‘Kraven The Hunter’ star on his transformation into the rhinoceros

When it came to playing an iconic Spider-Man universe villain in the new Marvel movie Kraven the HunterAlessandro Nivola said he let the visual effects artists do all the heavy lifting.

Nivola – the Many Saints in Newark star who is also currently starring in the new films The Brutalist and The room next door— said not to be subject to hours in the makeup chair playing the rhinoceros Kraven the Hunter gave him the opportunity to delve into the psyche of his human alter-ego Aleksei Sytsevich.

“The performance was a character exploration for me. I didn’t really have to run around or fight people, wearing spandex or a cape or a mask or any kind of superhero stuff,” Nivola told me in a Zoom conversation Wednesday.

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“It was about finding a character that would serve the story and be a great villain in the style of the James Bond movies,” added Nivola. “He is a Russian oligarch-turned-cryptocurrency farmer who is plagued by feelings of impotence and has spent a lifetime being humiliated by a stronger man than he was.”

The stronger man Nivola is talking about is Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), a Russian gangster and rival of Aleksei. Nikolai is also the father of Sergei Kravinoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who survived a brutal attack as a teenager (Levi Miller) by a ferocious lion. After being mauled by the lion, the animal’s blood falls into one of Sergei’s open wounds.

Combined with a mysterious potion given to him by his friend, Calypso (Diaana Babnicova), Sergei suddenly gains the power of his spiked predator attacker and has the beast’s strength, speed and agility.

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Sergei (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) becomes a hunter known only as Kraven, hunting evil men like his father, and returns to his family years after the lion attack to reunite with his family.

However, shortly after the reunion, Kraven’s brother, Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped by Aleksei, leading to a climactic showdown with the man-turned-rhinoceros.

Directed by JC Chandor, Kraven the Hunter also stars Christopher Abbott and Ariana DeBose – who play the grown-up version of Calypso.

How Alessandro Nivola Wrapped Up Playing Rhino in ‘Kraven the Hunter’

IN Kraven the HunterAlessandro Nivola brings a playful menace to his portrayal of Aleksei Sytsevich, stealing every scene he’s in, bringing the character the perfect amount of quirky yet manic charm.

When Nivola was preparing for the role, however, he first had to master an accent for the character, which he found with his friend, the venerable Russian poet Philip Nikolayev.

“He’s a great poet and he comes to visit us all the time,” Nivola recalled. “When I was preparing for the role, he was hanging around smoking on our balcony and I chose him as my model for the character. I basically did an imitation of his voice. Also, in the first few scenes of the film (which were in flashback), I had a wig made to look like him.”

Ultimately, however, Nivola said his “challenge was finding the balance between humor and menace that the tone of the film required.”

Finally, Nivola transforms into the rhinoceros Kraven the Hunter. Of course, there are scenes where Nivola acts opposite Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s title character, but Nivola said most of the Rhino’s showdown with Kraven was created via movie magic.

“We have a big final showdown between us, which was all handled by a stunt double and some great computer guys — except for like one day when I filmed a couple of key moments (with Aaron),” Nivola noted.

The actor he said kind became a rhinoceros that day, but not in the way you would expect.

“It was fun,” Nivola recalled with a laugh. “They put me in a kind of rubber muscle suit under my clothes just to suggest the size of what I’m becoming at that moment, and I kept joking that Aaron had spent months in the gym trying to look, which I did and I just put on this synthetic rubber suit.”

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One of Nivola’s upcoming films is Downton Abbey 3which is currently set for a September 2025 release. In addition to starring opposite the regular cast of the successful TV series-turned-film franchise, one of Nivola’s co-stars in the film is his longtime friend Paul Giamatti.

The reunion gave Nivola and Giamatti a chance to discuss the comic book role they have in common.

“We joked about things because, first of all, we’ve known each other since I was 18. I was an undergrad at Yale when he was a Yale Drama student, and we were in plays together when I was still a teenager.” Nivola remembered. “So it was a fun reunion and then we realized he had played The Rhino The Amazing Spider-Man 2. So we said, ‘We both played the f—-ing rhinoceros!'”

Alessandro Nivola Kraven the Hunter and The room next door are both in the cinema, while The Brutalist opens in theaters on December 20.

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