Joel News Articles, Photo Shoots and Interviews, 2020

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Formal photography, news articles and interviews for 2020.

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www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/joel-kinnaman-on-the-secrets-we-keep-and-the-insane-heavily-r-rated-the-suicide-squad


Joel Kinnaman on 'The Secrets We Keep' and the "Insane," "Heavily R-Rated" 'The Suicide Squad'

BRIAN DAVIDS SEPTEMBER 18, 2020


The Secrets We Keep just might be Joel Kinnaman’s most demanding film yet, and that’s saying something for an actor who played Alex Murphy in 2014’s RoboCop, Takeshi Kovacs in Altered Carbon and Rick Flag in two Suicide Squad movies. Co-starring alongside Noomi Rapace and Chris Messina in Yuval Adler’s latest thriller, Kinnaman plays Thomas, a Swiss factory worker in the American suburbs who’s captured by Rapace’s Maja and accused of torturing her family during World War II. For much of the film, Kinnaman is bound and gagged as realistically as possible, which took its toll on Kinnaman.



“I was basically tied to the chair the whole time. It was really uncomfortable, and it really sucked,” Kinnaman tells The Hollywood Reporter. “But yeah, Yuval and I had a few real dustups on set because of it. You’re suffering all of this abuse, and even though I know it’s for the film, my body didn’t understand that. So, throughout the whole shoot, I was just filled with lots of rage, and all the emotions were right on the surface. I think that really helped, and it came out in the performance because I never had to dig deep for anything.”


Last month, DC FanDome delivered the world’s first look at James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, and the reaction couldn’t have been better. Even though the film brings back numerous castmembers from David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, including Kinnaman’s Flag, Gunn’s take on the material is markedly different. In fact, the Swedish actor believes he’s shot his first R-rated comedy.



“That movie is going to be insane. The script is so funny. Every page of that script was funny, and every page made me laugh,” Kinnaman shares. “James just has this command of that genre, but also over every aspect of comedy and even the marketing. He just understands the world so well, and since he wrote it, he really reinvents not just the concepts, but also the characters. For me, it was like I did my first comedy, but it’s like heavily R-rated. It was a real learning experience for me, too, because I’d never done a comedy in that way before. So I asked James to work with me and teach me this shit. And yeah, we had so much fun doing it. That movie is going to be a fucking monster. Honestly, even though I’m in it, I can’t wait to see it as a fan.”



In a recent conversation with THR, Kinnaman also reflects on the camaraderie of both Suicide Squad casts, the “disappointing” cancellation of Altered Carbon and his long-running collaboration with The Killing and Hanna co-star, Mireille Enos.



Do you currently have a view of the orange L.A. skies?



Yeah, I do.



I probably shouldn’t be making light of this, but God is clearly a Roger Deakins fan.



(Laughs.) Exactly! It’s very Deakins-esque, but it’s not quite as bad as it was a couple of years ago. I wrapped the second season of For All Mankind yesterday, and we were shooting up at Arlington Cemetery [Los Angeles National Cemetery]. Our costume designer had to brush off the ash from our shoulders in between every take. Bizarre.



Was that your whistle that kicks off The Secrets We Keep?



No, I couldn’t do that elaborate whistle. I did whistle when we were shooting, but yeah, I couldn’t do that. (Laughs.)



Your character is shown walking from afar a few times in this film. When you shot those scenes, did you change the way you walk in order to fit the character?



Yeah, it’s funny you ask because that is usually the first thing I do with a character. I find the walk because I feel like it says so much about a person. I’m really of the Bruno Ganz school in finding the tension of the character. One of the most effective performances that I’ve ever seen was Bruno Ganz’s Hitler in Downfall, and I remember watching this sort of MasterClass-type interview with him like 20 years ago. He was illustrating how he found Hitler’s tension and how it affected his whole being. After I saw that, I’ve basically done that with every character I’ve done, but with Thomas, he’s a person who’s holding on to stuff. He’s not open with his past, so his shoulders are high up, almost to his ears. There’s a lot of tension in his shoulders, as they’re kind of clenched together, and it affects the way he walks. I was trying to make myself small even though I’m a pretty big guy. I’m 200 pounds and 6-foot-3, and he’s a person who does not want to be seen. So it’s a big guy trying to look invisible, and all of that goes into the walk.



