Brett Goldstein Had Two Weeks to Prep for 'Thor: Love and Thunder', Did '400 Push-Ups' Day of Cameo

Brett Goldstein only had two weeks to turn into a Greek god.

The 'Ted Lasso' star was about "two-thirds" into filming Season 3 of the Emmy-winning AppleTV+ comedy, while juggling co-creating and executive producing the upcoming series directed by Harrison Ford "Shrinking". Still, Goldstein kind of took the time to make his MCU debut.

"It was literally out of the blue one night, and I was really busy, and it was like, 'Can you make time for a Zoom?'" Goldstein recalled of the "surreal" experience. "They kind of started with, 'So, Russell Crowe is Zeus,' and I was like, 'Yeah, OK, carry on.' And blah, blah, blah. And then they turn around and reveal, 'That's Hercules; it's you.' And I said, 'What?' Just like, "Are you serious? Are you fucking with me? Is this a liquidation?"

Goldstein joked, "So yeah, that was as surprising to me as I think it has been to other people."

The stand-up comedian even sat down with 'Thor: Love and Thunder' writer-director Taika Waititi for a reality check.

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"I said, 'You know, I'm basically like a skinny comedian?' "It felt like two weeks from now, and I was like, 'I mean, I'll do my best, but two weeks is...'"

He added, "I said, 'He doesn't have to be as big as Thor, does he?' And look, that day, I mean, I do 400 pushups that day. I was ready to explode. I did my best that day, yeah."

Goldstein continued, "In a way, it was an experience that I hadn't had in a long time, where I had no involvement behind the scenes. Look, you're in good hands. They really do some great shit. You know what I mean? And Taika Waititi is awesome, so it was like, 'I'm in the best hands possible.' But it's amazing. Who knows if he'll come out of this something? Who knows, but it was a fun thing to do, and I'm glad people seem to have enjoyed it."

But just in case Kevin Feige and Marvel call again, Goldstein will be fit and ready: "I'm going to eat 30 chickens a day from now on. I'll be fine," he said deadpan.< /p>

Waititi previously told IndieWire that it was Marvel President Kevin Feige's idea to put Hercules in the film and even he is in the dark about Feige's plans for Goldstein. Also, Feige just wanted to "see what Brett looks like" as Hercules.

"All I know is that we wanted to show that Russell [Crowe] wasn't dead, because he had just had a lightning bolt in his heart and fell off this thing," Waititi said . "I wanted to make sure we had a tag where, 'Oh, he's back, because I love this character and I want to see him more.' Then Kevin said, 'Oh, why not put Hercules in there?' He even chose Brett. He said to me, 'I want to see what Brett looks like in there.'

Well, Feige (and all the "Ted Lasso" stans) certainly had their eyes peeled...

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