How do you feel to be taking on
RoboCop next, and what can you say about it?
KINNAMAN: It’s a re-imagining. There are ideas from the first movie that have been remade in the second one, but it’s a completely new take on it. We have a fantastic director, Jose Padilha, who reminds me of Daniel Espinosa, in some ways. He’s a very confident, bold director. He wrote, directed and produced Elite Squad and Elite Squad 2, which he also distributed. They’re the two highest-grossing films in Brazil, which is an audience of 150 million people. You need that kind of a strong force in a director that’s going to do his first movie with a big studio. You need a person that can stand his ground on certain things, and know which battles are worth fighting and where you compromise. If you’ve seen his movies, you know that he’s a very talented actor’s director. The acting is superb in his films, and the action is very, very believable. He also has a history of being a physicist. His knowledge of where robotics and neuroscience is now is a complete understanding of where the cutting edge is. He’s working with the writers on a plausible version of 2041, and that’s going to be very interesting. The core of it will be something of substance, and then you have the fireworks around it.
Since you were cast in
RoboCop, Gary Oldman, Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Laurie have been added to the film. What are you looking forward to, in working with a cast like that?
KINNAMAN: I don’t think I have any scenes with Samuel L. Jackson, but I have a lot of scenes with Gary Oldman. I’ve followed Gary Oldman for a very long time, even before I was interested in acting. But then, after I started making acting my profession, I’ve studied him. I’ve seen Nil by Mouth, the only movie that he wrote and directed, and I know that it’s based on his childhood. I’ve seen that movie five times. I find him incredibly inspiring to watch, so I couldn’t be happier. I’m so proud to get an opportunity to work with him.
Are you going to do your own stunts?
KINNAMAN: I won’t do any stupid things. I won’t jump off buildings. But, I’ll try to do as much as I can.
What’s it like to be a part of a movie where there’s already a viral campaign, even though it doesn’t come out for more than a year?
KINNAMAN: It’s pretty surreal. I saw it online. It’s cool! I realized, quite early, when I did a couple of interviews. You say just a few things about the movie, and it gets such traction. You understand that there’s going to be a lot of attention on it, and you adapt to that. That’s what’s reality.
Was that something you thought about, before signing on to do the film? Were you looking to get that kind of traction, or did you have any hesitation about taking on something so high-profile?
KINNAMAN: I was looking for a high-profile job. I was not eligible for a lot of different parts because I hadn’t done something with this kind of attention around it and that was really frustrating. I met with directors who said, “I’d love for you to play the lead in this movie. You’re the perfect person to play this, but there’s no way I can cast you in this because you don’t have that kind of a name and we need a name for this, so that we can get the financing.” So then, that made me want to get to that position where somebody wouldn’t not pick me because of that reason, at least.
Was the appeal of a character like this figuring out how to bring humanity to the role while wearing the metal suit?
KINNAMAN: Yeah. At first, when I heard about a RoboCop remake, I was like, “Okay, I’ll probably watch that movie, but I don’t think I wanna be in it.” And then, they told me that Jose Padilha was going to direct it and I was like, “Wait, the guy that did Tropa de Elite 1 and 2?” When they said, “Yeah,” I was like, “Oh, okay.” And, he wanted to meet me. I was like, “Oh, shit! Yeah, I’d love to meet him!” And then, when he told me about his take on this, I was like, “Wow, this is something really good and really worth trying to get.” Now, when I’ve been reading the scripts, his vision is really interesting. From an acting perspective, it’s really challenging and difficult stuff that I think can really say something.
Re: Robocop
Originally Posted by Albershide
It's official now. Joel Kinnaman is RoboCop.
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