Early in the film, Noomi’s character has to put you in the trunk of her car, but as you just mentioned, you’re 6-foot-3. Was this a rather complicated process to get right?



It was. It was something we worked on quite a bit. It was one of those things where the only way it was going to look real was if she did it for real. So it actually took several hours to shoot just that sequence. Throughout the film, that was something that [director] Yuval [Adler] was very clear about. He was like, “The physicality of the film has to be truthful and you have to believe that he’s really tied up.” So that’s why I was tied up to the point where my arms and hands were literally bleeding. I had cuts in the corners of my mouth because the gag in my mouth was tied so tight for hours on end, and it was the same thing with the trunk sequence. When we would shoot that, I would make myself go limp and not create any tension that would help her lift me into the trunk. So there were many times where I would just fall down on the ground, and then we’d have to start over. So Noomi had a full-on workout doing that, but it made it look real.



Since you were tied up and gagged in such extreme ways, can you recognize the authentic level of discomfort in your performance?



Yeah, that was something that was very important to Yuval and me, even though I probably would’ve given myself a little bit more of a break; it was fucking painful. It’s also something you’re doing for hours on end, and when you’re tying someone up properly the way we did, you can’t untie in between takes. So I couldn’t go to my chair and sit in between setups. I was basically tied to the chair the whole time. It was really uncomfortable, and it really sucked. But yeah, Yuval and I had a few real dustups on set because of it. He’s really pushy and he doesn’t really care if my feelings are hurt in the moment. He also knows that I want to make the best version of the film. But he just has that kind of hardness in him that makes it easy for him to just push through; it’s that tough Israeli-ness. (Laughs.) So we got into some real fights on set, and we were screaming at each other, which is very unlike me. I’ve never, ever had that relationship with a director before. Daniel Espinosa and I are such good friends, and while we’ve had some fights, it’s more like two friends fighting. With Yuval, it got really heated. After one of the worst dustups that we had, I went back to my apartment that I was staying in, and I really didn’t feel good about how I had behaved on set. And I was thinking through everything that he said and everything that we were fighting over, and I realized that I agreed with everything that he said. It became clear to me that everything he was pushing for would make for the best version of the film and the only thing that my point of view would achieve would be more comfort for me. Or less discomfort and pain, I guess. And the way that I want to see myself as an artist is someone that is prepared to be sacrificial; I want to sacrifice myself to give a good performance. So I became aware of what was going on. Even though you intellectually understand you’re making a film and giving a performance, your body doesn’t really understand that, and I think that was the reason that I was so sensitive. I was tied up, in pain, and then spat at, waterboarded and punched. You’re suffering all of this abuse, and even though I know it’s for the film, my body didn’t understand that. So, throughout the whole shoot, I was just filled with lots of rage, and all the emotions were right on the surface. I think that really helped, and it came out in the performance because I never had to dig deep for anything. All of the emotions were right there, right away. It was more about dialing it back sometimes, but yeah, it was pretty intense.



Yeah, I could tell that you were going through something rather arduous. Even Noomi’s slaps looked like the real deal.



A couple of them were real, yes. There were some angles where they weren’t, but yeah, I definitely took a couple of licks.



Since people love to assume that Swedish actors all know each other, did you happen to know Noomi prior to 2015’s Child 44?



We went to the same high school in Sweden.



Well, that explains why there’s an assumption about Swedish actors all knowing each other.



