Patrick Wilson and director James Wan have collaborated many times over the years. So when they were working on The Conjuring 2 and Wan mentioned he’d like Wilson to play Ocean Master in Aquaman, it was a pretty quick “yes”. Even though Wilson’s agents didn’t seem thrilled about their client joining a movie that didn’t even have a script yet.
“I signed on before there was a script, before there was anything,” Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter. “My agents were like, ‘Do you know what the role is?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s this guy.’ I show them pictures. [They asked], ‘Is it a big part?’ I’m like, ‘Guys, he’s not going to waste my time. I know that.'”
Meanwhile, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, who plays a secondary villain in Aquaman named Black Manta, had some bold demands during his audition for the role. He didn’t want to have facial hair.
“I sat down at my audition and said, ‘I’m not going to have a beard'” Abdul-Mateen said. “I had The Get Down, I had Baywatch, I had [The Vanishing of] Sidney Hall. I had films where I had this afro and this beard. I just wanted the world to know there was another face and another guy under there.”
“James was all about Black Manta being attractive and being appealing to fans. And I was down with that too,” he added.
SOURCE: The Hollywood Reporter
