Fabulous having you here. You look really dashing.

It's very nice to be here. Thank you.

People come into Young Hollywood casual, they come in dressed up. I think this is the best dressed man we've ever had in the studio.

Well, I'm, I'm happy to take that position.

This is a lot more comfortable, obviously, than your RoboCop journey.

Very much more so.

I know you've talked a lot, a lot about it.

Yeah, yeah.

how comfortable it was. The thing that I take away from it is that you didn't wear anything underneath the suit.

No, I I did have a unitard.

You're ruining the fantasy. So.

Yeah, but but it, but it, but it, you know, it had an opening.

Yeah. Are you serious?

Yes. No, yes I am.

Wow.

Cuz, you know, I have to, it takes like 45 minutes to take off the suit. To go to the bathroom.

So were you dehydrated for the whole film?

I was sweating like a pig. And you know, the first week of shooting I lost like 20 pounds.

Did you really?

Yeah, it was, it was. Really, literally 20 pounds. No, it was like 17 pounds.

I've read that you were, uh, a huge fan of the franchise when you were a kid.

Yeah, I was.

And that almost might give you some trepidation about sort of jumping into the, the film as an adult.

Yeah.

And you've seen it something like 25 times.

Yeah, something like that.

You're well researched. Thank you.

Thanks for giving me props. No, actually when, when they first reached out to me, uh, uh, uh, I think it was my, my agent who told me that there was this RoboCop remake in the makings and and I, I actually said that I don't think that that's a good fit for me. I don't, I don't think I wanna pursue it. Because it had already been done. I was a big fan of the original and I'd seen a lot of remakes being made that I feel like didn't really have an idea of why you should remake it. It was sort of just a way of exploiting an existing fan base and

Right.

Um, and then they told me that it was Jose Padilha that was gonna direct this film and that completely changed everything for me cuz I, you know, I'd seen all of his films and he's a, he's an exceptional filmmaker that always has, you know, a very strong idea behind his films. They're always, they always have a political and a social strong point of view. And so I knew if a guy like that was gonna take RoboCop remake, it wasn't gonna be the sort of, No, it was gonna be something real. And um, and then I met him and and he, and he told me the whole story that, that he wanted to, to tell using the concept of RoboCop and and I, you know, I thought it was brilliant and it made all the sense in the world to, to make this film. And um, so then I really pursued it.

We need to give Americans a product they can love. Figure they can rally behind. We can't put a machine on the street. It's not a machine. They want a product with a conscience. Something that knows what it feels like to be human. Give your mom a kiss. Hi, baby. Too slow, boy. We're gonna put a man inside a machine.

Well, I saw the film last night. Um, and I know in an interview you talked about your favorite scene, being the film, the scene where you first saw yourself,

Yeah.

sort of exposed and what had become of your body. And that was actually my favorite scene in the film, too.

Cool. Yeah, it's it's quite horrifying, huh?

It is horrifying to think about, you know, they didn't have to take all your man parts away. I mean, they could have left a few. I mean, they could have left a little bit. Maybe that's the sequel, you know? For for your wife, who I would be talking.

I was talking to Gary Oldman about that and, you know, he's a, he's been giving me a little heads up that if, if it is a sequel he'll give me that, that vital part. Yeah. He'll give me that that vital part back.

You know, I think a lot of women can relate to being with a man that feels half man, half robot. But I think after seeing the film, the moral of the story is, you cannot change man. You can change his brain. Gary Oldman tries to change his brain and still the essence of the human being comes forward. Gary Oldman, I know, talked about you and he called you a diamond. I don't know if you knew that or not.

I heard he said that. Yeah. It's a nice gemstone to be compared to.

That's, uh, that is a nice gemstone and especially coming from, uh, the grand master. The grand master himself. I mean, his performance in this film, along with yours, was pretty extraordinary.

Yeah, I mean, Gary's Gary. He's always incredible and, you know, it was such a fantastic experience to get to to work so intimately with him. And also a lot of the more emotionally demanding scenes, I had with Gary and, and the whole relationship between, um, between Dr. Norton and Alex and RoboCop, I mean, it starts out as sort of a Dr. Frankenstein and his monster and then it evolves into this father and son relationship almost, so it was it was a lot of fun.

