Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje Is Euphoria‘s New Chaos Agent

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s imposing presence has served him well, first as the terrifying force of nature Simon Adebisi on Oz and then as the brooding enigma Mr. Eko on Lost. He’ll deploy it again on the third season of Euphoria when, as the Southern cowboy kingpin Alamo Brown, he goes up against Zendaya’s Rue. But offscreen, the Nigerian-born, London-raised actor is serene, a devoted Buddhist whose practice, as he tells his friend Ludacris, keeps him from getting snatched by the darkness.

———

ADEWALE AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: What’s up, Cris?

LUDACRIS: What’s going on?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: How you doing?

LUDACRIS: I’m good, man. Congratulations. I’m a fan of Euphoria, so I can’t wait to see it.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I didn’t know you was a fan of the show.

LUDACRIS: For sure. I don’t even remember who put me onto it. I know it got a lot of criticism, because that shit is extra real.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: That’ll make this chat all the more interesting, man.

LUDACRIS: How did you get the part? There’s got to be so many people fighting to be on this show.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: This is probably one of the most hotly contested shows on air, so everybody was out for that. But it was just standard. I did what we call a self-tape, where you tape yourself doing three scenes.

LUDACRIS: What?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: And you send it to the director. I never heard anything for two months, which is really unusual, so I called my agent. I’m like, “What happened? It got lost in the ether?” And then about two weeks later we got word that they got the tape. And then two weeks after that, the director said he wanted to do an audition with me. I had to do an audition with Sam [Levinson] and Mary Vernieu, the casting director, on Zoom, which was crazy.

LUDACRIS: That’s great.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I think on New Year’s Eve he called me and said, “You got the part.” And that was it.

LUDACRIS: Congrats on that, man. I scroll every now and then, and I do hear a lot of complaints about certain people saying, “The Brits are getting all the good acting jobs.” I want to hear your take on that.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: To be honest with you, Cris, it’s noise I don’t listen to. I ain’t got time for that. I’m just focused on the craft. This is art. We’re not doing documentaries. And Hollywood, since its inception, has always used actors from all around the world. Cary Grant was British. You know what I mean? And also, let’s be real, there’s a lot of wonderful American actors—Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. He’s not African. It was a British production. Clarke Peters, he works in British productions. So it goes both ways. The joy of being an artist is to be able to transform yourself and just disappear from who you are. You don’t have to experience a death to understand loss.

LUDACRIS: Absolutely. Did you draw any inspirations for this particular character?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Most definitely. Look, Sam Levinson is the creator of this world, and he had a vision. He was inspired by Sergio Leone, the great Western director, and actors like Eli Wallach from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. And in terms of people he had in mind and was inspired by, he was talking about Jim Brown and Woody Strode. I drew upon other influences like Isaac Hayes.

LUDACRIS: Oh, very dope. How’s it working with Zendaya and Colman Domingo and Alexa [Demie] and everybody as a whole?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: It was really interesting because obviously I’d done my research on the show prior to coming on. I binge-watched the two seasons, just to get to know the characters, the narrative of the show, et cetera. I know they grew up on the show and they have this intricate bond, so coming into that as an outsider was interesting because they a clique. And it was great for my character because he’s outside of that clique and comes into it. These young actors are really quite amazing. Sam elicits some incredible performances.

LUDACRIS: Wow.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I was very impressed with Zendaya. She’s very talented, very funny. I had different relationships with each actor.

LUDACRIS: Like?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Alexa, we had a great chemistry. She’s more spiritual and humorous, so the scenes took that turn. And you know Colman, he’s a beast, so the scenes we did were just off the chain.

LUDACRIS: Were you a fan of the show before, or you just heard about it?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I’d heard about it. I’d glanced at an episode, but I had not watched the entirety of any season. You know what’s funny, bro? I do all these shows and I haven’t watched half of them. Even Lost, I haven’t watched it.

LUDACRIS: Not with Adebisi, man? Not with Oz? Come on.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I’ve watched maybe the first season.

LUDACRIS: [Laughs] Listen, I hate when people ask me my favorite song, but what is your favorite role you’ve ever done?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Favorite role?

LUDACRIS: It’s a hard question, bro. Trust me. From entertainer to entertainer, I hate being asked that question. But what’s the first thing that comes to mind? That’s the better way to ask it.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I probably haven’t played it yet, but if I have to choose among the ones I have played, I got to give it out to Adebisi.

LUDACRIS: Ah, that’s my favorite.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Especially because it was the catalyst for my career and the industry seeing that I had chops. It really broke me out. Also, I was so free in that character. I’ll give you one other reason. One of the creators of Oz was Barry Levinson, the father of Sam Levinson.

