David Harbour's Red Guardian Idea That Marvel Completely Shot Down
One can't accuse David Harbour of shirking his acting duties. Whether he's portraying Hellboy or Hopper, the actor strikes an imposing figure and never fails to leave behind an impression — no matter the role he's portraying.
Harbour will co-star in the forthcoming "Black Widow," in which Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff returns to Russia with an eye on taking down the Red Room, a Soviet training program used to develop young girls into deadly, unbreakable, top-flight assassins. Harbour's Alexei Shostakov is Romanoff's father figure, and a superhero known as Red Guardian. For the sake of the all-important authenticity, Harbour apparently had a suggestion that was quickly shot down by the bosses at Disney and Marvel Studios.
What suggestion did Harbour make in regard to his character that was shot down so quickly? Keep reading to find out.
Harbour's idea for Red Guardian got lost in translation
According to Screen Rant, Marvel outright rejected the actor's request to speak only Russian while portraying Alexei. During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live June 1, the actor admitted the Russian accent he used in a clip aired on the show "makes no sense."
"So he's Russian. In Russia. He'd be speaking Russian. So the entire movie should be me speaking Russian with subtitles," Harbour continued, cheeky-voiced. "It was not well-received by the producers when I brought that up." Since the MCU's goal is to appeal to as many superhero-loving fans as possible — even young children who lack the ability to read such subtitles — the notion was quickly and summarily rejected. But the actor remembered, and his anecdote leaves one imagining a world in which characters like Romanoff, who were raised speaking a language other than English, use that language onscreen and are subtitled.
"Black Widow" is slated to hit theaters July 9.