Joel Kinnaman Describes Unique ‘Silent Night’ Prep

Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman stars as a father without a voice looking to exact revenge in the new action thriller Silent Night. Having to stay in character while not being able to say a word would be difficult for any actor, and Kinnaman admitted he wasn’t able to do it for too long. 

At first, Kinnaman was determined to make his role in the film his “big method-acting moment.” He told Men’s Journal all about the lead-up to filming the movie in Mexico City as he prepared to fully commit to not speaking throughout the entirety of filming.

“I’ll be honest, I thought this was going to be my big method-acting moment,” he acknowledged. “I was prepping my fiancée saying it was going to be a tough time for us as a couple as I was going down to Mexico and I wouldn’t be able to call her. She was in disbelief that we weren’t going to talk for two months, but I explained to her that that’s what needed to be done.”

To get through it, Kinnaman and his fiancée Kelly Gale got some outside help. “We made sure it wasn’t going to be this huge issue by sitting down with our relationship coach,” he said. “I highly recommend everyone in a relationship have a relationship coach.”

Related: Joel Kinnaman’s Exact ‘Silent Night’ Garage Workout

His dedication to method acting for the part didn’t last very long after he left for filming, however. 

“I finally got her own board. I was prepared to really do it. Then I landed in Mexico and I started to feel a little lonely. So I called her and told her I landed. She was like, ‘What are you doing?'” he recalled. “I changed the rules. I woke up the first day of filming and stayed silent the whole car ride to set. I sat down in the makeup chair and everyone else in the cast was having lots of fun. My resolve [was just] to stay quiet for production and the car ride.” 

“I guess I’m not meant to be a method actor,” he confessed.

Earlier this year, Kinnaman starred opposite Nicolas Cage in another thriller, Sympathy for the Devil. Silent Night is in theaters Dec. 1.