(Laughs.) Yeah, so we knew each other from when we were like 15 or 16. We weren’t friends back then, but we got to know each other a few years later. I got to know Noomi when I hadn’t even started acting yet. She was already an actor, even though she was still in high school, and I hadn’t even started considering that. When I later became an actor as well, we sort of crossed paths in the Swedish Stockholm/Gothenburg theater scene, where she was known as this really hard-core, very respected theater actor. Once I sort of made my bones as well, we both came to know and respect each other in that environment. When we both came over to the States in our own ways and started working here, then we became really close friends. And when we worked on Child 44, it was an American film with a Swedish director [Daniel Espinosa], so we had the same kind of artistic heritage, in a way. We came from the same kind of tradition and had similar ways of thinking about how important it is to search for truth. I know it sounds very pretentious, but honesty matters more than anything else. There’s something that really bonded us in that, and we had a fantastic experience playing together in Child 44, even though that film might not have ended up the way we hoped. Since we had a great time, we were looking for something else to do together, and that’s actually how The Secrets We Keep came about. We found this script, which had problems, but it had a core that we really loved. So we decided to try and fix it. And then, I kind of let it go for a little bit, but Noomi just stuck with it until she found Yuval. Apparently, he told her, “You’re great. Joel’s great. Fifty percent of the script is great. The rest is shit, but I’m in.” (Laughs.) And then, he rewrote it pretty heavily and made it something that was much less of a post-Holocaust revenge story. Instead, he turned it into something that felt much more interesting and part of the conversation that’s going on in society today.





James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad looks incredible. Was that shoot a rather unique experience for you?



Oh yeah! Yeah, that movie is going to be insane. The script is so funny. Every page of that script was funny, and every page made me laugh. James just has this command of that genre, but also over every aspect of comedy and even the marketing. He just understands the world so well, and since he wrote it, he really reinvents not just the concepts, but also the characters. For me, it was like I did my first comedy, but it’s like heavily R-rated. So much of the action is practical with real explosions, and yeah, that movie is going to be insane. It’s such a great cast that he put together. John Cena, that motherfucker is a comedic genius. No one would make us laugh on set more than John. Every scene he was in, he would go on an improvised tangent. There are so many chops in that cast, and James has such a command of it all. He knows exactly what he wants, and sometimes it’s going to take him 10 takes to get there, or it’s going to take one. And he knows exactly when he gets what he needs because his ear is so attuned to it. It was a real learning experience for me, too, because I’d never done a comedy in that way before. So I asked James to work with me and teach me this shit. And yeah, we had so much fun doing it. That movie is going to be a fucking monster. Honestly, even though I’m in it, I can’t wait to see it as a fan. (Laughs.)



What struck me most about the first Suicide Squad movie was the close-knit cast. Granted, every press tour tries to create that impression, but you could tell there was something genuine among that group. Most of the actors gave each other “SKWAD” tattoos, like the one Will gifted you, and the two of you have remained pals ever since. And yet, it looks like The Suicide Squad’s fusion of old and new castmembers also created a really special bond. Would you say that’s the case?



Yeah, there’s definitely some new members that are already becoming real friends, but there’s something about the first gang of lunatics. There was more energy put into making the movie the second time around. The first time around, there was a lot of energy put into everything around us. (Laughs.) But no, they’re such good people. It’s also something about the whole concept of being a squad. There was never a bad ego on either of these films; not the first or the second one. There was never a shitty person that was trying to suck up all the air. On both films, there were really generous, warm, funny people around that were just about feeding the collective. There’s something about the concept that really helps that vibe, and because there was a core unit from the first one, I think we brought that spirit of the first film into the second one as well.



With two collaborations in the books already (The Killing, Hanna), are you and Mireille Enos kicking the tires on anything else right now?



Mireille was actually just down here; we hung out at the beach two days ago. I was teaching her daughter, Vesper, and her brother how to surf. She’s still doing Hanna, and I’m doing For All Mankind. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we do a film together at some point. I mean, we just love playing together and it’s fun to have this sort of ongoing relationship. You sort of create an ensemble over the course of your career with actors that you like to collaborate with and directors you like to work with. So I would love to do something again. We don’t have anything specific right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up doing a film together in the not-so-distant future.



I was quite fond of your work on Altered Carbon season one, but I have to admit that even though I’m an Anthony Mackie fan, I just didn’t feel the same connection to the series when I tried out season two. Was it tough for you to see that cancellation from afar even though you had already moved on a while ago?



Yeah, I would’ve loved to see it carry on. I felt the concept of having a new actor play the main character every season was a really unique thing, so I would’ve loved to see that. If the show would’ve done better, then more people would’ve loved the upcoming seasons, and more people would’ve come back to the first season. You always want people to see your work, right? So that was a little disappointing, but I was so disconnected from that. I’d done so many things in between, so I didn’t really have that strong of an emotional connection to it anymore. But I was sad to see that they didn’t find a reason to continue.