But I think you've talked about earlier auditions where you came to LA and it's like people wanna, sort of, say, "Can you play this quirky guy?" or typecast.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot of, I mean, that's what I found the most difficult when you also when the material is not so good and, um, but you can sort of understand, oh, okay, I see that's the the, you know, charming computer nerd that is a little geeky but he's actually capable.

Is that what you've tended to get sent, sent out on or?

Well, it was just one of. I also got sent out for, for Conan. I was like, "Really? Have you seen me? I I weigh 185 pounds." Like that's. And and they're like, "You can bulk up for the role." I know. Yeah. Yeah, I came into the audition and there's like three guys in suits. It's like, "You're Joel Kinnaman?" I was like, "Yeah." "Yeah, they're waiting for you." I was like, "Okay." And I run in and there's like two other guys in suits behind a camera. And they're like, "You're finally here. That's great." I was like, "Yeah, I'm so sorry." They're like, "Okay, we'll take your shirt off." Like, "What? You want me to, to take my, take my shirt off?" They're like, "Yeah, take your shirt off." I was like, took my shirt off and, you know, like. And and they're like, "Okay, so, you know, tell me about yourself." I was like, "What?" Like without my shirt, yeah. "Just say something." It's like, wow, this is, this is a weird audition. He's like, "Do you like horses?" I was like, "Yeah. Yeah, I like I like horses." And they're like, "Thank you. That's, that's great. You can, you can leave. Put your shirt back on."

I was like, "Put my shirt back on." I felt so violated. So you were not the barbarian in that. I mean, So you can relate to women feeling objectified in the

Yes. Oh, for sure. Yeah, hell yeah.

audition. It's usually the other way around, but, you know.

And, you know, I could have told them right away that, you know, I don't, Conan, I don't think that's gonna be me, you know, but.

I know this film was one of the, like, an iconic film, sort of, when you were a kid.

Yeah.

What are the sort of things were iconic to you growing up?

Well, um, I mean, I was a big fan of all of Verhoeven's films with Total Recall and Starship Troopers, but then, of course, Terminator and, um.

I feel like you could do that good Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.

I wish I could, but it just came. I can't. That's the best I got. "Get down!"

That was actually pretty good. That's pretty, pretty. Maybe they should have had you audition for that, too, somewhere in Santa Monica.

Yeah, yeah.

So growing up in Sweden, what do you think? I know you have an American father.

Yeah.

What would be like a great night out? Like, just for sort of cultural differences, a great night out in Sweden for you.

I mean, we, Swedes, especially people from Stockholm, they, uh, they live in bars. Like that's the, that's our living room.

That sounds fantastic already.

Yeah. So everybody goes out all the time. Uh, it's more, it's more like New York in that sense. Everybody's got kind of small apartments. So everybody meets out and drinks and then it's, you know. The the bars have these three different, like, some bars close at one and then you have to get, it's a little harder to get a license to to close at three and then some have five. You know this very well.

Yeah, I do.

And then you, you know if like, if it's, uh, if it's a bad night then then you've ended up like walking home like 5:30 in the morning. So if the sun is still if there's sun is not out yet. Well, in the summertime, you know, that's the beauty of Sweden. The the the, the sun rises around 3:30. So, so you'll like walk home and many nights when, when you're partying in the summer, cuz uh, the the water in Stockholm is very clean.

So and it's built on seven islands. So, uh, you know, when when you'd walk home from a night out then everybody'd go swimming in the city. And, you know, you'd dive off into from the steps of City Hall that go into the water.

You just can't stop taking your shirt off, can you?

Yeah, no, I know. It's just one of them things.

This was such a pleasure. Thank you for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

Can we go to Sweden now? Let's go. RoboCop. Check it out. Check it out. Really good. And I didn't even ask you to do the robot.

I'm afraid. You gotta pay me for that.