THE KILLING
Today, 10 p.m., AMC (
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Sweden’s best export this TV season is actor Joel Kinnaman, co-star of the addictive AMC mystery series “The Killing.” With his hollow eyes and air of lanky menace, he slips so seamlessly into the role of Detective Stephen Holder, a former narc who lures suspects by offering them fake joints, you’d think he came off the streets.
Where Kinnaman really comes from is the Swedish Academic School of Drama, breeding ground for actors such as Stellan Skarsgard and Lena Olin. The school accepts only 10 out of 2,000 applicants. Of that select group, half are unemployed after graduation, the actor says.
Those slim chances didn’t deter Kinnaman, 31. “Those aren’t very good odds at all, but I just got really hooked on the whole process,” he says. “It started when I was applying for acting school. I had this feeling that maybe I could do this. And I didn’t have any other choices because I gave myself no out scenario. I had no plan B.”
Kinnaman, who was born Charles Joel Nordstrom, never really needed a Plan B, though. He was starring in Swedish films while still in school — a choice that so blatantly broke the rules that the student body had to lobby on the actor’s behalf so he could graduate.
He finished up in 2008, and went on to star in nine Swedish movies in 14 months. One of those was “Snabba Cash” (“Easy Money”), based on a best-selling trilogy and now the highest-grossing Swedish film ever made.
With that much high-profile work behind him so quickly, he decided it was time to give Hollywood a go. Kinnaman, whose father is American, spent a year in Texas as a high school exchange student. His English is as perfectly American as it sounds on “The Killing.”
“I had my sights on a bigger market,” he says. “I had reached a level that was secure in Sweden, so it was the right time to come over.”
Kinnaman found a manager and an agent and moved to Los Angeles. He went up for two high-profile films — “Thor” and “Mad Max 4: Fury Road” — and made a strong impression on casting agents, even though those parts went to Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hardy.
“I got pretty close on both of them. I had a feeling like maybe this isn’t going to be too hard. Then it took four months before I even got close to anything else,” he says.
By then, it was pilot season in LA. Kinnaman read lots of scripts, but the one that stood out was “The Killing.” In the series, Kinnaman plays Det. Holder with a street-smart intensity. Holder rarely plays by the rules, but he often gets the break that takes the show’s serpentine investigation to the next level.
“I wanted Holder to be someone that grew up on the street. That’s where he learned his ways,” Kinnaman says. “I wanted that to be both his strength and his weakness.”
Holder is veteran cop but a rookie homicide detective. He’s assigned to work with Det. Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos), who’s about to leave the Seattle Police Force and move to Sonoma, Calif., with her fiancé and son. Linden is wary of her new partner.
“He’s the last thing she needed,” says Kinnaman. “As the series goes along, he makes a lot of critical revelations that help the case. When he goes off the books and finds his way, he’s the one that’s really moving the case forward.”
“The Killing” opened on April 3 to nearly 5 million cumulative viewers, the cable net’s second-highest original premiere. The show is not yet renewed for season two, says an AMC spokesperson, but a renewal is expected.
Until then, Kinnaman, who is single, is keeping busy, with two major features in the works. He plays the villain in “The Darkest Hour,” also starring Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella. He’s currently on location in Cape Town, South Africa, shooting “Safe House” with Denzel Washington, Vera Farmiga and Ryan Reynolds.