When it came to playing an icon Spider-Man Universe villain in the new Marvel film Kraven the HunterAlessandro Nivola said he leaves all the heavy lifting to the visual effects artists.

Nivola – the Many saints of Newark Star who is currently also starring in the new films The brutalist And The room next door–said about not having to sit in the makeup chair for hours playing The Rhino 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 actually have to walk around or fight people, wear spandex, a cape, a mask or any other superhero stuff,” Nivola told me in a Zoom call on Wednesday.

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“It was about finding a character that fits the story and is a great villain in the style of the James Bond films,” Nivola added. “He is a Russian oligarch-turned-cryptocurrency farmer who is plagued by feelings of powerlessness and has been humiliated throughout his life by a man stronger than him.”

The stronger man Nivola speaks of 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 by a wild lion as a teenager (Levi Miller). After he is mauled by the lion, the animal’s blood drips into one of Sergei’s open wounds.

Combined with a mystical potion given to him by his girlfriend Calypso (Diaana Babnicova), Sergei suddenly gains the power of his apex predator attacker, possessing the beast’s strength, speed and agility.

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

Shortly after the reunion, however, Kraven’s brother Dmitri (Fred Hechinger) is kidnapped by Aleksei, leading to a crucial showdown with the man who becomes the rhino.

Director: JC Chandor, Kraven the Hunter Also starring is Christopher Abbott and Ariana DeBose, who plays the adult version of Calypso.

How Alessandro Nivola focused on playing the rhino in Kraven the Hunter

In Kraven the HunterAlessandro Nivola brings a playful menace to his portrayal of Aleksei Sytsevich and steals every scene he appears in, giving the character the perfect amount of quirky yet insane charm.

However, as Nivola prepared for the role, he first had to learn an accent for the character, which he found from his friend, the venerable Russian poet Philip Nikolayev.

“He is a great poet and comes to visit us all the time,” recalls Nivola. “When I was preparing for the role, he was hanging out on our balcony smoking and I chose him to model 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 that looked just like him.”

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

Eventually Nivola turns into the rhinoceros Kraven the Hunter. Of course, there are scenes in which Nivola appears alongside Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s titular character, but Nivola said most of the duel between The Rhino and Kraven came about through movie magic.

“We have a big final showdown between us, which was handled by a stunt double and some good computer people – apart from one day where I filmed a few key moments (with Aaron),” Nivola noted.

The actor said Somehow became Rhino that day, but not in the way you would expect.

“It was funny,” Nivola recalled with a laugh. “They put some kind of rubber muscle suit under my clothes just to show how big I was getting at that moment, and I always joked that Aaron spent months trying to look like me in the gym, and I have “Just put him on this synthetic rubber suit.”

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One of Nivola’s upcoming films is Downton Abbey 3which is currently scheduled for release in September 2025. One of Nivola’s co-stars in the film is not only the regular cast of the hit TV series, but also his long-time friend Paul Giamatti.

The reunion gave Nivola and Giamatti the opportunity to talk about their role together in the comic film.

“We joked because we’ve known each other since I was 18. “I was a student at Yale University when he was studying acting there, and we were in plays together when I was a teenager,” Nivola recalled. “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 damn Rhino!’”

Alessandro Nivola Kraven the Hunter And The room next door are both at the cinema while The brutalist hits theaters on December 20th.

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