'Elysium' Villain on Pranking Matt Damon

It's so great to have you here, and what's great is that you and Matt both love our studio. What do you think of the place? The joint?

I love it. This is without a doubt the funnest interview room that I've seen. It's like a nightclub, but we're in am I allowed to say that we're in the four seasons?

You're allowed to say it. Don't say the room.

It's just not like a four seasons room. Yeah, I mean, this is I've just never seen anything like this. I was walking and thought I was walking into a junket and it's like walking into a nightclub.

It is, and we had the music pumping. It was music. There actually was music. Now they just turned it off right now. Now it's sort of an awkward silence. The whole vibe has just changed completely from when I walked in.

Awkward silence. Activate Kruger.

We saw the film last night. Unbelievable. You are unrecognizable. Okay. Is that a compliment?

Well, I mean, in this role, I would say so. And this is the thing about villains, the villains that have been successful in the past that people really are afraid of are the ones that really seem insane.

Okay, good. Yes. And you had that element. But I read that the director, that you actually presented him three or four versions of the villain before you chose that particular.

Yeah, I was I was quite there was a part of me that was very unenthusiastic to do like a white South African villain again because it was like, you know, the white South Africans are always the villains, you know. I I did do an American, an Eastern European, a British version of Kruger. But in the end it was just so tempting to do in South Africa. You've never heard that accent. That's a very strong accent from a very specific area in Johannesburg.

And speaking of insanity, Matt Damon spoke of you. And he said he doesn't know whether you're the best actor he's ever seen or the most insane. And he compared you to Daniel Day Lewis and he compared you to Marlon Brando.

Wow. Well, there you go. You see. That I'll I'll I'll take that. Either way, whether I'm insane or or or good. I really like to do very different characters. If I have any sort of process, I suppose it's just I I either resonate with something and feel like I sort of really do, I guess, sort of become someone else in a certain way for for that brief period of time.

The big question people always ask is about pranks. You did the ultimate prank. You played the ultimate prank on Matt.

Well, I don't know that it was the ultimate. I've been pranking since I was younger. I think I did more ultimate pranks with Angelina where like we had on on Maleficent, we had like probably one of the biggest pranking battles that's ever happened on a on a film on a film set ever. But with Matt because what I do, and it's the same with Angie. It was like I like to prank from the perspective of the character. It's almost like a kind of methoding, I suppose, in a certain way because I'm not a method actor that can sit there and stay in the character all the time. So I did. I I trashed his trailer, but I made it look like my character and the other characters, my sort of henchmen, had been living in his trailer because obviously he's got this luxurious fancy trailer and it was just not on. You know, I needed to send him a message. It was very clear. So we really went all out. Like we trashed it completely. Like ate all his food, left everything just lying around. I left all my dirty clothes. Like really dirty. You know, you can get really sweaty and dirty by the very skanky clothes like all just left there. Left bloody lemons in his shower.

Did it change the energy onset? Did it work?

I don't know. I mean, I think I think the thing was that Matt and I got on so damn well anyway. So this was like a fun little extra element.

Well, and you talked about you two getting along. I read something about how the two of you, you're just both such dedicated actors that a lot of people sort of offset talk about, you know, various different things, where are you going tonight? You guys were just sort of comparing notes like when you worked with this person, when you worked with this person.

Constantly. I mean, it was one of the things that I loved. I felt like I found somebody that that sort of a kindred spirit in that way, you know, somebody that had just been obsessively passionate about film since him and and Ben's did did, you know, Good Will Hunting back in the day. So I was just I was picking his brain about every possible experience that he'd had in different areas of the film business and he was sharing a lot of that sort of information with me. And it was it just it was amazing, you know, to have somebody of that sort of level who you who I've been a fan of literally since Good Will Hunting just sort of afford me the kind of respect and kind of almost feel like he was appreciating working with me, which was quite a shock, you know.

On that level, I know when you were you were to Comic Con with um District 9. And you had said that it was a a life changing or monumental experience like as far as your career goes. Can you sort of expand like why was it why was it that moment?

Well, because I mean, in in the case of Comic Con and District 9 was I was watching the completed film for the first time with the audience that were all going to go and go online and say what they thought immediately afterwards. And it's with a very critical sort of audience as well. With with an audience that's going to say exactly what they think. Peter Jackson was there. Comic Con for the first time. So there was this increased sort of heightened excitement about that and expectation. So I was watching and we'd improvised. So I I improvised so much different stuff that the first watch of the film was part of me just calculating what was in, what wasn't, what storylines had we sort of dropped in favor of which other ones. And then the response afterwards of kind of, you know, immediately people sort of coming up to me afterwards and wanting autographs and wanting things in the screening. And sort of being a little very shell shocked, still digesting the film. It was only really that I started enjoying watching the movie on like the third or fourth watch of the film.

By the way, did you know that online there's whole uh long segments dedicated to you and the fuck from District 9? Did you know this? That it's all cut together in successions?

I've I've heard of different things. I've never actually seen that.

How many times did he actually go fuck and people? You said it a lot.

Yeah, it's like 200 and something. It was. Which is actually very real to the character, you know, and and to sort of Africans people in that time. It's it's something that they would use a lot, you know.

So can you give us one before we go? And can you give us a little Africans before we go?

You you know that people um have actually asked me. A woman came up to me and said call me a fucking prawn. And I was like, I don't know that that's appropriate, you know. It's very sort of it's it's rude, you know, to sort of say that to a lady. You know what I mean? Nikki, hey? I can't use a swear word like fuck on a big fancy TV show like this. I'm sorry. I can't. I mean, I use that when I was out of control and I I was panicking. But now I'm very much movies, you know, I sort of have to keep very good impression for the children. Everybody that's watching.

Fantastic.