Kevin McKidd got a major promotion. Best known for his role as Roman legionary Lucius Vorenus in HBO's Rome, he's now playing the Greek god Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. The movie, adapted for a popular young adult novel of the same title, imagines the ancient Greek gods in the modern world, with the story focusing on young Percy, who finds out that his father is quite literally divine.
It's good to be a god, McKidd explains:
I'm 40 feet tall for most of the film, but then we come to human form, We can atomize ourselves because we're gods. We can do what we want, right? So we can atomize ourselves and walk around the streets of Manhattan, wandering Manhattan, and dress in Gap clothing and do all that stuff, then atomize ourselves back to 40-foot Greek god stage. It's a really fun film.
His own son, he says, is particularly impressed with his new job, and has begun devouring the whole Percy Jackson series, looking for spots where he might see his dad on screen. Assuming that Lightning Thief proves successful at the box office, McKidd could reprise his role in at least three more Percy Jackson movies.