As the latest episode of Moon Knight saw two versions of Oscar Isaac interact with each other, they naturally needed a double to take on the role that he wasn’t playing at the time. To ensure they find someone that would match the actor, the double role ended up going to his younger brother, Michael Benjamin Hernandez. The hilarious part is that he had the code name Mork Sphincter during production. In an interview with Marvel, he shared his experience working opposite his brother.
If Oscar was playing Marc at the time, I would play Steven opposite of him. Then we would switch around, and he would play the Steven role and I would do the Marc role. It would involve me being on set with him doing the scenes, or an earpiece, where I would give him the lines. So depending on how they were shooting it, I would either be actually there in the scene or off camera.
Michael Benjamin Hernandez
He also highlighted that they’d coordinate their scenes throughout the production, where Isaac was an active coach for him and ensure they are approaching their scenes “on the same page.” Yet, they were also open to improvising throughout, but always made sure they were prepared before a scene.
Before a scene, I’d be in [Oscar’s] trailer and we’d talk about what’s happening here and what’s the intention, what’s going on. That would help me perform in a way that makes sense to him, and we were both on the same page. For me, it was all about making it as real and authentic as possible for Oscar to play off against, as opposed to him recording lines and just going off the line.
Michael Benjamin Hernandez
It wasn’t an easy job, as he also had make-up and prosthetics added to make his transformation into Steven and Marc easier, which was a strange experience for Hernandez. Yet, he highlights it helped him immerse into the experience of being Isaac as well.
It was just this weird, mutated abomination of Marc with a fake prosthetic nose. I had never done the whole casting thing where they pour the green goo over your face…and I was totally game for all of that. I was totally game for like, yeah, you want to give me a wig or fake nose? We even thought of fake chin parts and cheeks. But then we established that if we were going to film from behind my shoulder, the nose was the prominent piece to get. And so that made it feel like it was actually Oscar there, because he has a beautiful schnoz, and we wanted to recreate that
Michael Benjamin Hernandez
It certainly sounds like he had quite the experience on the show, and if we see more of Moon Knight in the future, he’ll probably have more chances to bring the character back to life again. Long live Mork Sphincter!
Source: Marvel
