BWW Blog: 'Inside the LOKIs Studio' - An Interview with Director Kate Herron

On the rainy afternoon of Loki's final press, I spoke to series director Kate Herron, who was donned in a wonderful Teletubby Loki t-shirt (found here), via Zoom.

BM: So, I figured you're probably tired of Loki questions, so we could start with something else first... and then I have a bunch of Loki questions for you. (Laughs).

KH: (Laughs). Sure, sure.

BM: On Inside The Actors Studio, the host asks the guest a series of questions at the end; I thought we could do those first!

KH: Yeah!

BM: What is your favorite word?

KH: "Delicate". I say it all the time when I eat food; when I'm trying to sound smart. I'm like: "Oh, it's really delicate." And my friends - they've caught on. They know what I'm doing. (Laughs). Like, "why do you keep saying it's delicate?" I'm just trying to sound like a food critic.

BM: What is your least favorite word?

KH: My least favorite word is "Bank" because it's the worst underground station in London. It's terrible. I get lost in it all the time; like a labyrinth, and you just can't find your way out. When it comes up on my travel plan, I'm immediately like, "Oh, no."

BM: What turns you on creatively, emotionally, or spiritually?

KH: Positivity and a can-do attitude. In film-making, so much can go wrong, and I feel like the same is with life, right? Someone that's like, "Okay, this is bad. But here's what we're gonna do. Here's some solutions. And it doesn't mean it's any less bad, but we're gonna fight our way through it." I think that, for me - I'm always very on board with that kind of attitude.

BM: What turns you off [creatively, emotionally, or spiritually]?

KH: I think the opposite of that: a defeatist attitude, like, "oh well, let's just give up." Also, negativity towards other creators. It takes so much effort to make anything, any type of art. I try to find the good in everything; if I don't like it, fine, no big deal, but I don't really want to voice that online. I see a lot of that [negativity toward creators online] and I don't like it.

BM: What is your favorite curse word?

KH: Probably... hmm. Well, traditionalist - "f***". I say that a lot. It's my most commonly used one. So, I'll go with that one, please.

BM: What sound or noise do you love?

KH: My dog's snoring. It's very cute and funny and it cracks me up. He sounds like - I used to share a room with my nan - and he sounds a bit like my nan when she snored. (Laughs). It's a very guttural sound; he's like a little pig. It cracks me up. I love my dog.

BM: What sound or noise do you hate?

KH: Flies. Lots of flies. My family's house used to be like a cornucopia for flies, just, everywhere. And there's loads of spiders - I don't know what's going on! I'm like, "are the spiders on strike?" I feel like I'm doing this [makes swatting hand motion] all day.

BM: What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

KH: I love writing. Maybe writing a kids book, or a play. Me and my writing partner just wrote a comic book, which was really fun. I'd love to do something that's - to take those skills and put them in a whole new place. Maybe continue writing comic books, actually.

BM: What profession would you not like to do?

KH: I would be a terrible skier because I don't like heights. I wouldn't be very good at being a professional... are they called "skiers"? (Laughs.) I don't even know.

BM: Last Studio question - If Heaven exists, what would you want to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

KH: "I'm as surprised as you are." (Laughs.)

BM: As you know, there are a lot of Marvel comics, which allows for a lot of possible "easter egg" choices for the show. When choosing easter eggs for the show, how do you decide where to start, and which will be most impactful to the plot?

KH: It's across every single stage. It can happen in script stage, it can also happen - production design, they would pitch stuff sometimes, in the illustrations - I'd be like, "oh, that's so funny!" So many of our Easter eggs were in the Void, so we were creating the Void with our Visual Effects team, and Dan DeLeeuw led that team; he's a legendary VFX supervisor, but he also loves comics. He was pitching all kinds of stuff to go in there [the Void]. It's really across the whole team. My producer, Kevin Wright, the Thanos Copter was his pitch. And, stuff happens like Throg - I had that scene for [episode] one, we couldn't quite get it to work, so we put it in at [episode] five. Marvel is such a collaborative studio that it [easter egg pitches] comes from everyone, and then it's making it work best for the story.

BM: Now that the multiverse has opened, fans are saying "everything is canon now". For you personally, what is something in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you'd love to be canon but isn't?

KH: The Phone Ranger. I'd love to see that.

