How Kat Dennings Changed Dr. Darcy Lewis For WandaVision
WandaVision brings together an unlikely crew drawn from past Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to solve the curious mystery of the missing town of Westview, New Jersey. There's FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) from Ant-Man and the Wasp, a grown-up Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) from Captain Marvel, and the snarky, unforgettable Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) from Thor and Thor: The Dark World. It's been a while since Darcy's last appearance in the MCU, so when actress Kat Dennings came back to the role, she tweaked her performance a bit to reflect Darcy's character growth.
When we first met her in Thor, Darcy was a political science student interning for Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård), astrophysicists investigating a potential wormhole. Twice she got wrapped up in the exciting adventures of the God of Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but it's been years since those conflicts ended. Now, WandaVision tells us Darcy has been busy getting her doctorate in astrophysics, and has since become prominent enough in the field to be called in by S.W.O.R.D. to help with the Westview situation.
She's back as the Darcy fans know and love, but Dennings did something slightly different with her in WandaVision.
Kat Dennings changed how she spoke to sound more professional
In an interview with CinemaBlend, Dennings said she put in some extra work to get back into character. Obviously, her face is still her face, so nothing new needed there, but Dennings did have to remind herself of Darcy's unique voice — and change it to mirror Darcy's new profession.
"I definitely did watch some Darcy stuff just to remember what I was doing with my voice and my register, and try to bring it a little more down, you know, 'cause now she's a professional — she's a doctor," said Dennings. She can't completely change her voice, though: "I mean, my voice is so annoying and people are definitely quick to point that out and there's nothing I can do about it."
However, it isn't just her literal voice that makes Darcy memorable, but also her quick sense of humor and penchant for saying what's on her mind. She brings a lightheartedness to the tense real-world scenes of WandaVision that don't have room for decade-accurate sitcom jokes.
With four episodes of WandaVision left, there's definitely still more Darcy to see, as long as nothing goes horribly wrong — which, it won't .. right?