There is a delightfully sinister quality to Stephen Holder, the new detective assigned to the homicide case at the center of AMC’s crime drama, The Killing. Played by Joel Kinnaman, Holder skulks around Seattle, his skinny neck sticking out of an oversized sweatshirt. He rejects old-fashioned, rigorous police work in favor of more unorthodox information gathering. Like, say, giving a couple of soccer-playing teenage girls pot and asking them where they “party” so that they might help him figure out who killed their classmate, Rosie Larsen. In his review of The Killing for Slate, Troy Patterson rightly describes Kinnaman as a scene stealer, but I didn’t realize how thoroughly he had embodied Holder—the languid movements, the general swagger—until I saw a video of Kinnaman out of character. He is almost unrecognizable.

This is a breakout performance for the half-Swedish Kinnaman (his dad’s American), and there will be more opportunities to watch him in the near future. He’ll appear alongside Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby in an alien invasion flick called The Darkest Hour later this year. Kinnaman spoke to Slatefrom Cape Town, South Africa about growing up in Stockholm with his big hippie family, what it’s like to be a celebrity in Sweden, and the makeup magic behind Detective Holder’s deeply sketchy look.

Slate: What are you shooting in Cape Town?

Joel Kinnaman: It’s a movie called Safe House, with Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington—it’s like a CIA thriller. I’m a CIA agent. It’s not a big part but it’s an interesting part.
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