Kaleem Aftab

SUICIDE Squad is further confirmation of the rising status of Swedish heartthrob Joel Kinnaman.

He plays Rick Flag, the one “good guy”in Suicide Squad, expected to be the government’s eyes and ears, watching over the group of supervillains they’ve banded together to fight crime. For the 36-year-old actor it meant eight months of intensive preparation and training. “We went deep into the characters for preparation,” he says, while sipping green tea with honey in a London hotel.

“Director David Ayer put together a buffet of character development, bringing in his friend, a veteran of the Rampart division of the LAPD, who has done many interrogations. Together they would find ways to get you to open up and share, asking you questions such as: What are your biggest fears? What have you done that you’re most ashamed of ? After a while you get really honest and then David would use that in the shoot, completing betraying your trust.” He laughs as he says this, suggesting that he wasn’t offended by Ayer’s methods – and he wouldn’t reveal what those moments from his life were: “Oh no, that’s not for print.”

He was assigned three former military men to train him, and his bulging muscles bear testament to his dedication, but what most struck Kinnaman about the training was the mental aspect: “They wanted me to understand the mindset that you need to have, to block everything out and make a decision when you’re exhausted.