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 only way you can influence your fate is to put your soul into your performance and hope it registers with the audience.
Also, I'd like to play an athlete again, while I'm still physically fit, or a musician, like Nat King Cole, because I play the trumpet and sing. I'd like to incorporate that into a character.
You really have to act your pants off to stay alive. I thrive on that; I rise to the occasion of the circumstances.
What is a shame is that there isn't stuff that is as great as 'Oz' on a consistent level around today.
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.
Personally, I love Toronto.
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.
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.