Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, upcoming Kick-Ass and Robin Hood) talked to USA Weekend about playing Sinestro in Warner Bros. Pictures’ Green Lantern.
“For anybody who’s familiar with the Green Lantern and the origin story, the film closely follows the early comics,” Strong said. “Sinestro starts out as Hal Jordan’s mentor, slightly suspicious and not sure of him because obviously Hal is the first human being who’s made into a Green Lantern. He’s certainly very strict and certainly unsure of the wisdom of Hal becoming a Green Lantern.”
Strong added that “[Sinestro] is a military guy but isn’t immediately bad. It’s the kind of person he is that lends himself to becoming bad over the course of the comics being written, but initially he’s quite a heroic figure.”
The actor said that the costume and other aspects of the character closely follow the character’s early days. “That widow’s peak and thin mustache was for some reason originally based on David Niven, and Hal Jordan was based on Errol Flynn,” said Strong, who recently got fitted for special Sinestro contact lenses.
“In the ’30s and ’40s, they shared an apartment together in Hollywood when they were making movies and they were great friends. Obviously at the time, whoever was doing the original comics must have looked at them as guys doing very well in the film industry, and based those characters on them. So I would like to do justice to the Sinestro that was conceived for the comic books.”
Opening in 3D and 2D theaters on June 17, the Martin Campbell-directed comic book adaptation stars Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Tim Robbins, Strong, Taika Waititi, Temuera Morrison, Angela Bassett and Jay O. Sanders.
