Joel Kinnaman feels like 'big kid' in 'Suicide Squad'
The “Suicide Squad” set was one big party. At least that’s how Joel Kinnaman makes it sound.
The 36-year-old actor plays soldier Rick Flag in the star-laden film, about a group of super bad guys forced to do some good. Flag’s job is to keep them all in line, which, of course, creates tension. But it sounds like that stopped when director David Ayer yelled, “Cut!”
Kinnaman is probably best known for the TV series “The Killing” and Netflix's “House of Cards,” or the 2014 remake of “RoboCop.” He knows “Suicide Squad,” opening Friday, Aug. 5, is a completely different kind of project, and he talks about that and upcoming roles.
Question: Flag is the straight man in the movie. Did you ever just crack up and some of the funnier things the rest of the cast did?
Answer: Oh yeah. We were cracking up the whole time. It’s pretty hard not to with the rowdy bunch of pirates that were in the cast for this film. We were having fun the whole time. There’s a lot of funny people here.
Q: Did that carry over into filming?
A: Yeah, I think so. Even if your characters have a contentious relationship, if you get to know each other socially and get along really well and understand each other’s sense of humor and rhythm and sense of timing, then you’re going to be able to bring a levity even to those situations where the characters don’t agree. Then you can find a lot of humor in it. That’s what our bonding on the film helped create.
Q: Dressing up and playing heroes seems like it would be fun.
A: Yeah, for sure. The incredible depth in these films — and now we’re going back much more to analog, to set building and mechanical stunts. The scenarios we’re in feel much more realistic to participate in. So you really feel like a kid playing in these circumstances. You just really, really get into it.
Q: It seems like at least once in your career, you’d want to do one of these kinds of things.
A: Yeah, but this one was special. I’ve been in this similar world a couple of times, like “RoboCop” was sort of this genre. But this one is just something special. I think with the whole cast, everybody felt it from the beginning. There was something about the idea. And this cast assembled just took it to another level. We all got along so well during the shooting, so we just emboldened each other to go further into the characters. And then David is a phenomenal director when it comes to characters. He really had a plan for us all, how we were supposed to dig deeper into our characters, and really wanted to challenge us.
Q: Everything about the movie has been under scrutiny from the start. Are you ready for that kind of attention?
A: Yeah. You know, I think I am. I’ve been doing this for quite a while. There’s a part of me that’s actually really happy about being a part of something like this, when you get this level of attention, now and not, like, five years ago. Because I’ve just come so much further as a person and I know myself in a different way. And also, I’ve been in Hollywood for a number of years. It’s sort of easier for me to decipher what’s going on, and what’s real and what’s important and what’s not. It’s just part of the world and part of the game, and nothing you need to pay any attention to. There’s a lot of traps you can fall into when you’re playing on this level.
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Q: You’re on a pretty good streak. You’re about to start filming “Altered Carbon” for Netflix (he plays a futuristic soldier). You go back and forth pretty easily between TV and film.
A: Yeah, that sort of divide that existed before has been pretty much erased. And getting involved with “Altered Carbon,” there’s nothing about this production that feels like TV. Everything about it feels not just like a feature but like a big, big budget feature. And the budget matches a big budget feature. It’s a completely different scenario now, to do TV. It feels wrong to say I’m going to go do a TV show. It feels like I’m going to go do a 10-hour feature.
Q: A 10-hour feature is a tall order for an actor.
A: Well, I mean, that’s what we’re doing. It’s sort of the difference of doing a novel or doing a short story. A feature film is a short story and the novel is the TV series, where you do one season. That’s the novel. That’s the kind of depth you can get with a character. There are a lot of things that are very appealing about that. I still love feature film and that format, but there’s something very appealing about being able to go into the depths you do with a TV series.
Q: You did a nice job with a Southern accent in “Suicide Squad.” But it seems like accents add an extra layer of difficulty.
A: That’s exactly what it is. It adds a layer. But you can also find a lot of character traits in the dialect. I think the way that I stand, that came from what I associate with the dialect, from the place where you start.
Q: Had you read the comics?
A: I hadn’t before I got the job. Then I went back and checked them out.
Q: Flag is a different guy in the comics. Do you think he’s a good guy?
A: Yeah, well, that’s sort of what this film says — there’s no clear good guy or bad guy. We’re defined by our actions. It’s something that’s always evolving. The big difference between Flag and, for example, Deadshot is motive. Why is he doing these bad things? Why is he killing people? For Flag, it’s simple. He’s following orders. He’s fighting for his country. But at the same time, he’s done some morally despicable things. It’s definitely had repercussions on him. If you asked Flag if he was a good guy, I’m not sure he would say yes. Maybe he’d say he’s a necessary bad guy — he has to be bad things for a good reason.