona writes across both news and features, specialising in TV and movies. During her time at Digital Spy, she has interviewed multiple Love Island stars, reported from the Black Adam red carpet and, most recently, interviewed the cast of Disney’s live-action The Little Mermaid.
