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
Personally, I love Toronto.
I've never been really great at trusting anybody, just because of the way I grew up.
I think always as an actor. I go in knowing how I'm going to play it. That's about it.
I'm of Nigerian descent, from the Yoruba tribe. Names are very significant in that culture. It basically states your purpose in life.
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.
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.
Certainly, I look for different characters 'cause I always like to keep people guessing, and I also don't like to get typecast.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
What I like about the Carpenter take on The Thing is the fact that it just has so much suspense. It seemed like a different story, with the horror elements. Those films that really speak to the primal fear that we, as human beings, have about the unknown have always intrigued me. That's the really scary thing, not the slasher, macabre movies.