80 Quotes by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

I think that what 'Oz' did is it spawned a great generation of television production. But people know its place in television and just in great dramas. It's the foundation of my career. Most producers, show runners, directors, and casting directors put me in movies based on my performance in that show.

The actual fights themselves are very demanding. You don't want to drain yourself. But it pumps you up, gets you in the zone. It's a good way of getting you into the zone for the scene.

It's the ones that deal with the inner fear, the unknown realms and the mysticisms that are scary. You had that in the Carpenter version, and you have that in this prequel. It's paying homage, very much, to that.

I remember in the Carpenter version, you got acquainted with the characters and really knew them. It was a real character piece. Each actor was serviced in the movie, and we tried to do that in this movie as well. I like the fact that there was a European, first-time director. I'd known of him because I'm from Europe. I knew him as a commercial director and thought one of his commercials was great. I thought it was an interesting take on such a big-budget cult classic.

There's always your initial trepidation about doing a remake, but that was alleviated by the fact that it was a prequel. Immediately, that gives you creative license to really recreate and explore and put a new stamp on the genre.

And then, with a European director and Norwegian actors speaking in Norwegian, it was going to be very interesting. So, whatever initial trepidation or fear I may have had was alleviated by those factors. I just said, "This is something to get on board with."

I'm known for playing bad guys, so this was an interesting departure from what I'm known to play, which is a softer, more likable, affable character.

As an actor, you really want to resonate with your audience. I played a character on Oz and people still approach me in the streets today.

It's very important to stretch, because while it's good to look pumped, a lot of the moves are split legs, and twisting fast. So you really, really have to stay supple.