DC Films, Movie News

The Suicide Squad’s Joel Kinnaman Talks Working With John Cena

Spoilers For The Suicide Squad Ahead

Among the returning cast from David Ayer’s 2016 Suicide Squad, Joel Kinnaman says he treated The Suicide Squad version of Rick Flag as a different character:

“When I read The Suicide Squad, it felt clear. This isn’t really the same guy. It just does not feel like the same guy. So pretty early on, I decided I was not going to treat it like a continuation of what I did before. And then I had a chat with James, and he was completely supportive of that idea of just letting this be its own thing. The script was so much its own thing, and I just felt like it would be more of a burden to be bound by what I did in the first film. So I just decided to reinvent the character and let him be what he wants to be in this.”

One of the biggest moments for Rick Flag in James Gunn’s film was a key fight between Kinnaman’s character and John Cena’s Peacemaker. It was a bare-knuckle brawl between the two – a WWE star on one end and a trained Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighter on the other. So, what was it like for Kinnaman to go toe to toe with Cena? He explained in a recent THR interview:

“Yeah, we spent a good two or three weeks prepping that, I think. And when you have a big fight like we had, then it becomes like a little capsule project of the film. We put in a couple of hours a day together with the stunt team, and they just worked with the two of us. So it’s a good opportunity to get to know each other. Cena is such a nice guy and such a professional. I grew up in Sweden, and if there was one thing that did not make any sense to me growing up, it was the WWE’s kind of wrestling.”

Kinnaman continued:

“(Laughs.) I did not understand the appeal of it or what the hell was even going on. I was like, “It’s not real! They’re not actually hurting each other. Why are these people so excited by it?” (Laughs.) So I just never paid any attention to it. But once I got to know John and we started talking about it, I really dove into it. It’s such good storytelling. It’s so clear, and the roles are so clear. They’re archetypes. And the audience is so in tune if someone is real or not, or if someone is just doing it for a paycheck, or if someone is really invested in the world that they have all created together.”

For the full interview, check out The Hollywood Reporter. And for a review of The Suicide Squad, check out our very own Dom’s review where he called it a “hilarious vulgar bloodbath”.

Source: THR

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