The Avengers Interview: Maximiliano Hernandez Talks Item 47
With imminent release of The Avengers Blu-Ray, we caught up with one of the stars of the upcoming One Shot movie tie-in.
th on Blu-Ray and DVD, we were able to catch up with Maximiliano Hernandez; one of the main performers in Item 47, the new short film which is to be included in the special features. Check it out below: SB: Hi Maximiliano. You alright? Hows it going? MH: Good! Its beautiful in California! SB: Oh I can imagine. Jealous! MH: [laughs]SB: Okay, so we dont have an awful lot of time, shall we get started? MH: Ok man, go for it. SB: What can you tell us about the plot of Item 47? MH: Sure. Item 47 basically takes place directly after The Avengers. So, after the portal is closed , my job was basically to collect the weaponry, make sure that it was securely put away by S.H.I.E.L.D. 
SB: This is the weaponry from the Chitauri invasion force, right? MH: Yeah, the Chitauri invasion that happened in The Avengers. Yeah, so that was basically my job. I was able to collect 46 Items and the 47th item kind of slipped through the cracks and was found by a couple, played by Jesse Bradford and Lizzie Caplan. They find this weapon, and Jesses character was able to get it to work. I mean, it shouldnt work, cause once the Chitauri are dead their weaponry doesnt work. But he was able to figure out a way to make it operational, and because of their economic situation they start going on a sort of East Coast bank robbery spree. gets word of it and Im sent out to retrieve the weapon and to neutralize both of them. 
SB: That sounds awesome! So can you tell us a little more about your character specifically? MH: I play Agent Jasper Sitwell who in the comics was basically trained directly by Nick Fury. Hes a real comic book hero character created in the mid 60s by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby; so it was kind of cool to play a character that really lives in the Marvel universe. You know, hes been around for 40-some-odd years and they gave me the shot to play his part, to sort of like, reinterpret the guy. And in the film world Im paired up with Clarke Greggs character Agent Coulson Im kind of like, his protégé. I guess now, because of what happened in Avengers, Im stepping up to fill his shoes. 
SB: So will there be anything that we might recognise about your character from the comics in Item 47? MH: You know what, I think weve taken a lot of license with my character from the real comic books. I mean you know, in the comics, Jasper is more of a technical guy; hes almost always on the technical side of working on the Heli-carrier. In the film, I think where theyve taken license with these guys to sort of like push them more out into the real world. And thats sort of what they did with Coulson and they do it with Sitwell. On the Heli-carrier our characters wear like tighter suits but were dont, were sort of like out in the world in our Armanis. SB: [laughs] Ah cool. That must have been nice for you. 
MH: [laughs] Yeah, were trying to assist the Superheroes. Which is nice; I like the idea that were sort of like the support team. You know like, we have no superpowers but we know as much about whats going on and maybe sometimes a lot more than the Superheroes. SB: I guess S.H.I.E.L.D are sort of more intel based. MH: Oh absolutely. Were definitely more intel based. I think we definitely know a lot more than what the Superheroes know. We know a lot more than Captain America knows. And like maybe with the exception of Tony Stark, I think we definitely know a lot more than we let on to the others. SB: I suppose they say knowledge is power; if you look at it that way, you guys do have a superpower really. MH: Absolutely! We do have superpowers! SB: I mean knowledge, really, is Batmans superpower. MH: Exactly! And being sort of plugged into a different way of sort of seeing whats going on that like the criminal doesnt know, or doesnt want to know. Thats like us. SB: So how did you prepare for the role of Agent Sitwell? MH: Well, Im very talkative and outgoing and this character, you know isnt [laughs]. So I basically just didnt play myself. I played very stoic. I think hes sort of been trained to be this way; not to show his cards too easily, not to show emotion so much. I mean every once in a while hell you know, show something. But hes pretty much been tasked to sort of keep things quiet, and thats completely the opposite of me. I like to, you know, make jokes and hang out, play poker with my friends and ride on motorcycles and do all this other stuff. SB: [laughs] So whatever you would do, Sitwell wouldnt do. MH: Exactly! Sitwell would be like Why would you ride on a motorcycle, cars are a lot more comfortable and a lot more conducive to the work we do. SB: [laughs] He sounds exactly like a S.H.I.E.L.D Agent to me. So Im wondering now, are we going to maybe see Agent Sitwell in the upcoming Avengers 2, do you think? MH: You know what, you very well could. Marvel is very good at keeping secrets, as you would imagine [laughs]. Well, theyre kind of good at it, cause sometimes the odd detail leaks out. Like youll find something out online and youll be like how the hell do people know that. But theyre usually really good. Like, I dont know at all. I literally find out maybe like a month before Im going to do something for them. Ill get a phone call from Marvel and theyre like hey, suit up, were sending you into battle. But Im pretty optimistic that, you know, Im gonna get that phone call late in the year and its gonna be like hey, get ready. So Im excited. SB: As would I be in your shoes. Jealous! MH: [laughs] 
SB: Are you a comic book fan yourself? MH: I am. Im a big comic book fan. Ive had an on-going subscription to Incredible Hulk since I was 12. SB: Awesome. MH: Yeah. In some way shape or form at least. When it switched over from Incredible Hulk, to Hulk, to back to Incredible Hulk to Hulk again, there was a bit of a transition and I definitely went through that transition with them. Hes my favourite character I think. Hes just a reflection of what humans really want, you know, they want to express themselves. I think hes like a super-heightened version of that. SB: The director, Lois DEsposito, has done a lot of first assistant directing. I know hes Marvels co-president which is a pretty impressive job title, but how was he at directing? MH: He was amazing. Hes won so many jobs in the business, like working as Line Producer and really working his way up. I mean hes done everything. He really earned it, and he knows what hes doing. So we felt really nurtured and completely just, like, really taken care of. There was never moments where we were like alright, I just dont get this, I dont know whats happening here. There was never, ever a moment where that happened. I mean, I know Lizzie and Jessie and Titus and I; we were very like wow, this is really smooth. And its also his facility to talk about the characters. I mean he knows what hes talking about hes the co-president of Marvel! So he knows where all these stories are going. He knows where theyre going to connect. Hes got a much farther view of it all than we do. So that definitely helped because we knew that we were going to be taken care of that way story wise. And then when you see the short, I mean, it looks like Avengers. It moves so seamlessly from the big movie to the short movie and the truth is, since it is Lou, he can and did make the phone call and he got the entire crew that shot Avengers to shoot this movie. SB: Awesome. Well, thats what you want isnt it? MH: Yeah! I mean when Lou calls you and says hey, were gonna do this thing but were kind of on a budget and people are like dude, dont even worry about it, Ill be there and Ill bring my crew. You know what I mean? Its like that kind of reverence [laughs], because they know Ive been working on the last three movies, Im gonna continue to work on the next four. You know so Lou definitely has that confidence and everyone who worked on it the graphic effects guys, the stunt guys, everyone was like 100% involved in this project, and it shows. And when you see it, it looks like its just a chunk of Avengers that became this lil short film. Its very cool that way. SB: That sounds very, very awesome. I will of course be looking forward to watching Item 47, if nothing else to get some sort of fix while I wait for Avengers 2. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us Maximilano its been a blast. Good luck for Avengers 2! MH: [laughs] Thanks a lot, great talking to you. Item 47 is released on September 17th in the UK (25th in the US) as part of the Avengers Blu-Ray special features.