We were fortunate enough to be invited to Paris to celebrate the latest original series to come from the geniuses at Netflix – the epic science-fiction drama Altered Carbon. It was there we had the pleasure of sitting down with the lead star Joel Kinnaman, who plays Takeshi Kovacs.
We asked the Swedish actor to tell us about this world and what audiences can expect from Altered Carbon, and on the luxury of playing such a layered role across 10 episodes. He also discusses with us his very first scene – where he fights, naked as the day he was born, and he tells us what it means to actors now signing up to a project with Netflix behind it.
We then went on to discuss the hypothetical questions this series pose, and whether he believes life may well imitate art in the not too distance future. Then he tells us about his training regime before finally giving us a brief update on the forthcoming sequel to Suicide Squad.
Watch the full interview below…
Synopsis
ALTERED CARBON is set in a future where consciousness is digitised and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness “re-sleeved” into new bodies. The story follows specially trained “Envoy” soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who is downloaded from an off-world prison and into the body of a disgraced cop at the behest of Laurens Bancroft, a highly influential aristocrat. Bancroft was killed, and the last automatic backup of his stack was made hours before his death, leaving him with no memory of who killed him and why. While police ruled it a suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered and wants Kovacs to find out the truth.
Altered Carbon launches on Netflix on February 2nd.
