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Cape Town - South African actor Sharlto Copley of District 9 and Elysium fame was recently on the Nerdist podcast to promote his new film, Hardcore Henry.
Chatting to host, Chris Hardwick, Copley spoke about growing up in South Africa, how he improvised his iconic role of Wikus van der Merwe in District 9, and how he did all his own stunts in Hardcore Henry.
He describes District 9 as a commentary on race and how our social conditioning prevents us from seeing people of other races as equals.
When asked how South African audiences received District 9 compared to international audiences, Copley said; "It was radically differently perceived in South Africa compared to other places I saw it...once Wikus comes on the screen in South Africa the audience starts laughing unlike when we watched the film with the Comic Con audience the first time you could hear a pin drop, the people were just quiet, it was just very serious.
"In South Africa it was very funny to people a lot of the way through. A lot of that has to do with Wikus being a stereotype that they know and that they find funny and it’s just like ‘I can’t believe this guy’s in a Hollywood movie’."
Listen to his full interview here.
