This holiday season, the gift of gab was not on actor’s Joel Kinnaman’s wish list. Instead, he wanted to leave audiences across the nation speechless. Literally.
In fact, his new action-packed film “Silent Night” does just that.
Deco sat down with the actor to learn all about what we can expect to see and not hear in the movie.
In the new action flick “Silent Night,” they take the word silent literally.
Joel Kinnaman: “There is no dialogue in the whole film.”
That’s right. Nearly two hours of of just butt-kicking action, there are no words.
A role, actor Joel Kinnanman needed no convincing to take.
Joel Kinnaman: “As an actor, that’s a great challenge, so for me, I was very psyched to jump on board.”
The movie follows, Joel’s character, a dad on a quest to heal and avenge his young son’s death after they are both caught in crossfire of rival gangs on Christmas Eve.
But acting with only your face and no dialogue to express yourself would prove no to be easy task for Joel.
Joel Kinnaman: “I had to work a lot harder. I mean, I was jumping around like a psycho on the set. Because, the text helps tell the story but it also kind of helps trigger your emotions. So when you remove that, I have to lose control in certain ways to access those deeper emotions because it all has to be in the eyes. I would sort of prepare for almost every take of this film in the way that I would prepare for the most emotional scene of another film.”
That includes a little improv. Without a wordy script, Joel was able to put his own finishing touches on the role.
Joel Kinnaman: “Sometimes John [Woo] would have a very clear idea of what he wanted me to do, but sometimes he wanted to see what I did and I would kind of invent it as we went along.”
And after all of this fighting, the actor is looking forward to some silent time of his own for the holidays.
Joel Kinnaman: “I haven’t figured it out yet. I think I’m going to be on a beach somewhere.”
If you were thinking Miami Beach, think again.
Joel Kinnaman: “I would but I want to surf.”
Catch “Silent Night” in theaters on Friday.
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