When Jaimie Alexander played Sif for the first time in “Thor,” she felt that she was part of something special. “I remember my first day on the set of the first ‘Thor,’” recalls Alexander. “It was surreal walking around in a costume thinking that, as a kid, I always wanted to be this girl. I always wanted to walk around in this outfit and fly across an ice world and fight alongside these awesome people. It’s so funny because you sort of live out your childhood fantasy, and I knew right away that it was going to be amazing.”
Now reprising her role in Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” as one of Asgard’s most skilled and loyal warriors, Alexander still thinks its “amazing” and says, “I have to say Sif is one of the favorite characters that I’ve ever played. She’s probably the closest to my personality out of everything I’ve done. She’s a butt-kicker, so I like that.”
But Alexander has taken her character to a different emotional place in the new film. “I really tried to bring Sif a little bit more vulnerability in this film,” the actress explains. “She has a very big soft spot for Thor. She’s very much in love with him and cares vey much about his well-being, as well as her fellow Asgardians’ well-being. Sif kicks a lot of butt in this movie, but she also opens her heart a lot.”
Getting the chance to reunite with the Warriors Three, her loyal comrades in arms on the battlefields of the Nine Realms, was a huge plus for Alexander. “It’s been great being back together with my Warriors Three,” relates Alexander. “We go out and have sushi and talk and catch up. Ray’s [Stevenson] had another baby since the first movie, and now, of course, we have Zachary Levi playing Fandral and he’s been a great addition to our cast. Tadanobu Asano has really hit the American film market, so it’s just great to see everybody doing really well. We still punch each other in the arm and goof off and everything. It’s like seeing family again.”
Explaining her role with the Warriors Three in the film, Alexander says, “We all unite in this film and follow Thor and support Thor in everything that he wants to do and all of the decisions that he makes. We even turn on some of our fellow Asgardians to protect him. That loyalty really shows how much we love Thor and how much we support him and we stand by him. We fight alongside of him…and we also all still hate Loki!”
Alexander had to step up her stunt training in Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World,” which required her to be proficient in different skills this time around. “There was lots of shield and sword training, obviously, and then I have a double-bladed spear,” recalls Alexander. “There has been horseback training, which I had a lot of fun with. I guess everybody thinks that because I’m from Texas I ride horses, but I was probably the least experienced out of everyone.”
Alexander feels that her new costume, created by costume designer Wendy Partridge, is “very feminine” compared to the first “Thor.” She explains: “It’s more of a slender shape. A lot of my movement in this film is based on martial arts and flexibility rather than just blunt trauma hits. I really kicked quite a lot of butt in the first film like that but this costume allows me to have just tremendous agility, which is great. I can high kick up to my ears if I wanted to, whilst looking like I’m wearing the toughest armor you’ve ever seen.”
Commenting on the efforts to ground Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” in relatable reality, Alexander says, “With these big Super Hero, big-budgeted, big action films, you can lose a little bit of the humanity, but I think what we do is we put real life situations in an extraordinary circumstance. For example, you’ve got a man who’s lovesick over a woman and a woman who’s lovesick over a man—that happens a lot in real life. You have family arguments; you have friends that argue and friends that get in a tiff. We bring all of that home. We just do it in a very fancy, very visually stunning way.”
Adding to that sense of reality for Alexander were the practical sets that were designed and built for the film. “The sets are pretty incredible,” enthuses Alexander. “It really feels like we get to be in Asgard. It’s not all CG, which I appreciate. They’ve just done a fantastic job with every little detail, even the tiles on the floor. They are the most intricate details you’ve ever seen. You probably will never even see the floor in the movie—not up close, anyway—but yet they took the time to do that because they know that it matters. That just shows how professional they are.”
Fans are a huge part of Marvel’s success and their loyalty is not lost on Alexander. “We have the greatest fans in the world,” says Alexander. “They’re so loyal and so supportive. I absolutely love when people come up to me and say, ‘I love you as Lady Sif,’ or, ‘My kids dressed as you for Halloween.’ You just think like, wow, I inspired somebody who could be in their eighties or somebody who’s a young teenager. It’s just across the board. They’re the most supportive people out there, and they always want us to do the best that we can and we try to do that for them.”
Alexander is excited to see Marvel’s “Thor: the Dark World” in its complete form when the film hits theaters. “It will be neat to see what everybody got to do on this film and see how it comes together. It will be fun to see people’s reactions to it, too, because it’s going to be different from the first one.”
Read all of our interviews from THOR: THE DARK WORLD