Sharlto is living his childhood dream

Published Aug 20, 2010

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Like the original Howling Mad Murdoch, the new|film character slips into several different accents at a drop of a hat.

Film Murdoch Sharlto Copley got to meet TV Murdoch Dwight Schultz on set and was touched that the 62-year-old thought the South African actor really "got" the character. (Stay until after the film's credits and you'll see the two in a scene together.)

"It was bizarre how similar we were as human beings, and then maybe not so bizarre in terms of how much I related to his character," said Copley about Shultz.

"That little Wikus moment (in the film), that's Murdoch impersonating Wikus because he used to impersonate different famous people on the original TV show."

Originally the multitude of accents wasn't written into the film script.

"It was one of my concerns in deciding to take the film because the original Murdoch did do all the different accents for no reason, and the crazy personalities and impersonations.

"Although they had crazy stuff in the script they specifically didn't have a lot of different accents," said Copley.

He shot an audition reel for director Joe Carnahan which he titled "things that could happen to Murdoch in a hotel room" and got the job.

Together with Bradley Cooper's Faceman character the two get to do a lot of accents and improv.

"(There's) An enormous amount of ad lib, Bradley's an awesome improviser. So is Rampage, surprisingly enough. He's incredibly funny and quick-witted.

"Liam doesn't enjoy improvising, he's more traditional, wants to |hear the lines and say the lines. The three of us kind of went crazy and Joe let us, thankfully, a lot of the time."

Though they got to clown around, everyone had to take weapons training seriously.

"It was a really good experience to help us bond and go through something difficult together.

"Although most of us didn't really, in this movie, need to use too much of it. Particularly Murdoch who just flies and gets to use the superior air fire power."

Though comicbookmovie.com had voted Copley as their choice to replace Edward Norton as Bruce Banner in the upcoming Avengers movie (Mark Ruffalo has been chosen for the Hulk role) he's not particularly interested in any comic book roles, preferring to originate a character.

"I took Murdoch because he was something that was very close to my childhood and had a big influence on me as a kid, almost getting into film. This show was part of it for me.

"I'm much more interested in creating my own characters."

Copley doesn't have any specific views for or against mining 1980s TV shows and films for current projects, having tackled this specific role because he resonated with the character.

"I wouldn't necessarily like to see everything. I don't know that I want to see Macgyver or Magnum maybe I do want to see Magnum" he breaks off chuckling.

"It doesn't bug me that they do that. Hollywood looks for known entities, known ideas that can work.

"I don't think I'll find myself doing too much more of this sort of thing in the future. Having said that, watch me go be, like, Macgyver or something" again he laughs.

"But, I think I'm done with my contribution to that effort. It was a special time, if it can bring something back, if you can feel a little bit nostalgic going back"

"The kids that generate the money are under 24 anyway, so it doesn't really make that much difference."

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