Esquire Singapore Dec 2019 - Joel Kinnaman Interview
Editor-in-Chief: Norman Tan
Photography: Michael Schwartz
Stylist: Chloe Hartstein
Groomer: Kristan Serafino
Story: Wayne Cheong
Instead of a rooftop shoot that we had planned, weāre indoors at Dune Studios on Water Street. Outside, the weather is every writerās dream: āIt is an ash-streaked sky that portents a downpour.ā āLike a warning, steel wool hangs overhead.ā āA dishevelled blanket of grey that drifts languidly like detritus in a muddied pond.ā A wet weather doth not a good shoot make.
When Joel Kinnaman arrives, the first thing you notice is how large he is. Bigger than life, broad-chested, he sometimes stands astride, like heās about to break the spirit of a wild stallion. Then, thereās that presence; a sort of aura thatās quiet but still strong-arms you for your attention.
Just as the fashion shoot is about to start, Kinnaman asks if he could put on his own playlist for the shoot. He brings up his Spotify playlist, titled āFor some of mankindā. āWhat Becomes of the Brokenheartedā by Jimmy Ruffin plays.
āThe playlists are just for fun,ā Kinnaman tells me. āIāve made a playlist for every project that Iāve been in.ā
The project that this particular playlist was made for is For All Mankind, now playing on Apple TV+. Itās a show that puts forth the idea: what if America lost the space race to Russia?
Created and written by Ronald D Moore, the visionary behind the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and Outlander, For All Mankind stars Kinnaman as Edward Baldwin, a NASA astronaut who works alongside Buzz Aldrin (Chris Agos) and Neil Armstrong (Jeff Branson). Kinnamanās character isnāt based on a particular historical figure, instead he is a composite or a representative of the āall-Americanā astronauts of that era.
āIām half-American and half-Swedish,ā Kinnaman says. āIāve lived in Sweden and America so, in a way, Iāve a split identity. My favourite part of the American spirit is not giving up. If they get knocked down, it is a national honour in getting back up and continuing the fight. In reality, when the US got to the moon, it concluded the space race. We didnāt get the continuation in space exploration that everyone was promised.ā
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