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The Secrets We Keep is now available in select theaters and on-demand/digital.

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www.cbr.com/joel-kinnaman-secrets-we-keep-the-suicide-squad-interview/

Joel Kinnaman On The Secrets We Keep & Upcoming The Suicide Squad

CYNTHIA VINNEY SEPTEMBER 15, 2020





In the last few years, Joel Kinnaman has starred in everything from Altered Carbon to Suicide Squad to Hanna to For All Mankind. Transitioning easily between different genres and appearing in both movies and television, Kinnaman has amassed an impressive array of noteworthy roles in a short period of time. Now, in the film The Secrets We Keep he's playing Thomas, an immigrant living in small-town America after World War II who is kidnapped by his neighbor, Maja (Noomi Rapace), a traumatized woman who believes he committed terrible crimes against her during the war. The role is intense both physically and psychologically, and once again shows a side of Kinnaman fans have never seen before.



In an exclusive interview, Kinnaman spoke to CBR about the reasons he took on his challenging role in The Secrets We Keep, why he chooses to play characters that keep him uncomfortable and how rewarding it was to return to his role as Rick Flag for The Suicide Squad.



CBR: What spoke to you about the role and the story of The Secrets We Keep?



Joel Kinnaman: Well, so me and Noomi, we've known each other since we went to the same high school in Sweden in the south side of Stockholm. And we didn’t really become friends until later in our careers. I mean, we knew each other from the theater scene in Stockholm and Gothenburg, and then we became really close friends when we both transitioned into having careers in Hollywood. And our first real collaboration together was in Child 44, and just absolutely loved working with each other. And I think we both felt this sort of connection of having… it's like the origin of your artistry comes from the same place. There's something familiar in the way that we approach work and I think how uncomfortable we’re prepared to let it be.



And we just really, really enjoyed working together, so we've been talking for a while of doing something together. And we were looking for scripts. So we found this script, and we loved the bones of it but it needed some work to it, but we really liked it. And then Noomi charged on with it, and you know she's a very determined person and she found [director] Yuval [Adler]. And I loved Yuval’s movie Bethlehem, I thought it was incredible actually. And he told Noomi that, "You’re great, Joel’s great, 50% of the script is great. The rest is shit, but I'll do it."



And then he did a pretty heavy rewrite on it, completely reshaped it. And then after his reshaping of it, I actually switched roles. I was initially going to play the husband [to Rapace's character], and then we shifted it. And so I played Thomas instead. And I thought it was a really interesting piece. It’s like an absolute chamber piece that felt like a play, and I’ve been longing to go back on stage. And it’s these long, taut scenes between our characters. It felt like it was kind of mouthwatering material and after Yuval’s rewrite of it, it really felt like it was something that is relevant to the conversation today. You know, society’s going through a reckoning about sexual violence and how we deal with people that are surviving sexual assault and abuse. So it felt like something that was very relevant. And the initial version of it was much more, something that dealt with, like a holocaust revenge story that I think we've seen a lot of.



So we were just really excited to dive into it and with such a quality director as Yuval. I mean, he's a true intellectual. I think he’s a professor in philosophy. He’s a very sharp guy that is also very forceful. And he really pushed us. He really pushed us on this one, and it was tough working with him because he would not give us room to breathe. And it was very important to him that everything felt real, that my arms would be tied tight, that even if I tried, I wouldn't be able to get free, that the mouth gag I had was tied tight. So, I mean it was literally I was really bound for real. And it was to the point where I was bleeding from my arm and the corners of my lips were cut. And because I was bound so tight, it takes a long time to tie me like that, we weren't able to always untie me between takes, so I was just sitting on that stool tied for hours. And it was really intense. It was probably the most intense shoot that I've done. I mean, it was.




And I’ve done my fair share of torture scenes. For some reason I've been tortured a lot in films. But this is something very different, and it kind of crept up on me how affected I got. I was pretty surprised actually. I… came to the realization that even though intellectually you know that you're making a film and that this isn’t real, there’s a crew here watching us, but your body doesn't really understand that. So, when you’re put in that position of [being] very vulnerable and you’re being beaten on and spit on and waterboarded and splashed, it really, it adds up.



