2022's latest superhero movie Samaritan is a wildly different kind of adventure from the usual superhuman champions of good and evil doing battle. Now available on Prime Video, Samaritan stars Sylvester Stallone as a man revealed to be a hiding hero. Pilou Asbæk co-stars in Samaritan as gang leader Cyrus, who becomes the arch-villain determined to defeat the hero for good.
In Samaritan, garbage man Joe Smith (Stallone) becomes an increasingly large blip on the radar of Sam Cleary (Javon "Wanna" Walton) after he begins to suspect that he might be the superhero Samaritan, who vanished years ago. At the same time, one of Chicago's major gang leaders Cyrus (Asbæk) finds the old hammer once wielded by Samaritan's sworn enemy Nemesis, taking it up as the new Nemesis. It's up to the superpowered Joe to stop Cyrus, with some unexpected discoveries emerging along the way.
We speak to Pilou Asbæk on the making of Samaritan, working with Sylvester Stallone on the superhero film, and his role as the villainous Cyrus.
Screen Rant: How did you approach taking on the character of Cyrus and working alongside Sylvester Stallone in the role?
Pilou Asbæk: First of all, I was so thankful I got the chance to work with Julius Avery again. We'd just done Overlord, and Julius was the guy who brought me on for Samaritan.
He gives you a lot of freedom to create the character, but he's very precise on the visual style of how he sees the character. My inspiration was Kiefer Sutherland in The Lost Boys, and we just built it from there and said, 'What if a Robin Hood-type fighting for the poor just wanted to do it with violence? And he didn't give a s--t about anybody or anything, and he said 'If you're poor, you've got to defeat the rich, not become them.'"
Samaritan deals with a character who has been in obscurity for a long time and comes back into his heroic life. How do you think Cyrus factors into the larger story of Samaritan?
Pilou Asbæk: I think that Cyrus thinks of Samaritan as a cop and he doesn't give a s--t about real people, and Cyrus' father-figure is Nemesis and he did. When Nemesis left, he felt let down and felt like he should step up and be the next generation of a hero. But he's just got his priorities wrong, and he acts like a dictator getting power through violence.
What would you say was your favorite memory of making Samaritan opposite Sylvester Stallone?
Pilou Asbæk: My favorite moment with Sylvester Stallone was every moment with Sylvester Stallone, because he's awesome. Sly is amazing, he's a legend.
He still does a lot of his own stunts, he's extremely generous, and he took me through his entire career and gave me a lot of tips and tricks to do stunts and action sequences and how to create characters. And I feel so thankful and blessed that I've been able to work with him, because no one is ever going to take that away from me!
Samaritan Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Sam Cleary suspects that his mysterious and reclusive neighbor, Mr. Smith, is actually a legend hiding in plain sight. Twenty-five years ago, Granite City's superpowered vigilante, Samaritan, was reported dead after a fiery warehouse battle with his rival, Nemesis. Most believe he perished in the fire, but some, like Sam, have hope that he's still alive. With crime now on the rise, Sam makes it his mission to coax Samaritan out of hiding to save the city from ruin.
Check out our other interview with Samaritan stars Javon “Wanna” Walton & Dascha Polanco.
Samaritan is now available to stream on Prime Video.