Exclusive: Pilou Asbæk on Playing a Villain in Samaritan Opposite Sylvester Stallone

Granite City’s superhero Samaritan (Sylvester Stallone) is thought to be dead since his fight in a fiery warehouse with Nemesis. When 13-year-old Sam (Javon “Wanna” Walton) discovers the truth — that Samaritan is alive and actually his neighbor — he does everything he can to bring Samaritan out of hiding to fight against the rise of crime in the city.

Simultaneously, Sam is wrapped up with Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk) the leader of a gang that he accepts money from (after helping to rob a corner store) to help his mother (Dascha Polanco) pay rent.

Also in the cast of Samaritan are Sophia Tatum, Moises Arias, Martin Starr, Jared Odrick, Abraham Clinkscales, and more. It’s written by Bragi F. Schut and directed by Julius Avery.

“Cyrus was fun… Julius had this strong vision of Cyrus being the techno Viking type. And he goes, ‘you’re Viking, you’re Scandinavian,’ and the techno is the leather jacket… and I go, ‘Okay, can I bleach my hair and go Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys?’ and he goes, ‘I love it!’ So, we wanted to create a villain that in every single scene, we knew exactly who we would’ve honored in an ‘80s and ‘90s movie. And we just had a blast. It was so much fun,” said Asbæk.

Working Opposite Sylvester Stallone

Stallone has an iconic background in action films, of course, being well-known for the Rocky movies, Rambo movies, First Blood movies, Creed movies, The Expendables, and the list could go on. He’s made a huge imprint on the genre, and so of course, we asked Asbæk what it was like to work with him on Samaritan.

“It was amazing. We have the saying ‘don’t meet your heroes, they can only let you down.’ I can say bull because he is awesome. It was like a master class for a few months. Him telling me how to approach a scene, how to do the stunts, etc. I kind of wish I had more scenes with him,” said Asbæk, “but the weeks we were shooting together, they were great. And he’s a very kind, very generous and great actor. I think he’s been underestimated sometimes because it’s action films, but if you look at his resume, he’s got more iconic roles than 95 percent of the rest of the world of actors. So I’m thankful, and I’m lucky I have gotten to work with him. I think he’s incredible in Samaritan. I think he brings his whole life, all of his knowledge into this film.”

Asbæk is also no stranger to the screen, though. Prior to Samaritan, he turned in a highly memorable performance in HBO’s acclaimed series Game of Thrones as Euron Greyjoy, the war-hungry King of the Iron Islands. He can also be seen in Overlord, also directed by Avery, and is in the upcoming Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.

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Samaritan’s Super Strength

Ahead of the release of Samaritan on August 26, 2022, on Prime Video, the streaming service released a clip (appropriately titled “How Did You Do That”) that shows off the superhuman strength that Stallone’s character possesses. In the clip, we see Samaritan get snuck up on in an alleyway and stabbed in the should from behind. “Really?” says Samaritan, uninjured, “fly.” He then throws the attacker a good distance out of the alleyway, smashing into a car door and setting off its alarm. A little girl (Aria Seymore) happens to witness the altercation. “You threw that bad man through the wall… how did you do that?” she asks. You can watch it in full below.

“I thought that this guy, his strength would be in his resolve, and he has great physical power as opposed to speed. He’s not jumping through the air, he’s not that type of guy. He’s a very powerful individual who is still sort of in the world of reality. He can’t fly or see through walls, fire doesn’t come out of his mouth… he’s sort of like a modern-day Hercules. That kind of a mythic hero. I think those are ones that we can identify with,” said Stallone in an interview with JoBlo.

“This is a big event movie. We see our heroes kicking [expletive]. We’re going to see Sly do things he hasn’t done in a long time, and in a really inventive way. He’s 73 years old! I’m amazed by how much he actually does. I’m telling you, most guys in their twenties wouldn’t be able to do what Sly does in the movie,” commented Avery in an interview with Total Film.

Samaritan is produced by Balboa Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).