BM: The TVA has a very retro design, even though their technology is advanced. What inspired that design?

KH: I love the idea of the Midwest, kind of Madmen style because the TVA think they're the heroes and they present themselves like that. The brutalist architecture we mixed it with felt right. It has the oppressive Time Keepers and "Big Brother is Watching" thing going on. We had elements of that in episode one, but not so heavy that people off the bat were like, "they don't seem like they're completely good guys". I have worked in a lot of offices and I was just tickled by the idea that maybe they wouldn't have the most up-to-date computers but obviously what they're doing is very advanced, because it's the TVA. I was drawing inspiration from films like Brazil and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I loved the retro, futuristic vibe - like the golden age of comic books. For me, it was all about making the TVA feel like a real, living office space.

BM: If you were to meet a variant of yourself and become friends, what would be different about them?

KH: My immediate thought is, "We could play PlayStation together." I love games but I'm so hopelessly terrible at them. Maybe they'd be badass at them [games]; a helpful variant, and they could help me through the levels I couldn't get through. But, who knows? We see how different all of Loki's variants are - so, who knows what they'd be like?

BM: It's so wonderful that Loki is now canonically bisexual in the MCU. It's really impactful, especially given the global reach of Marvel. How do you feel that a large franchise like Marvel can change negative public opinions?

KH: It's massive, isn't it? I just know that if I had seen that moment when I was really small, I would've felt very seen and it would've helped me work some things out about myself that I didn't quite know then. It's massive - that's the most important thing. Something that was important to me was that it was matter of fact the way he talks about it; it's normal. I think that's the biggest thing about it. It is far-reaching, and we were all very proud that we got to acknowledge that and make it canon in the MCU. I'm excited to see where Marvel goes with everything. For me, it felt like a big ripple effect across the Internet.

BM: Marvel fans love their theories. Throughout the show, were there any fan theories that shocked you or stuck in your mind?

KH: The main theory was when people started to guess the TVA could be Kang-related. It's not Kang at the end of our show, it's a variant, but I was so happy because I knew we were going to deliver not exactly what they wanted, but it's so close to what they wanted. All the theories are so much fun, but that [Kang theory] was the main one that made me say, "Oh, this is great! They're getting it!"

BM: Back to easter eggs, were there any major ones that seemed obvious to you and the production team, but were missed by the fans?

KH: There's only one, and it might not be missed, but there's a certificate behind B-15 in Ravonna's office; the certificate is to do with Ravonna. It's a comic book easter egg. I don't think I've seen anything about that online. It's quite a fun one if anyone wants to spot that.

BM: At what point in production was it decided that Loki would have a season 2, and did that impact the scripts and story arc while it was in development?

KH: It happened a bit later in production, I can't remember exactly when - but we were really just focused on our six episodes. The main bit it [season 2] impacted was the last two minutes - when Loki is inside the alternate TVA, and he does the run-through and sees the statue - that we added later with the knowledge of wanting to stick the landing in a way that will make people excited for season 2. We were always focused on trying to tell the best story we could in these six episodes, and anything beyond that is just bonus.

BM: Working on a Marvel project must be a really unique experience because of the green screens and special effects. Was there any part of it that you didn't expect?

KH: I was quite lucky, because 90% of our show was sets. We had more sets than most MCU projects, which was really fun. That was important to me, Autumn [Director of Photography], and Kasra [Production Designer], because we were looking at films like Eternal Sunshine and Scott Pilgrim; those films took place in really fantastical settings, but they felt very grounded. You believed the characters were there. With the TVA, we wanted big sets so we could do long takes with our characters walking from one place to another. My surprise was probably how I took to it. I'd never done anything like Loki before; I'd done comedy and drama. Marvel has one of the best visual effects teams, and the genius of them is that they don't make it feel intimating. I asked them for the equivalence of a "VFX School" and I sat with their team and asked them a million questions. I felt very supported and learned a lot from it. Everything - it's all about your team, and we had a really good one.

BM: One more question before we sign off. What Marvel character do you think you're most like and why?

KH: Casey. I just understand him - poor, nervous Casey. When I saw him, I thought, "That's me!" I know what a fish is, though.

BM: And you don't have Infinity Stones in your drawer, right?

KH: No, I don't think so!

Stream all episodes of Loki now on Disney+.