DEADPOOL: Ed Skrein Teases Villain Ajax and How He Researched Serial Killers For the Role



While promoting his new movie, actor Ed Skrein spoke with IGN about his role as the villain Ajax in next year's DEADPOOL movie.

"[Ajax is] very different from The Transporter, I’ll tell you that. He’s a sociopath in the truest sense. He’s had all of his nerve endings removed so he no longer feels pain. No longer feels anything. And that was such an interesting entry point – to enter into the psyche of a character and to try and portray Ajax. He’s a fun character. He’s pretty dark. He was a fun character to play."

Skrein then spoke about his research which consisted of serial killers and their mentality.

"I looked at a lot of serial killers. I looked at what was prevalent in the mentality of these serial killers and, you know, what interest me is there was a Louis Theroux documentary about death row and if you remember there was all of these big scary dudes with tattoos and all of that. Then there was this one guy in the corner – this really quiet guy with glasses and his hair to the side and you just looked at him and thought ‘You don’t look like you should be in prison.’ But when you heard him speak it was chilling. And it was terrifying… I suppose what it is is the negative space? The void that’s inside a sociopath or a psychopath. The lack of morality and social responsibility and reprocussions and all of that. That’s what was interesting. I was looking at a lot of that, and Harold Shipman – how he would come out to the press and speak to the press, then afterwards we found out everything that had happened. Characters like that were fascinating to explore, and that’s why this is such a brilliant craft. This is why it’s so interesting – we’re so settled in who we are, and who we are as human beings. We think we know who we are. But when you start to look at these different sides of the human psyche, you start to realise that, first of all, you’re definitely not these guys. But you can start to learn from them and it can help us. I find it helpful to working out my place in this world and my mentality, through all of these messed up individuals."


DEADPOOL releases on February 12, 2016.