And I found myself just being filled with rage throughout the whole shoot. I was just angry the whole time. And I usually try to be, you know, a warm contributor [towards a]… warm generous atmosphere on set, but I had no energy for that. I got into a lot of big fights with Yuval during the shoot where we’re screaming at each other, which is very, very unlike me. I was a bit embarrassed by that by the end of the shoot, but at the same time I did feel and realize that it was really benefiting the performance. And the whole shoot all the emotions were like right on the edge. It was right up there. And I never had to search for anything, it was all right there. And I felt very emotionally explosive during the whole shoot.



And then also, you know, shooting with someone like Noomi that I know so well, but also her capacity is so immense. So you know, it felt very real in that room for long periods of time, and it was almost eerie. So it was a real experience. I think both Noomi and I felt towards the end of the shoot that we were kind of losing it a little bit. I was really happy when it was over. I felt really good about it but I was really happy when it was over. It was a huge relief.



Why did you switch roles from the husband to the other character?



I saw the challenge in that and I just felt that that’s the challenge that I wanted. And… I just wanted something that was going to be really emotionally substantial. I wanted something that was really complex…. The husband’s still a great role, and Chris Messina did an incredible job with it. He really is phenomenal…. It was also the scenes between Noomi and me for that. That was the challenge that I wanted.





You've had an incredibly eclectic career. Is there a particular way you choose roles?



Yeah, I try to do things that I feel like I haven't done before, I try to do different things that draw me in for different reasons. I really enjoy doing action and physical stuff. But I also… come from a much more of a theater world. That's how I made my bones. How I started my career was on stage and then with Swedish dramatic films. So I really like to mix it up. I like to do different things that employ different sides of me.



And I felt like I was really longing to do more of an auteur-driven film. I wanted to do a film with a strong director’s vision, and something more just purely character based, not so much concept, but really around the character and the relationship. So I did this film and then also Sound of Philadelphia, that I think is going to change its name to Sons of Philadelphia. And I did those with a few months in between, and I just got a lot out of it. And I thought that's what I needed, as well, to keep evolving.



I think it's a combination of different factors that play into why you choose something. You know, on the one hand, it’s because you want a certain kind of challenge or you want to do something for your career that you haven't done before. I think it's also really important to keep yourself a little bit uncomfortable. I think you need to live 10% outside of your comfort zone to not stagnate. And it's so important as an artist to continue to be on somewhat unstable ground. You need to go to a place, it has to be a little scary, or you're not going to be challenged, and if you do too many things in a row where you're not being challenged then you’re going to start to stagnate. So you need to put yourself in an uncomfortable spot. I think that's also why, I’d had a few lead roles in a row and I think I needed to do something that was a little uncomfortable, maybe I got a little comfortable there.



You starred in the first seasons of Altered Carbon and Hanna, but both continued in their second seasons without you this year. Did you miss being a part of those series?



No, because both projects, it was always intended to be a one-season deal. That was completely in the psychology of doing it. For me, it felt like both of those two projects, it's like doing a novel or doing a long feature film. In the same way as I do a film, I don't expect to do another one.



And then, in Hanna it was a very clear ending, and so was it in Altered Carbon that the concept was always that a new actor would play the character for each season. I was disappointed to see that Altered Carbon got canceled. I was hoping that they would get more seasons, and I think it would've been cool to have seen that concept really come to fruition with seeing several seasons with... other actors [taking] on the role. But it's not something that I think that much about.... I don't try to dwell on any work that I've done in the past. I kind of look forward. I take the lessons that needed to be learned from each job and then you move forward.


On the other hand, you're reprising your role as Rick Flag in The Suicide Squad. Was it rewarding to come back for that?



So that I was very, very happy to come back to because it was such a treat, and such an incredible experience to work with James Gunn. And his vision for The Suicide Squad, it was so good. And when I got the script sent to me, it's so funny. Like every page made me laugh. I was sitting at home reading it laughing out loud.



