In Ben Falcone’s Thunder Force, Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer save the day.
Melissa McCarthy was willing to do whatever it took to make sure she and co-star Octavia Spencer looked every inch comic-book perfection for their superhero debut in the uproarious action-comedy Thunder Force, written and directed by McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone. That meant paying an in-person visit to Jose Fernandez, the sought-after crime-fighter costumer who created Ironhead Studios. Fernandez’s creations have been modeled by various Batmen, X-Men, and Avengers, not to mention by Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther. Fernandez’s schedule was full up, but McCarthy refused to take no for an answer.
“I was like, Wait a minute. Octavia and I are in our late 40s,” McCarthy explains. “We’re getting to play these superheroes. We can’t make it look like a joke. This has to be done legit. I went to Jose’s house one night. His wife was two days away from having a baby. I sat in his living room and literally begged him. I’m crying in his living room. Finally, he goes, ‘You’re killing me!’ and I’m like, ‘I hope so! Will you do it?’ And they made these unbelievable suits. When Octavia and I put them on, we both felt strong and powerful. They were also crazy comfy. You could do any fight scene in them. They’re magic to me. They’re literally magical.”
Also magical? The onscreen chemistry between McCarthy and Spencer, longtime friends who came up together in the industry. In Thunder Force, they get to play best friends — two women who have been estranged for years. When the hapless Lydia (McCarthy) turns up to reconnect with scientist Emily (Spencer), an accident in the lab leaves the former endowed with incredible abilities. With special powers of her own, Emily teams up with her old friend to take on a roster of unforgettable villains, including Jason Bateman’s The Crab and Bobby Cannavale’s The King.
Queue’s Krista Smith spoke with McCarthy and Spencer about navigating their recent adventures and their lengthy careers together.
Lydia Berman (Melissa McCarthy) and Emily Stanton (Octavia Spencer) lift weights in Thunder Force
Krista Smith: Melissa, your husband, Ben Falcone, wrote and directed this film. He’s a big comic book aficionado and always wanted to do a superhero movie. Had either one of you read a comic book? Were you excited about playing superheroes?
Melissa McCarthy: I’m not a comic book person. Ben is. There are thousands all over the house. But the thought of being in a world where there are no limitations and there are no rules, so you can make them up, you can bend them, break them, and expand them — that’s amazing. In the 70s I remember watching Spectreman, which was this Japanese show where there was somebody in a monster suit crushing small sets. We played that on the playground! And then Wonder Woman, Bionic Woman, all that stuff, it was exciting to see women coming in to kick butt and save the day. With that, I’ve always been like, I’m in.
Octavia Spencer: I never read any comic books, but I was a Wonder Woman fan as well. I’d always wanted to play a superhero, even though I don’t think that there was ever one that I could play — until Ben Falcone! This really is a dream come true for me.
Lydia (Melissa McCarthy) and The Crab (Jason Bateman) tussle
Obviously you’re besties in real life, and what I think is so beautiful about this movie is that within this great comedy/action/superhero film, the essence of this movie is about friendship, it’s about women, it’s about girls, best friends, and how hard it is to maintain those relationships over the course of maturing. Life happens, and people take different paths.
OS: Definitely. I’m reading the script, and I’m laughing and I’m crying. I just feel the bond that these two women share. That’s what I loved about it. It made you feel all these emotions, and that’s what life is. Life, every single day, you run the gamut of emotions. Ben wrote an amazing script that captured true friendship and the hardships of it and how once you go through something, you’ve earned the bond that you get to share with someone else who has that same life experience. I loved everything about both of those characters.
MM: Yes, it’s an action comedy. Yes, it’s a superhero movie. All that stuff is great and incredibly fun, but it’s the story of these two women and how you certainly don’t have to be perfect and you don’t even have to be like your friends. Something I really loved about Octavia’s character is that her entire life was dedicated to creating some way to fight back, to fight for good — but it wasn’t for vengeance. If you can play all those things at once, boy, you’ve got me. I think that’s why it’s hitting people in a different way. It’s not just rock ’em, sock ’em. After the last year-plus we’ve had, it’s the most ordinary people that are the superheroes. It’s everyone doing the deliveries, it’s every frontline worker. This is a love letter to them, to say you don’t have to be spectacular to be remarkable.
