In Samaritan, thirteen-year-old Sam Cleary (Javon "Wanna" Walton) suspects that his mysterious and reclusive neighbour Mr. Smith (Sylvester Stallone) is actually a legend hiding in plain sight. Twenty years ago, Granite City’s super-powered vigilante, Samaritan, was reported dead after a fiery warehouse battle with his rival, Nemesis.
Most believe Samaritan perished in the fire, but some in the city, like Sam, have hope that he is still alive. With crime on the rise and the city on the brink of chaos, Sam makes it his mission to coax his neighbour out of hiding to save the city from ruin.
Ahead of the movie's release on Prime Video, we sat down for a brief conversation with the big bad himself, Pilou Asbæk. The actor is no stranger to playing a villain and very much holds his own in what proves to be the most action-packed role of his career as he goes toe to toe with Stallone.
During our chat, the Game of Thrones and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom star reveals what draws him to bad guys, what it was like to share the screen with such a legendary co-star, and whether he thinks his character, Cyrus, really is as bad as he seems.
Check out our interview with Asbæk about his role in Samaritan below:
With Game of Thrones, Uncharted, and even Aquaman next year, it seems you’re having a lot of fun playing villains, but what is it about antagonist roles like Cyrus that excites you most as an actor?
To be honest, we did Samaritan so many years ago that nearly all of the other villains came post-this project. When you have an accent and you’re Scandinavian and you like doing villains…I only do villains in America. When I’m in something in Europe, I’m always the sympathetic intellectual who is always struggling with his life and marriage or something. Or his daughter doesn’t like him which is very realistic sometimes [Laughs]. I don’t know why Americans always want to see me as a baddie because I’m really not!
Sylvester Stallone is an icon, so what did it mean to you to not just share the screen with him, but to also get physical in some badass action scenes?
Oh man, I’ve gotta give kudos to the stunt team because what they did in this one was so awesome. They were amazing. Working with Sly…they say you don’t want to work with your heroes because they can only let you down. I can say I had the exact opposite feeling. I worked with my hero and it was more than anything I could ever expect. He’s extremely generous, he’s extremely cool, and he’s so gifted and talented. He just wants to bring out the best in the people he’s working with and that’s the reason he’s been on top for, I don’t know, forty of fifty years now.
Cyrus wants to take back his city, but do you think there is good behind what he’s doing or all of that is really just an excuse to become even more powerful as a supervillain?
The thing is, some scenes got cut out where we explained his background story and how he felt betrayed and how he felt he needed a role model in his life when he was growing up. He took Sam, the kid, as a protege [because of that]. A movie can only be two hours, but for me, it was very important that even though you might not see it, you’ve got to get that feeling. We improv’d some of the scenes where I’m on the bus giving a speech to the people. I come from a socialist country where the poor are supposed to defeat the rich and not become them.
We’ve got to wrap, unfortunately, but I really enjoyed your work in this film. I’m a longtime fan and cannot wait to see you kick Jason Momoa’s ass in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom next year.
[Laughs] Yes! That’s gonna be cool, but I can’t say anything.
Samaritan premieres exclusively on Prime Video globally tomorrow, August 26.