VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Joel Kinnaman On Violent Fight Scenes In ‘Silent Night,’ Steven Seagal

In a new uInterview, Joel Kinnaman spoke about his new film Silent Night and what it was like fighting in its violent scenes.

Kinnaman shared with uInterview founder Erik Meers how he was able to get into the mindset to play the character of Godluck, whose child is killed by a gang member, and the dark emotions he experiences. 

“It doesn’t take that much imagination to sort of imagine what that would feel like,” Kinnaman said. “It’s like having everything that you care about in life ripped away. And I think that anyone that that happens to think you’re always going to be teetering on the brink of insanity for a period of that time.”

The actor continued to explain how his character went through this dark period and how this is shown throughout the film. 

“Godluck just didn’t have that in him, he just could not begin the healing process,” he said. “He couldn’t reconnect with his humanity. He lost his love, you know I think his son was his eternal love, you know. He had never felt that kind of love before and when it was taken away from him, in that momentary insanity I think he convinced himself that he was never going to be able to feel that again.”

The movie showcases multiple fight scenes. Luckily, the crew was able to help prepare Kinnaman. 

“The crew that I had with me down there, they were so meticulous and just securing all the spaces so no sharp things were sticking out where we were falling. And just sort of designing the fights in a way where you know the risk of getting a serious injury was low. Also, the way we designed it was you know in the fights we did a lot you know I trained a lot before that.”

The actors in each fight scene worked together and practiced fighting so that no mishaps would occur. 

“Because we were training jiu-jitsu and we’re doing some light sparring over the course of the film and it just makes you comfortable with the people that you’re working with and that we’re here for each other and we’re making it look violent for the film but we’re not trying to hurt each other for real,” he said.

Kinnaman also joked that he is not like Steven Seagal, who is known to get violent during his scenes and hurting his sparring partners. 

“Yeah, it’s not like Steven Seagal who always kicking his stunt people in the nuts,” Kinnaman quipped.

Silent Night is in theaters now.