On the invention of her character 'Minister Mason':
Well, this was really good fun. I knew director Bong, and he told me about Snowpiercer. And then, when I read it, I said, “There is no one. There is Octavia Spencer and the woman with the yellow dress, and there is nobody else.” He said, “Yeah, it’s true. Let’s think about something in the future.” And then, a few weeks later, he wrote to me and said, “You see Minister Mason, who is described as a mild-mannered man in a suit?” And it is still described that way. We never updated it. He said, “What do you reckon?” And so, I thought, “Okay, how much fun can I have with it?” And he basically said, “Try me.” So, we just built up a clown. I wanted to make a clown out of this politician who is this really sinister, corrupt individual. Apart from the fact that I think there are so many wonderfully corrupt clowns in cinema, from Dr Strangelove to The Great Dictator, in life, you switch on the news and there will be someone posturing and making an idiot of themselves. People vote them in because they want a soap opera. So, that was really the key. We tried to push it as far as we could.
On how much freedom the actress had when portraying the character:
It is very interesting to try to analyze how director Bong and I were able to work together, because it feels as if we made every decision together, from the very beginning, when we first met. We became friends instantly, and we knew we wanted to work together. And then, when we decided to try to make something out of Minister Mason, which was director Bong’s idea, it was a challenge. He put down a glove and we dared each other. I had these fantasies of this clown, which was originally based on one photograph that we found of a museum lady who was a real person from my childhood. And then, we kind mixed in all of the crazy clown megalomaniac cowards that the news channels show us, every day. We just kept throwing in elements.
For more from the actress be sure to head over to Collider via the source link below. Stay tuned to CBM for more on the upcoming film as news follows. Snowpiercer Stars Chris Evans, Jaime Bell, John Hurt, Alison Pill, Tilda Swinton, Octavia Spencer, Ewen Bremner, Kang-ho Song, Luke Pasqualino and is directed by Bong Joon-ho. the film is set for US release June 27th, 2014.
ComicBookMovie.com, and/or the user who contributed this post, may earn commissions or revenue through clicks or purchases made through any third-party links contained within the content above.