Sean Gunn Ditched Rocket's Green Onesie After The First Guardians Of The Galaxy
James Gunn's 2014 sci-fi comedy "Guardians of the Galaxy" features a massive menagerie of aliens and bizarre space creatures. The film takes place almost entirely on distant planets, and while multiple human-like creatures are seen populating the cosmos, just as many blobs, critters, and anthropomorphic animals co-exist with them. One of the titular Guardians is a human-shaped tree creature that can grow new branches at will, but initially appears to only possess rudimentary intelligence; he can only say the phrase "I am Groot." It's revealed early in the film that Groot is not only intelligent but sweet and compassionate. Well, in between murdering people.
Groot's best friend is a sassy, violent, bipedal raccoon named Rocket, voiced by Bradley Cooper and realized using state-of-the-art photorealistic visual effects. Rocket's physical movements were extrapolated from his on-set performer, Sean Gunn, whose gestures and facial expressions were a valuable resource for both his fellow actors and the animation team. Sean Gunn doubled up his performances by playing the live-action role of Kraglin, a human-looking Ravager who would eventually join the Guardians of the Galaxy in subsequent sequels.
To film his scenes as Rocket for the 2014 original, however, Sean Gunn had to dress in a photographically neutral motion-tracking suit. Or, briefly, he was dressed in a green body stocking, as seen in the particularly memorable photo above. In a recent interview with ComicBookMovie.com, Sean Gunn revealed that he actually said farewell the green onesie fairly early on in his "Guardians" journey.
A new uniform
Indeed, the aforementioned photo of Sean Gunn in the green suit being gently petted by Dave Bautista was one of the last times he wore it. The scene takes place late in the film, but was shot early on the schedule. The rest of the filming allowed the actor some wardrobe leeway, as Gunn explained:
"Fortunately, I don't have to wear that green onesie anymore. We actually retired that not long after the photo you're talking about was taken with me and Dave. That was fairly early in the filming process and not too long after that, they were like, 'We don't really need you to wear that green suit. You can just wear this tracksuit.' For the subsequent movies, I'm wearing a much more comfortable great tracksuit in place of the green onesie."
A similar technique was used with Groot. Behind-the-scenes photos show the two actors in green or blue outfits with either prosthetic heads or mere low-to-the-ground body movements to indicate with their characters will be once the SFX are complete. The process, of course, meant that Sean Gunn and Bradley Cooper had to collaborate from a distance on creating Rocket Raccoon:
"[F]or the most part, we've kind of stuck with what worked. We didn't feel the need to do a lot of tinkering. [...] Once Bradley came into the process towards the end of shooting the first movie and we found that this weird process used where I was there to work with the actors on set and the visual effects team would be able to do what I did to create a rough draft of the character so Bradley can make it work and all pop. That's what worked and that's really what we've done."
Lucky to be limber
With or without the green onesie, playing Rocket required Sean Gunn to crouch and squat and be on the ground a lot. The important visual reference for his co-stars and for the visual effects team was Rocket's eyeline, and not necessarily his posture. Sean had to keep his head right about where a raccoon's ought to be, were it standing upright. (Raccoons, incidentally, can grow as long as 36 inches.) Luckily, Sean was equal to the task, happy to get down on all fours, should the scene require it:
"It's always a little different physically because there are always different physical demands on Rocket. I'm fortunate that I'm very limber and I can squat down and get to where Rocket needs to be. I always wanted the other actors, when they looked at Rocket, to be looking into a pair of eyes and not a ball on a stick or an empty space. I just try to get my face to wherever Rocket's face would be in the scene, whatever it took to do that."
50-year-old knees
Sean has played Rocket in three "Guardians" movies, a TV special, and two "Avengers" films. At this point, he is well-practiced. He also had to take up extra work when Kraglin's role was expanded in the "Guardians" sequels. He is one of the harder-working actors on set. After so many years, though, and so much crouching, the 50-year-old is more than ready to retire the part:
"Sometimes, it's harder than others. When there's walking and talking, it can be really challenging. That's why I would say, from a physical standpoint, I'm going to have to retire as Rocket here. I'm going to be 50 pretty soon and some of the squatting and moving around is getting a little hard on my ankles and feet. I'm going to put that part of my performance to bed. It's always a little different, but for the most part, the process has remained the same."
Should more "Guardians" movies be made, perhaps Sean can stick with playing Kraglin. His brother, director James Gunn, has recently left Marvel to work on superhero movies at Warner Bros., effectively launching yet another superhero continuity with Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and that crowd. One can rest assured that Sean will likely be offered a role somewhere in the DC Universe. He'd make a keen Batman.