Joel brings Scandi Power to the Squad

Even though the guns are blazing and everything and everybody is shooting, maybe you are walking out and figuring out what you are going to do. One wrong decision will mean that your friends are going to die.”

It was the Vietnam war that led his father to move to Sweden, where he met Kinnaman’s therapist mother. His dad had been drafted to fight in South-East Asia, but his conscience got the better of him. “Yeah, he deserted from the Vietnam war and lived on the run in Laos for five years. Then he came to Sweden and of course that’s a huge decision. He came from a generation that grew up on the Nuremberg trials... That was what he was brought up with, and he couldn’t (justify) that war.”

In the film, an American government agent decides to form the Suicide Squad because of a hypothetical threat of supervillains, or rogue superheroes, attacking America. They respond by doing a deal with their enemies to stop that threat. We meet after the film has received a critical mauling from the press. His first blockbuster effort, a remake of Robocop, in 2014, also received a critical backlash. Kinnaman says, “When it happens, it can be frustrating. You have your hopes that you have a film that you both feel proud of, and that other people will like... you have to be very robust when it comes to criticism.”

Although he’s also refreshingly honest when he comes to criticism that he might agree with. He says, “On Robocop for example, in hindsight, that was my first lead in a big American film, and had I got that role today, there was a lot of decisions that were made initially in that project that I would have had very strong opinions about.”

Up until now, the critical acclaim for his English language performances has come from his performances on television. He played detective Stephen Holder in The Killing and joined House of Cards in its fourth season, playing Governor Will Conway. In Sweden it was the Easy Money films that confirmed his status as Scandinavia’s favourite heartthrob.

He says of his journey, “Growing up in a different culture and a different taste, I think you have a contrast that makes it easier to see and define things. In one way, I came from a country where I’d already played a bunch of lead roles, so when I came to the States, I was already used to being in that position.

“So when I got that opportunity, even though it was the first time in the US, it wasn’t new to me. That can be an advantage, coming from a smaller market.”

Whether Suicide Squad continues to break box-office records or falls away, it seems assured that Kinnaman will be one of the most talked-about actors over the next few years.

He’s filming a fifth season of House of Cards, and then comes Altered Carbon, a sci-fi series based upon a book by Richard K Morgan, being produced by Netflix.

The actor can barely contain his excitement about the project. “It’s their biggest show thus far; their answer to Game of Thrones.

“It takes place 500 years in the future, and the human body has lost its value, because your soul, memories – everything – is stored on a chip, in a stack at the top of your vertebrae.

“It’s a noir sci-fi story that takes place in this world. There will be comparisons to Blade Runner, I’m sure.” – The Independent