Jamie Foxx Discusses His Character’s New Look for ‘No Way Home’
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 had a lot of issues. While it was not the worst superhero movie, it was far from a perfect film. One of the complaints raised by several fans was Jamie Foxx’s Max Dillon (aka. Electro). Foxx gave a great performance, but the direction of his performance left Electro feeling more like a Spider-Man fanboy/stalker rather than a true villain. However, the other large criticism of Electro was his design. The Electro in Amazing Spider-Man 2 had glowing blue skin and a skin-tight black suit as opposed to the green and yellow suit with a lightning bolt-shaped mask of the original from the comics. It appeared to be inspired by Electro’s look in the Ultimate Spider-Man comic series , which further confused fans considering the film was called The Amazing Spider-Man. Regardless, Electro got a massive makeover for his appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Jamie Foxx spoke up about this change.
In a conversation with Marvel, Jamie Foxx was asked about how he originally got involved with the new Spider-Man film in the MCU. Foxx said:
“[Producer] Amy Pascal, who’s been so supportive of my career, brought it up to me and I was like, ‘Man, o yeah, I want to be in there.’ And the fact that I’m coming to this new universe and I looked different, and the fact that they were able to craft something that was slick, simplified, but cool.”
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“Cool” was the operative word there. The Electro in No Way Home featured a lot of “cool” changes. He no longer had the black muscle suit, the glowing blue skin was gone, and the electricity he controlled was yellow instead of blue. He even made electric bolts cover his face in an homage to the original design. Not only had his design improved, but also his character’s personality.
Jamie Foxx went on to explain the changes he brought to Max’s personality, and explained the redesign a bit more:
“The [biggest] thing that changed is that he acknowledged the way he looked. He acknowledged, ‘Oh, I like this, I dig this.’ By doing that, it answers any questions like why or what’s this thing? Being able to do that, and just bringing a little of the way I wanted to talk and how I wanted to present myself, [Electro] has a little hipness to him…That was the whole team. A whole Spider-Man team on how to make this guy cool. How do we make him impactful, but make him a little more grounded? When he acquired some [abilities], it really made sense in the way he was able to project himself.”
Electro did state that the energy felt different in the new universe, and, from a story-telling standpoint, dimensional travel could have all kinds of effects on a person. Also, the new look he sported in the movie obviously boosted his confidence, which he also talked about in the film. It allowed him to be more of who he always wanted to be, going back to the original film. While his vague answer might not win over some fans, it was a valid response that worked in the film. He essentially acknowledged that this new design was a better option rather than pretending that he was never blue, to begin with.
At the end of the day, the reason for the redesign was obviously because of the poor response it got in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, and Marvel probably wanted something that looked more grounded and realistic like several of their other heroes. It was also good that they acknowledged the change rather than keeping him blue or changing him without reason. Plus, everyone, from the producers to Jamie Foxx, seemed to be on board with the change. Jamie Foxx even tweeted that the change was going to happen when he was first cast in this film. It appeared to have paid off in the end.
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Source(s): The Direct