You know, we had a great time shooting the first one, but this was something really special. And... I've never done a comedy before, and this felt like my first comedy. And I think in the first Suicide Squad, I'm not disappointed with my work in there, but... I never played around with it. I felt like I had these parameters that confined me in a way. So it was a great feeling for me to do the second one because James just opened up the possibilities for the character, and it became much more comedic. And he really taught me how to find the comedy and where the opportunities for that was. And so it was a great learning experience. It was really fun, and both me and James, I think we had a great time working with each other on it. I can't wait for people to see that film. I think it's going to be so good. And everything I've heard, the studio is over the moon about the film. And Warner Bros. basically [has] very few notes, like, almost no notes on the director's cut, which is unheard of on a big movie.

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screenrant.com/secrets-we-keep-movie-joel-kinnaman-interview/

We interview The Secrets We Keep star Joel Kinnaman about what drew him to the project, the grueling shoot, his Rick Flag future, and more.



BY JOE DECKELMEIER

Joel Kinnaman Interview: The Secrets We Keep



The Secrets That We Keep is a chilling look back at the horrors of the past, but it’s also a piece that deals with the power of memory. As Maja (Noomi Rapace) takes vengeance on her neighbor Thomas, whom she believes committed grievous sins against her in World War II, he himself instead she’s got the wrong guy.



Joel Kinnaman, who plays Thomas, shared with Screen Rant just how difficult the shoot was for him and how true and false memories play an important role in the storyline, which was originally based on the film and play Death and the Maiden.




I know that you were attached to this project from the start. What was it about The Secrets We Keep that drew you in?



Joel Kinnaman: Well, me and Noomi have actually known each other for a long time. We went to the same high school in Stockholm, and even though we weren't really friends back then... She was way too sophisticated, I wouldn't be allowed to be around her and her cool friends. But we became really close friends during the course of our careers over here, and we both sort of knew each other from the theater days in Stockholm and Gothenburg. And we both knew of each other's stage work and knew where our artistic journeys originated from.



We had some scenes together in Child 44, and we loved playing off each other. We really come at it in the same way. So, we were looking for a project to work on together. We found The Secrets We Keep, and we loved a lot of aspects of it. We both felt that it needed work, because the iteration that we had didn't draw the right conclusions. But it was a great chamber piece that just felt like this tight little play. We felt like it was going to need a rewrite and to find a great director.



Noomi didn't let it go. She kept working on it and really took a producer's role on it. Then she found Yuval, and he was like, "The script is 50% great. You're great, Joel is great. The rest of the script is shit. I'm in!" Then he took the script on and wrote a completely new version of it; did a very heavy rewrite of it.



And, actually, I shifted roles. I was initially going to play the husband. But he really did a lot of work on the character of Thomas and really shifted him. Originally in the first version of the script, Thomas was more of a chameleon. He spoke perfect English, and you couldn't recognize that he had European descent.



What he did was make the film much less something that felt like a post-holocaust movie, and made it into something that we thought was much more relevant today. Dealing with sexual assault and dealing with the memories of that, and what are the ways forward. Can you trust your memory? And what is the way to salvation? Is it through vengeance? Is it through forgiveness? All these questions that aren't really tied to any epoch or any specific time.



It's something that is very human, but we as a society are really going through and having a reckoning around these questions and these topics right now. I feel like our film really came into these questions and subjects from a different angle, and it becomes an interesting piece of the conversation.




Speaking of Thomas being a chameleon, I feel you're very much like a chameleon as an actor. Can you talk to me about playing Thomas, and how rewarding it is to dive into a role like that?



Joel Kinnaman: I loved it. There are some things that are hard to answer [in order] to not reveal things about the film. But I think, for a person that has been accused of the things that Thomas is being accused of, there's so many different factors. Assuming it's true, there are people that are so successful in suppressing what they have done - both victims and perpetrators can suppress what they have done.



There's so many different things that we as humans do to our minds. There's so many different things that happen in the mind of a person that has gone through a traumatic experience, and what happens with their minds is really interesting to explore.



It was a f***ing tough shoot; I think it is the toughest shoot that I've had. It surprised me, because I've done a lot of emotionally demanding stuff before. But I've never done this, where I'm spending days on end just being screamed at, being physically abused, being tied up. There's something so vulnerable about being tied up for days on end. And then Yuval is a very, very demanding director. That's absolutely what I wanted, but while going through it, it really was tough in a way that I haven't really experienced before.



