Rhys Ifans Compares Lizard In 'Amazing Spider-Man' To Drug Addict

After years of teasing the good doctor, Curt Connors, as a potential villain in the Spider-Man movies, the Lizard will finally get his shot at the wall-crawler in "The Amazing Spider-Man."

Marc Webb's reboot of the superhero franchise for Sony promises a new take on many of the familiar aspects from the world, and one of those is Peter Parker's relationship with Connors. Peter's father, a character missing entirely from Sam Raimi's entries in the series, will play a bigger role, as will his connection to Connors and the monster he becomes.

With that new connection to the movie's villain, comes a more complex and layered Curt Connors, who actor Rhys Ifans plays in the film and described as a more sympathetic version of the comic book villain to Empire.

"Curt is a force for good throughout his life," Ifans said. "He's a geneticist who wants to help people, like him, who are limbless. In his eagerness to advance that science, he makes a mistake and that's an occurrence we've seen throughout time, sometimes to our benefit, sometimes to our detriment. ...He is a broken man who wants to fix himself. The Lizard almost becomes a drug for him, an alter-ego like Jekyll and Hyde, if you like. He's strong and brave and agile in a way that he can't be in his own life."

To achieve a level of believability for the character, Ifans stepped in as the model for the CGI Lizard's facial expressions and movements. The translation from Ifans' performance to the computer-generated face of the Lizard was almost too uncanny for the actor at times.

"Each of your facial movements are repeatable, but then you add the face of a lizard. I was, disturbingly, able to recognise some of my facial tics. In terms of the physicality, I had a particular way I wanted The Lizard to move," he said. "I didn't have lots of CGI downtime. ...Some days I'd be standing on set like one of those 'Golf Sale' people with the pole stuck down the back of my tracksuit, and on top would be the Lizard head. It was quite comical in comparison to the end result."

Thanks to Reelz for the heads up!

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