She-Hulk: Attorney At Law starts tomorrow and writer Jessica Gao shares that Kevin Feige actually had a lot of script input. Marvel Studio President Kevin Feige is literally the head of the franchise. He has the eyes that oversee everything that is going on. Yet, people have always regarded him as the most collaborative and engagingly creative boss among bosses. Gao attests to his creativity and amiability adding to the many professionals telling good-natured stories about him.
Rohan Patel – Official Channel interviewed Gao recently giving insights to the newest series from Marvel. She talked about the series lead Tatiana Maslany on how the actress could just do anything it amazed her to no end.
Talking about her approach to the script, she said she didn’t want to take too much of time in the origin. Instead, they wanted to get more into the meat of the story. Thus they proceeded to focus on the ‘fun stuff’ they want viewers to see. In her words:
I didn’t want to spend a lot of time with an origin. I feel like we want to get into the meat of this. Let’s get to the fun stuff that we want to see. Which is the six foot seven hulk having to be a lawyer and having to deal with the superhero issues. But with also a 30-something working professional issues. We didn’t like to spend more than one episode on the origin because we just wanted to get right to it and have fun… What’s great about half hour comedies is that you can be episodic. You can tell a full story with a beginning, middle and end in each episode even though there’s a seasonal arc that goes through it.
Kevin Feige Had A Lot Of Input In She-Hulk
Gao spoke about Tatiana Maslany’s perfect performance as She-Hulk. In her comments, she also noted that Maslany is a natural at comedy. Unsurprisingly so because the actress has proven that she can indeed take on different roles in a single series, as she did in Orphan Black. She said:
After working with her, I fully believe that she can do literally anything. I think she can play any role. obviously in the same show she can play multiple roles. She is so so talented. And, this was also a physically demanding role. The amount of work she had to do, extra things she had to do to play a CG character and she just did everything perfectly. She added so much to what was already on the page. Truly, I genuinely believe she can do anything.
When asked how it was working with Kevin Feige, Gao answered:
Working with Kevin Feige has been probably one of the greatest joys of my professional life. Because he… I hate to add to the mountains of compliments that he’s constantly getting but reluctantly I have to confirm. It is true. He is brilliant. He truly is the creative genius that everybody says that he is. And, he is, I think, the best creative producer working in Hollywood today.
It’s no simple feat for one person to be able to put this huge franchise into motion. Of course, each project is composed of a battalion of cast and crew. But, it is Feige’s charted plans that set the pieces in motion. However, Feige keeps surprising people at how approachable he is. Gao continues:
And he’s also just like a nice dude who is very easy to talk to. Part of the reason that I respect him so much is that he lets me be incredibly mean to him. And he lets me bully him constantly. I don’t think any president of another studio would ever let me do that.
Kevin Feige Had A Lot Of Input In She-Hulk
Image: Disney Plus
By Gao’s words, Feige creates this culture in the the Marvel work environment that encourages people to just do their thing. Somehow, even at that concept, things get masterfully done. On instances that Feige brings his thoughts to the table, Gao says:
He also just comes up with brilliant ideas. There were so many elements in the show that were his pitches. And he’s truly egoless because there have been times where he’ll pitch a really good idea and I’ll be like ‘that’s great!’ And I’ll use it, I’ll put it in the script. Then weeks later, he’ll read the script and he’ll have forgotten that it was his idea. And then he’ll say ‘Oh that was really smart! That was great’ and I’ll be like ‘No that was your idea dummy! Like how did you forget that brilliant idea that saved the script?!’
Ironically, the one who contributes the big idea apparently is quite forgetful. Feige’s inputs are very vital to any Marvel project because he brings things together. One project may be comedic in nature and another one that is of science fiction but they still have to have a connection. This is something no other studio has ever done before. Only the MCU has done it and other are trying to catch up to emulate. Building this world required a great conceptualizer. And that is what Feige does.
