Julian McMahon Talks Dr. Doom Costumes in "FF2"

by | March 5, 2007 | Comments

Dr. Doom may be the comic book equivalent to Julia Roberts, trying on different outfits in front of a mirror in a romantic comedy montage. He seems to have more outfits in "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" than most divas.

"It’s weird, man, because first of all, you start with Dr. Doom has been in a casket for a couple of years and wakes up a few years later," said actor Julian McMahon. "He’s pretty pissed off, kind of just rips off his mask and all that kind of stuff. He gets very ugly."

Homecoming gives Dr. Doom a setting fit for his wardrobe changes. "Then he’s got his lair set up in some castle in Latveria, right? We’re talking comic book stuff so you have to kind of go with all this kind of stuff. With all these monitors and stuff, I don’t know where he got ’em all from but they’re pretty cool. He sees this kind of entity which is the Silver Surfer. Just knowing the comic books, Dr. Doom is Dr. Doom so what does he do? He goes and he tries to destroy everybody and get everybody’s powers and all that kind of stuff. That’s basically what the character’s about."

Once the Surfer is off, McMahon gets to be himself. "Then Dr. Doom becomes me for a certain period of time which I think is very strange but let’s not get into that."

For the grand finale, expect a big closer. "Then the final costume is this pretty amazing costume. It’s a similar kind of mask. It’s kind of a larger type of fit and probably a little more sturdy kind of look to it. The chest plate, it’s a very heavy outfit. It weighed about 45 -50 pounds whatever without the cape and stuff but its pretty extraordinary. It’s a darker suit than the one he had last time its kind of more Batmanesque in a way, but with the mask its obviously very Dr. Doom, and it’s a great looking outfit. Look, I got so many outfits its ridiculous."

At least they’re keeping him busy. With new characters like the Surfer and Galactus, Dr. Doom still has a vital role. "I had quite a lot to do actually, because he went through all these transformations, different to what happens in the comic or the cartoon but we kinda just had to make it applicable [to the film]."