Melissa McCarthy: Lack of rules makes superhero genre appealing

By David Villafranca

Los Angeles, Apr 8 (efe-epa).- No rules but lots of heart. That’s what Melissa McCarthy, co-star of the new Netflix film “Thunder Force,” was looking for in her foray into the superhero genre.

“I love the genre. I love anything that’s like, ‘there’s no rules,’ because you can make up your own rules,” McCarthy told Efe.

A two-time Oscar nominee (one in the best-supporting actress category for her role in the 2011 comedy “Bridesmaids” and another in the best-actress category for her performance in the 2018 biopic “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), McCarthy is regarded as one of the leading American comedic actresses.

In this latest picture set for release Friday on Netflix, she is teaming up once again with her husband, American filmmaker Ben Falcone, and with her long-time friend and fellow critically acclaimed actress, Octavia Spencer.

“Thunder Force,” a new addition to the superhero comedy sub-genre along with films like “Shazam!” centers around two unlikely villain-fighters, Lydia Berman (McCarthy) and Emily Stanton (Spencer), two close friends who had gone their separate ways but reunite as middle-aged women to combat a group of supervillains terrorizing Chicago.

Their superpowers – awesome strength and the ability to turn invisible – stem from a process Emily developed through her work as a scientist at a hi-tech company.

Bobby Cannavale, Melissa Leo, Pom Klementieff and Jason Bateman are other principal cast members of a film in which, according to McCarthy, imagination was a key element.

“You can say what the strength is, what the world is, what the rules are. Ben writing within that world was already like ‘what a playground,'” she said.

“I love ‘Thunder Force’ because it’s got so much comedy in it. But also Ben put in so much heart to that script. For me, in a superhero movie, I need both. It can’t just be like, ‘I’m the strongest and I win.’ I like that these are two regular women that become superheroes and decide to fight the good fight,” the actress said.

McCarthy said the most poignant aspects of “Thunder Force” concern issues that have come to the forefront during the pandemic.

“As humans, we need to be connected. I mean, if we don’t know that after the last year-plus of our lives … As a planet, we’ve all been pulled apart. So I hope that people can watch this and I hope there’s a little more light shined on the good (and) that friendship matters,” she said.

Spencer, who had worked on the same set before with McCarthy in “The Nines” (2007) and “Pretty Ugly People (2008), said the genuine bond they share off-screen allowed them to click naturally in “Thunder Force.”

“Well, I would love to say that we’re such good actresses that we created that chemistry,” the winner of a best-actress Oscar for her role in the 2011 film “The Help” told Efe.

“But someone said this to me yesterday, and I think it touched me in such a deep way. We’ve known each other half our lives, Melissa and I.” Spencer said. “That makes it seamless, and there’s an ease that we have with each other as human beings and as friends, and then of course as actresses, so it was an easy chemistry because we simply love each other in real life.” EFE

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