Alfred Molina Talks about His Return as Doc Ock in ‘No Way Home’: “No One Was More Surprised than Me”

Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ trilogy still remains one of the most iconic comic book movie trilogies of all time, since it introduced a plethora of villains long before MCU was a thing. One of those villains was Molina’s Doc Ock.

Molina portrayed the character’s arc flawlessly, transitioning from a brilliant scientist to a mind-controlled villain and ultimately becoming a genuine hero. Molina excelled in both emotional and action-packed scenes, adding depth to the character of Doc Ock and making him one of Spider-Man’s most compelling movie villains.

Now in his recent interview with Vanity Fair, Molina revealed that he was surprised he was asked to reprise his role. He was a bit worried however due to his advanced age, but Pascal and Watts reassured him they had the technology to “fix it.”

“Coming back 17 years later to play the character again, no one was more surprised than me. When they asked me, I said, ‘You realize I’m quite a bit older? I’ve got crow’s feet, I’ve got a wattle, you know, a double chin, I’ve got bad knees.’ And [director] Jon Watts and [producer] Amy Pascal said, ‘No, no, it’s your role. We want you back. We can fix all that, we’ll de-age you. We’ve got the technology, we can change everything.

I was delighted, obviously. Apart from the fact that it’s great fun to play, playing that part, in all honesty, completely changed my life. I mean, it did. It just took everything not just to a different level, but also to a whole other group of cinema fans. There’s a fan group that loved all the movies like Chocolat and Enchanted April and Frida and all those movies, and now suddenly the children of those people are kind of digging Fred Molina ’cause he’s playing Doc Ock.”

In a way, ‘No Way Home’ provided a perfect closure for his character and Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man.

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