Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell have – perhaps predictably, given their family ties – been approached to play relatives before. But Godzilla spin-off show Monarch: Legacy of Monsters offered the father-son duo something altogether more exciting: the chance to play the same role, decades apart.
Enter Lee Shaw. In the 1950s portion of the MonsterVerse spin-off on Apple TV Plus, Wyatt Russell’s take on the character is a dutiful soldier who gets drawn into the wide-eyed world of Monarch and monster-hunting. When we see him in the 21st Century, Kurt Russell’s Shaw is suspicious, verging on paranoid, when a conspiracy lands on his doorstep.
“They got to work to build the character together, they would run lines together,” Monarch: Legacy of Monsters co-creator Matt Fraction says of the Russells’ unique collaboration. “Whether or not they were in the scenes, they would come by and watch one another work. The fun, the challenge, and excitement of the project – apart from the Godzilla of it all – was not just to work together, but to work together to that end. It was really cool to watch that happen.”
Fellow co-creator Chris Black does, however, offer intriguing insight into their performances – namely, that they may be cut from the same cloth but they approached the role differently.
“I probably shouldn’t admit this, but Matt and I would sometimes forget they’re the same character. They’re both great actors and both great fun to work with, but they do have slightly different acting styles.”
Black adds, “We even referred to them in the script: Wyatt’s character was ‘Lee’ and Kurt’s character was ‘Shaw’, so we could differentiate them in our heads as the young version and old version. Kurt would often have to remind us, ‘I already know this because he knows that’ and we go, ‘Of course, you’re right!’”
