Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbajeis an English actor and former fashion model of Nigerian origin. He is best known for his roles as Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, Nykwana Wombosi in The Bourne Identity, Mr. Eko on Lost, and Simon Adebisi on Oz. His more recent roles include Malko in the fifth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, providing the voice to the title character on the animated series Major Lazer, Dave Duerson in the NFL biopic drama Concussion, and Killer...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth22 August 1967
I wanted to wash off the experience of Africa but obviously I couldn't because that's who I was.
The actual fights themselves are very demanding. You don't want to drain yourself. But it pumps you up, gets you in the zone. It's a good way of getting you into the zone for the scene.
It's the ones that deal with the inner fear, the unknown realms and the mysticisms that are scary. You had that in the Carpenter version, and you have that in this prequel. It's paying homage, very much, to that.
I remember in the Carpenter version, you got acquainted with the characters and really knew them. It was a real character piece. Each actor was serviced in the movie, and we tried to do that in this movie as well. I like the fact that there was a European, first-time director. I'd known of him because I'm from Europe. I knew him as a commercial director and thought one of his commercials was great. I thought it was an interesting take on such a big-budget cult classic.
There's always your initial trepidation about doing a remake, but that was alleviated by the fact that it was a prequel. Immediately, that gives you creative license to really recreate and explore and put a new stamp on the genre.
And then, with a European director and Norwegian actors speaking in Norwegian, it was going to be very interesting. So, whatever initial trepidation or fear I may have had was alleviated by those factors. I just said, "This is something to get on board with."
I'm known for playing bad guys, so this was an interesting departure from what I'm known to play, which is a softer, more likable, affable character.
As an actor, you really want to resonate with your audience. I played a character on Oz and people still approach me in the streets today.
It's very important to stretch, because while it's good to look pumped, a lot of the moves are split legs, and twisting fast. So you really, really have to stay supple.
When a child wants to be accepted, he'll do anything. And if it means you're getting a certain amount of notoriety from a fight, that's what you'll do.
Certainly, I look for different characters 'cause I always like to keep people guessing, and I also don't like to get typecast.
The axe is fifteen pounds. You have to make sure you don't hurt or hit someone. And hit the beats, because they have five cameras. It has to look real. That in itself becomes challenging because you have to learn it straight away.
I just want to keep the diversity and the options open. In terms of what I'm looking for, I'd like to do a lead action role.
I was always led to believe you should take care of yourself, trust in your abilities and you're the author of your own destiny.