Let’s talk about those suits! Tell me about designing them, acting in them, doing all that action in them.
MM: Ironhead made those amazing suits. All those pieces that go on top are molded specifically to your body. There’s a science and technique to how they do it, which is why they look like that. You either have that or it looks like something — no offense, Amazon — that came out of an Amazon bag. There’s a specificity to that kind of sewing, using those fabrics, that is so difficult.
I hope they’re in your closets right now.
OS: Oh my God, Melissa?
MM: I physically have them.
Scientist Emily (Octavia Spencer) in Thunder Force
You two have been friends for 20 years, right? You’ve shared each other’s failures, each other’s successes. What’s your favorite characteristic about each other? To what do you owe that lasting friendship?
MM: I just love her. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love Octavia. She leads with kindness and intelligence, and is constantly looking to shine the light on somebody else. She does it with her whole heart. She’s solid in her shoes. She knows who she is. She knows what she’s doing. And if you don’t want to be friends with that, ya crazy.
OS: Right back at you, Melissa McCarthy. Melissa’s always been a leader, and she’s always been that person to just wrap her arms around her friends and bring them along. Melissa and Ben both, they’ve always done that. They also are generous people — generous of time, spirit, money. Just generous and kind. I think that when you go through your 20s together and all those ups and downs and the life experiences that we’ve gotten to experience with each other, we’ve earned that because we’ve been there. I’ll never forget when Melissa’s daughter Viv was born, coming to the hospital and seeing her and holding her. Those are life moments that we’ve earned as people who genuinely love each other. I talk about people being each other’s cheerleaders. Melissa, she’s everybody’s cheerleader. I’m impressed with who she and Ben are as people but also who they are as producers. They’ve earned those titles and they’ve continued to create opportunities for people. I just love how they love their crews.
MM: Well, we’re super lucky because the people we love so much are also bizarrely talented. Anytime someone new is coming into our world, we always make sure they’re nice. We’re like a circus family, and the circus family is a hundred people, so I want to be sure we never bring in somebody who’s going to diminish anyone on one of our sets, who’s going to make someone feel bad. We won’t stand for it. That’s the biggest thing we fight for.
Lydia (Melissa McCarthy) and Emily (Octavia Spencer) discuss a pickle in a convenience store
Both of you started in the way that most actors start, right? You weren’t shot out of a cannon in one role that immediately elevated you to stardom. You’ve earned your success. How do you view success now that you’re in your late 40s?
MM: I’m a crisp 50.
How has your point of view changed about the industry? About what success looks like? About what your priorities are? Are you still the 22-year-old that you were when you moved to Los Angeles to embark on this career?
OS: It’s funny, because I thought we were successful back when we were shooting shorts together and learning. I feel like that laid the groundwork for where we’ve gotten in our careers. I haven’t become cynical or anything. Working with Ben and Melissa — when you get to work with people that you genuinely love on a project that you genuinely love, it never feels like work. So I’m still excited about whatever the future holds, not just for me, but for the young men and women coming behind us. We started out together, and I guess that’s where the fun in all of this is. It’s because we were there at the very beginning of each other’s careers, and to be here now and get to celebrate what other people consider huge successes... you know, I thought we were successful when we were shooting at Big Lots!
Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer in the early days of their friendship
MM: I started as a production assistant, so you really got to see how a set worked. I had only done theater in New York before that. But as a P.A., I really got to see how it takes this whole, huge, moving circus. It’s all got to play, and everybody is as important as everybody else. It’s not about the actors. It’s not about the director. It’s every single layer. It’s summer camp to me, and nobody wants to go to summer camp by themselves.
Ben and I, we just started something three weeks ago, and driving to work we were like, “Can you believe we get to do this?” When we see the sets for the first time, we’re like, “Is somebody eventually going to be like, tap, tap, tap. We’re going to need you to get out of here?” It’s so fun to us. We work so hard at it, but it’s a labor of love. I get to watch people that really love what they do.