I didn't handle it the way I was hoping to handle it. It's always very important to me, and I also thrive in an environment where the energy on set is very warm and generous and humorous even when you're doing heavy things. A warm and creative atmosphere, I personally thrive in that, so I always see it as one of my jobs to co-create that environment. And here, I just could not do that at all. It was probably the opposite. I was really agitated, and I had a super short fuse. Me and Yuval got into real arguments; we were screaming at each other. I sort of lost control a little bit, and I just felt really angry all the time.





The captive victim is a role that that has a long history in film, like in Academy Award-winning film Misery. How do you prepare for a role that requires such minimal verbal communication and subtle physicality? And how were you able to get yourself mentally ready to perform this role?



Joel Kinnaman: Yeah, I wasn't really mentally ready. I didn't deal with it so well. But I think a lot of actors have - and I know I definitely do - a little bit of this masochistic side. You want to dive into it and you want to feel it. So, even though I was not dealing with it so well and wasn't really creating a great environment for the people around me, I really felt like it was really coming out in the performance in a way that I hadn't felt in a while. I really didn't have to dig for anything; it was all there on the surface, and all the emotions were right there.



When you're going through this kind of thing and you're playing against someone like Noomi, and also Chris - they're really, really talented actors. Noomi just has so much depth and darkness in her. Noomi's going through all these emotions of vengeance and rage, but also switching to compassion and vulnerability. When you're playing opposite someone that has such capacity, everything just becomes compounded and the energy in the room becomes really strong. And everything feels very real. It sometimes can be a little tricky how real it can feel, so we had a couple of moments there where it was too much, you know?



I thought the writing and performances were brilliant, because they take you to a place where the intensity level rises every second. This film will keep a lot of viewers questioning every character's motives. Can you talk to me about the film's attempt to keep the audience off balance until the very end?



Joel Kinnaman: Yeah, I think that's where the tension is. And being able to you create sympathy for this man - Yuval and I were joking about it, like, "We're trying to get the audience to feel sympathy for this guy that is accused of being a Nazi rapist."



Of course, we need to keep the audience not knowing if he actually did it or not, or if he is who she thinks he is. I think that is the whole tension of the movie: you don't know. Because there's so much that can happen in a person's head and in their memory - even for a victim of these kind of horrible experiences. The memory is a very fickle thing, and even though you know you believe something, the mind can also create memories. We know that. It's not an open-shut case. It's a very interesting thing to follow.




Last question I have for you: DC FanDome happened, and The Suicide Squad has a lot of fans anticipating it. What can we get expect regarding the evolution of Rick Flagg from the first film?



Joel Kinnaman: Well, it's the James Gunn iteration of Rick Flagg, and it was so much fun. It's like a new character, in many ways. Of course, I carry what happened in the first time with me in some ways, but because the writing is so different, I felt like it was the first time I did a comedy.



To me, the script really reads an action comedy. I was laughing at every page of the script. It's really funny. And [James Gunn] has such creative certainty, for the genre as a whole, but also in the comedy and knowing what is funny. I have done very little comedy. Even though I have a lot of comedian friends, and I'm a big fan of comedy, I haven't done that much of it.



When we started, I told him right off the bat, "Work with me on this, and just see me as an open book here. Don't settle just to be nice. Let's keep working; I can take it." I think he thought as a little bit of a personal project to get me there. Sometimes, he would have me do something like 10 takes on a simple line, just to get the right kind of tone. And then after a while, we got into the groove, and then it'd be an important comedic moment and I did it in one take. He'd be like, "That was it," and we'd move on.



But it's a very different tone of the character. Very different tone. I felt a lot more free in doing it. I had so much fun doing it. In the first one, I never really got loose. It is what it is, but I never felt creatively free. And here, I just had fun with it. I had so much fun with it. The whole experience was really fun, light, and easy. He just knew exactly what he wanted.

[babelfish]

ew.com/movies/noomi-rapace-joel-kinnaman-the-secrets-we-keep/


www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/1149583-cs-video-the-secrets-we-keep-cast-talk-drama-thriller