Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje went to a ‘dark space’ for Suicide Squad

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was in a “pretty dark space for five months” playing Killer Croc in the upcoming movie Suicide Squad.
The former Lost actor stars alongside Will Smith, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne as a member of the gang of supervillains who are put together to combat a bigger evil. Adewale had to remain in a dark mindset for the five-month shoot to play Killer Croc, a criminal with a crocodile-like skin and cannibalistic tendencies, so he couldn’t wait to shed the darkness by going on a relaxing holiday after the film was complete.
“It’s a pretty dark space to be in for five months,” he told WENN at the London premiere. “I ran off to an island in the Caribbean afterwards and sat on a beach and just to let it wash away but I think it was worth it. One of the things I like to do as an artist is always challenge myself.”
The 48-year-old actor got into that mindset by listening to “cannibal confessionals” recordings every day as he was getting his prosthetics fitted, a process that could take up to five hours a day.
“I would play that every morning to the headache of my prosthetic team just to get me into that dark space where you have an appreciation for eating flesh,” he explains, adding he also prepared to play a crocodile by going to Florida to observe their movements.
No CGI was involved to create Killer Croc and the British star, who has also starred in TV series Oz, admits wearing prosthetics was gruelling but it looks great onscreen.
“There was no easy way around it… We did not CGI anything – that’s all me in there,” he boasts. “I went underwater in it and fought in it and you know black men don’t swim, alright? But I did it so I earned every buck on this movie.”
Suicide Squad is released in the U.S. and U.K. on Friday (05Aug16).