In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast features in-depth conversations with today’s most noteworthy actors and creators. Join host and senior editor Vinnie Mancuso for this guide to living the creative life from those who are doing it every day.
Unlike the stories of marathon auditions and chemistry tests usually required to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, veteran actor and voiceover artist Ralph Ineson landed the role of the iconic planet-devouring villain Galactus in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” after a simple sitdown with director Matt Shakman. “It was a very bizarre way to get what is probably the biggest job I’ve had in 33 years. It didn’t really seem like I had to put a lot of work into it,” Ineson told us with a laugh on the most recent episode of In the Envelope: The Actor’s Podcast.
But once you get acquainted with Ineson’s talents—and that voice—it’s easy to understand why Shakman immediately saw him as the 735-foot-tall cosmic entity, who the actor brought to life through a mix of motion capture and practical performance.
“What I tried to focus on was making [Galactus’ voice] like a church organ, where the breath and the air causes the sound, rather than informing words to speak,” Ineson says. “It takes a lot of breath to make the voice I use for Galactus…. There’s a kind of a hum and a rumble behind it, even when he’s not speaking.
“It’s almost like the sound comes from the lower stomach; it’s channeled up wide and broad and comes out like a landslide or a tsunami,” he continues. “I was constantly thinking of natural disasters and things more powerful than man could cope with, like tornadoes, hurricanes. Because that’s how I see him, as a force of nature, with this huge power of destruction. But not an evil baddie, in a sense, because that is just who he is.”
Teasing the character’s motivations (beyond just snacking on our planet), Ineson said, “I want to get everything about him to convey a sense of power, and being above mortal humans in a complete way, not an arrogant way. There shouldn’t be any arrogance about him, but it just should be that they have no relevance to him at all. Until one of them does have relevance to him.”
On this installment of In the Envelope, Ineson delves deep into bringing Galactus to the screen (and the surreal experience of becoming a popcorn bucket); the intensity of working with frequent collaborator Robert Eggers (“The Witch,” “The Northman,” “Nosferatu”); and what to expect from his other big 2025 project: Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein.” Listen and subscribe to hear the full conversation:
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