The conspiracy thriller Section 8, a new film from director Christian Sesma, is a darkly entertaining action movie with some surprising relevance and a stacked cast. Action veterans Mickey Rourke, Dolph Lundgren, and Scott Adkins join a smooth and sinister Dermot Mulroney in the fast-paced tale of a former soldier turned prisoner named Jake, who is recruited by a clandestine government agency that makes the CIA look like the FDA.
Those big stars all orbit around Jake in various configurations, but it’s Jake’s emotional journey and existential dilemma that ultimately centers the film. Played by Ryan Kwanten, Jake is the kind of tortured soul often found in action films, the man with nothing left to lose after suffering great tragedy. However, the shadowy government organization helps this character find something to live for, while also interrogating his very notions of survival, self, and morality. Ahead of the theatrical release of Section 8 (and its subsequent streaming on AMC+), Kwanten spoke with MovieWeb about his role in the film and the career he’s trying to forge.
Ryan Kwanten Took Chances After True Blood
AMC+
From the horror genre in Glorious and Them, to sci-fi in Expired and 2067, to odd action movies in Supercon and The Hurricane Heist, it’s clear that Kwanten has been deliberately scattering himself across the cinematic landscape in the last few years. “It was important for me from the get-go in forging a career for myself out here that I never pigeonhole myself, or be worthy of a pigeonhole,” said Kwanten. “I always wanted to sort of challenge the preconceived notions of who I thought I was, and what I thought I was capable of, and I think that would in turn surprise an audience.”
Kwanten, who first came to prominence leading television shows (Home and Away, Spellbinder: Land of the Dragon Lord) and films (Liquid Bridge) in his home country of Australia, doubled down on this desire to refuse typecasting after his lead role in the hit HBO show True Blood. Playing Jason Stackhouse for each of the show’s 80 episodes, Kwanten was keenly aware of both the blessing and the curse of becoming universally recognized in the industry for one character.
“Without a doubt, it could have been easy to fall into the Jason Stackhouse mold,” said Kwanten, who then brought up a career trajectory he admires by way of example. “Even Matt McConaughey, I love McConaughey’s acting, but there was sort of a period in his career where he was just kind of doing himself. He’s such a great actor. If you take something like Dallas Buyers Club, the guy morphs into someone else and is barely recognizable. It takes that kind of bravery, and I felt like his choices and his stock went up the moment he started taking those chances, and I look to someone like him as inspiration.”
Kwanten Plays a Prisoner Recruited by Section 8
AMC+
“It’s been a concerted effort, but it seems like in the last couple of years, it’s really just paid off,” said Kwanten, acknowledging the very different choices he’s been making. He was incredible in the one-of-a-kind horror comedy Glorious, almost carrying the entire film by himself in a rest stop bathroom (aided by the voice of an unseen J.K. Simmons).
Now, in Section 8, he’s much more serious but just as physical and dominant, playing an intelligent former soldier who is arrested for a bloody act of vengeance and gets recruited from prison to kill for the government yet again. He’s the core of the film in many ways, and really delves into the emotional turmoil at the heart of his character, Jake.
“I love [exploring] returning servicemen dealing with PTSD, and how that affects a family,” said Kwanten, “the psychology behind leaving your wife and your kid behind, the psychology of coming back home, readjusting to a so-called ‘normal’ life, and then matching that with then losing everything you thought you knew, that level of grief that no one should ever have to experience. How does that affect you, and your very moral fiber? I think that that’s how he gets involved in Section 8, because his moral compass is completely squashed. He’s looking for anything to kind of hang on to life for.”
Kwanten Joins Rourke, Lundgren, and More in the Psychological Action Film
AMC+
Section 8, like Kwanten’s approach, is more patiently psychological and emotional than the bang-bang-shoot-em-up fun of many fast-paced action thrillers. The film still has some cleverly choreographed fight sequences and many tense, high-stakes moments, but it’s also a melancholic character study that asks tough questions about the military, the government, and ethics (not to mention its topical relevance to conspiracies like ‘the deep state’ and ‘Q’).
“That’s that’s sort of how I like to explore action, in a more psychological, almost existential type of realm,” said Kwanten. “I’m far more concerned with what that character is going through psychologically, as opposed to just physically. And I love genre in general, so as long as there’s something in that world, I never want to say no.”
Of course, saying yes to Section 8 was a no-brainer with the kind of supporting cast that it sports; the fact that Kwanten is the lead in a film starring Lundgren, Rourke, Adkins, and Mulroney is a bit of a mind-blower for him. “You know, I’m a little guy from a small, little place in Australia,” said Kwanten. He elaborated:
Like, only playing in the park with my brothers and the local kids could I have imagined something like this, and even then this blows it out of proportion, playing with the big boys with the big toys. It’s crazy that I’m in that same sandpit now, but it’s something I didn’t take lightly. I know how hard those guys worked to get into the position that they were in, and so I wanted to show that I love the fact that they were there, but that I was worthy of being there. That for me was the most important thing. For me, I felt like what I can add more than brute force was the emotionality.
Kwanten’s Career After Section 8
AMC+
Kwanten more than holds his own with “the big boys” in Section 8, and aside from a brief but bizarre and scene-stealing Mickey Rourke, the actor is the most magnetic aspect of the film, drawing viewers in to his emotional presence. Glorious and Section 8 prove that his diffusion throughout diverse dramas after his True Blood years is no fluke, and he’s continuing to make bold choices with several upcoming projects, like Simon Ross’ film The Portrait.
“It’s in that kind of mid to late ’70s psychological thriller,” said Kwanten of the film, “about a couple that moves to a house after he suffers a brain hemorrhage, and while he’s trying to sort of find himself again, his wife is trying to figure out how to make it better. And then in the meantime, that place that they’re staying at has a pretty sordid history, which begins to haunt both of them. So I’m really excited for that to come out, it should be towards the end of this year, if not the beginning of next year.”
AMC+
Kwanten is also starring in (surprisingly) the first onscreen adaptation of a book from the legendary sci-fi author Octavia Butler, titled Kindred, and it’s yet another heavy role that shows Kwanten’s range. The final big test in this regard, however, will be how Kwanten handles outright comedy, something he’d love to do. “I sort of made a decent history for myself in the last 10 years of playing some very dark characters, you know, not always the nicest cats,” said Kwanten. “It would be nice to just briefly step into something noticeably lighter. So we’ll see, I’m kind of putting that out into the universe now, that maybe there’s something more in the lighter realm for me.”
It’s that kind of desire to try new things which is keeping Kwanten fresh and happily devoid of typecasting. His acute self-awareness results in taking chances, jumping from role to role with occasional abandon in order to prevent pigeonholing. “That’s the bane of an artist,” said Kwanten. “You have those great musicians who have done that epic album, and how do you follow that up? Do you try and do what you did the first time and try to recreate success? Or do you say f*ck it and try something new?” Ryan Kwanten is trying something new.
From Firebrand and RLJE Films, Section 8 will be available in theaters and will stream on AMC+ on September 23.