The Source Magazine had the opportunity to chat with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje about his upcoming projects “Annie” and “Pompeii,” in addition to “Thor: The Dark World,” which is now playing.
“Pompeii” is coming out February 21st, 2014, Can you share how you got involved with the movie?
I just got the script and I read it and instantly I knew I wanted to be apart of it. When you’ve been doing this as long as I’ve been doing this, you can recognize when you see a character that has an impact. They’re always two things that draw me to a project. One – what’s the story and two – what’s my part in that story? If I like those both, then it’s a no brainer for me and this was such an iconic role, we just don’t have them written like that for black actors anymore and when I saw Atticus and obviously “Pompeii” being a true story, it was just such a impactful, powerful, iconic character. So I read it, told my manager let’s do it, we went through the motions, I had a meeting, we did everything on Skype, and they responded and I think we were all on the same page. Then it was just a case of training and getting fit for it.
Could you tell me a little bit about the training process?
From the outset, the Director Paul W.S. Anderson and Producer Jeremy Bolt were very clear about the vision of the movie and also the actors they wanted to participate. They didn’t just want you to be aesthetically fit. You had to be what I call ‘able.’ They wanted you to be able to perform the stunts and all the physical gymnastics that were required of the role. I came on board about a month before the project and they set up an infrastructure for us to really train and get the maximum fitness out of ourselves in that period. I had a train Bruno DeSalles from Portugal and he’s amazing. We had a nutritionist. We were on a very very strict diet of three meals a day and two snacks between 1,800 and 2,000 calories. We had a physiologist as well and the fitness regime for me consisted of an hours run in the morning two hours fight training, break for an hour, one hour weight training, and do another hour’s running. I did that everyday for four weeks. I lost about 30lbs and I just got sharp. I remember doing this particular scene because Paul wanted the fights to look very realistic, which means he didn’t want them polished he wanted them sluggish. He wanted us to feel exhausted. I remember at one point fighting Kit Harrington and we were both just exhausted and Paul just came up to us and said, “Well, now you know what all that training was for”. So it was very clear why we were training so hard.
Was your character based on a real person?
I don’t think he was specifically based on any particular person, but I know in those days because I did my own research, that the origin of Atticus, who was an African who was enslaved and became a gladiator. Rome, in those days was the big colonial power and it went all over the world and particularly to Africa colonizing countries and it is quite conceivable that Atticus could have been captured, enslaved, and because of his physical ability, he would have been trained and put into the gladiator arena. I don’t believe he was based on a specific person, but I think based on some historical fact, it’s quite conceivable for him to have come from Mauritania or Liberia, a Moor. The Moors were nomadic, sailors, very good at sailing, even good with swordsmanship and things like that. They were always on ships, so it is quite conceivable that the Romans captured a ship and taken them as captives.
What is it like working with Paul W.S. Anderson?
Well Paul is British and I’m British, so there is already a connection, but Paul is relentless in his pursuit of the art and what he’s looking for and I consider him a man’s man. He doesn’t mince words and demands quite a lot from you as an actor, but provides you with the operators to do it. So I really enjoyed working with him. He has a very clear vision, he knows this kind of genre very well. So you kind of feel a certain amount of trust and you just trust what he’s trying to accomplish and you kind of collaborate and do it together. It was very collaborative, I mean he did give me room to paint a sort of texture to Atticus from using the accent and we actually changed the name from what it was originally. I think when he hires you as an actor he doesn’t give you an awful lot of direction. He hires you based on the assumption that you can deliver what he wants.
Can you tell me about working on “Thor: The Dark World“?
“Thor” was very different from Pompeii in that the physicality that was required was quite different, the training. I played two characters in it and one of the characters required a lot of stretching, a lot of back work, because the outfit weighed about thirty pounds. You had to be very strong, so you could have a good posture within that costume, but it was exciting. It’s always exciting to be in business with Marvel they do these movies the best. To appear in a Marvel movie as an actor was a lot of fun and the child in me was just privileged because I grew up watching them and then to be able to play two characters in it was a lot of fun. My character was Algrim and he was the dark elf and the right hand man to Malekith. It’s a very noble character because he’s willing to sacrifice himself in order to accomplish their mission. We were able to bring a noble arch to a very powerful villain.
You also recently joined the cast of “Annie”?
Yup! It’s very different from the other two. When I do a very intense role like “Pompeii” or “Thor,” I will take another role just to relax. I play a character called Nash whose the right hand man to Daddy Warbucks played by Jaime Foxx. He’s the driver, he’s the bodyguard, and he’s a friend the to Annie who helps her find her parents. He’s different from what you would have seen me play before he’s light hearted, he’s humorous, but he’s still tough and I get to do a little bit of singing and dancing. Its just a great project to be apart of from all sides of it. Will Smith is producing and Jay-Z’s doing the music, you have Jaime and Cameron Diaz and of course the queen of the ball which is Q as we call her Quvenzhané Wallis. She’s phenomenal and when I saw her in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” I knew I’d love to be apart of any project she’s involved in and so, that was really my motivation she’s really an extraordinary talent and I was just excited to work with her. We got some really nice scenes with her and it’s something different than what people would have seen me play. So I like mixing it up and I did another small movie shot here in New York as well with Alicia Keys called “Mister and Pete” and it’s more of an indie. Again I like to mess with the tempos, but I keep it real with the Indies and the smaller movies more intimate and sometimes playful with “Annie.”
Any final thoughts?
Yeah, social media, I’m really more active on twitter and that is @Adewale. Fans can find out what’s going on with projects and events and stuff that is the main, everything else is fake, but twitter is where they can actually reach me. That’s about as active as I get.
-Keith Lee (@osovagabond)
