Joel Kinnaman wanted to test the Method to interpret his character in “Silent Night”, but he quickly gave up.
The Method is a recurring subject in Hollywood. This technique, also called the Strasberg method, consists of not leaving the character you are interpreting. The subject of this working method has often been controversial in Hollywood, particularly when certain actors go too far to the point where it becomes unpleasant to work with them under these conditions.
This practice has been heavily criticized by some stakeholders, while others swear by its effectiveness in achieving better performance. Regarding Joel Kinnaman, this is something he had never tried before John Woo’s Silent Night. When talking about the film with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, he shared how he chose this film to experiment with the Method.
And since this is a dialogue-free film, that meant not speaking at all for weeks. Both on and off the film, as he explains in the video below:
“I’ve never really used a game method like that“, Kinnaman explained. “So I spoke to [ma fiancée] Kelly and I said, ‘Listen, this is going to be difficult for our relationship. I’m not going to talk during the whole shoot, and I’m not going to talk with you either, so we won’t have any communication.’“.
He subsequently explains that his fiancée Kelly ended up agreeing to cease all contact with him, expecting to hear no more from him after the actor left for the production. However, upon his arrival in Mexico where the filming was taking place, Joel Kinnaman realized that he “felt a little alone” in this new place where he didn’t know anyone.
If I don’t speak for six weeks, it will be six weeks where I don’t speak
This caused him to instantly break his wishful thinking to remain silent, as he couldn’t stop himself from calling his fiancée. He then talks about how he first attempted to follow the Method while being on set, but he didn’t want to miss out on interacting with the other cast and crew. And it didn’t last very long either!
“Then the first day of filming begins. I get in the car… it’s super quiet. All the car ride to the set“, explains Kinnaman. “Then I got to the makeup room, and everyone was talking. I’m sitting in the makeup room, I’m looking at the people talking, and I’m sitting there and I’m like, ‘If I don’t speak for six weeks, it’ll be six weeks where I don’t speak.’ So I started talking.”
“So I started talking. But I had a very, very intense, quiet car ride to the set, and I felt like that was about it, so it allowed me to recharge with enough silence which I needed for the rest of the shoot.“
Silent Night is currently available on Netflix.