LUDACRIS: Really?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Yeah, man.

LUDACRIS: Wow. I didn’t know that.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: So it’s a crazy full-circle moment with Oz and Euphoria. And Barry came out to the set, so father and son were there.

LUDACRIS: That’s full circle, bro. Did you know how to ride a horse before you did this role?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Bro, I’m a city boy. [Laughs] And at this stage in life, I was not planning on going anywhere near a beast that’s six feet off the ground. But when I turned up, Sam said a lot of the scenes were going to be on horseback. This is a real cowboy, so I took training courses for six weeks before I started shooting, and they were intense because it wasn’t just about riding it. I had to ride it with one arm swinging a mallet. But the thing about playing Alamo Brown as a Black Southern cowboy, you could not play that role without having ridden a horse to inhabit that cowboy swag.

LUDACRIS: Ain’t no AI going to save you on this one.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: [Laughs] Yeah. So I learned and it’s another notch on my belt, but I would not get back on one unless it’s for a whole lot of money.

LUDACRIS: Were you privy to the plot? How top secret are all the scripts?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: It’s on lock. Sam is very protective of the material. And with this current world we live in, one whisper about the plot line could plummet the show. But he trusted me, so he did give me the full script. But I will say this, it’s such a fluid process. Everything changes. So you read the script, and then you got to throw it away.

LUDACRIS: What’s one word to sum up this season?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: It’s epic. That’s what I would say. It warrants being in the cinema.

LUDACRIS: Ooh, that’s what we like to hear.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: But in terms of the character, Alamo Brown, he’s the American dream, bro.

LUDACRIS: That’s good to know, man. You modeled in Milan before acting. Were you good at it or was it just a paycheck? And what does modeling teach you that most people would be very surprised to learn?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: It initially started out as a way to get me through college and it turned into a really lucrative career, where I became one of the top Black male models in Europe. That’s what brought me to America and started my career as an actor. My modeling agent sent me for my first audition, for Congo.

LUDACRIS: A lot of people don’t know you got a law degree from King’s College. What kind of law do you think you would’ve been in if you didn’t follow the acting?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: I studied criminal law, so I probably would’ve been a criminal lawyer. I came up in the slums, so I would’ve been a very rugged, practical lawyer.

LUDACRIS: The Lincoln Lawyer.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Yeah, it wouldn’t have been purely theoretical because I’d rubbed shoulders with some tough guys, so I understood the penal system from the inside out.

LUDACRIS: You don’t regret not going the lawyer route?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Hell no, bro. My father was a barrister, my two sisters are barristers, but it was never a vocation for me. I always knew I was more creatively inclined. It was just a matter of figuring out where that was going to manifest.

LUDACRIS: And you’re a Buddhist?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Yeah, man. I’ve been a Buddhist for 21 years, and my sisters too, so it’s been in our family. And to be honest with you, I would not remain an artist in this business if it was not for my practice, because it allows me to remain still and keeps me in rhythm. It gives me the wisdom to navigate this industry. But also, to maintain an attitude of gratitude.

LUDACRIS: Wow.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: No matter what comes, whether it’s trials, tribulations, you just got to be positive about what you encounter and how you can transform it into value. So it really has helped shape me. And I used it a lot when I was doing Alamo Brown, chanting for hours in the morning and in the evening, staying in that rhythm.

LUDACRIS: Excuse my ignorance, but how do you practice your Buddhism?

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: The essence of it is basically Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. Namu meaning devotion, Myōhō meaning wondrous, Renge meaning cause and effect, Kyō, law. I devote myself to the wondrous law of cause and effect. That law is the law that governs all living beings. When you chant, you fuse your life condition with the universe so that you’re in rhythm. You’re swimming in the tide of the universe. You turn up at the right place at the right time, say the right thing. But it’s all governed by your heart.

LUDACRIS: Wow.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: The actual practice is chanting, “Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,” for as long or as little as you need, in the morning and the evening, sandwiching your day in that energy so that you’re constantly in rhythm and you summon forth your highest life condition. When you chant, it pulls forth your innate Buddha wisdom, that wisdom we all have, and allows you to make decisions based on your highest life condition as opposed to your negative or your fundamentally dark condition.

LUDACRIS: How long do you practice a day? I’m very inspired by hearing you.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Let me give you this. When doing a character like Alamo Brown, who is very dark at times, you’ve got to access dark reservoirs of that criminal nature. You don’t want to get snatched by that. So for that particular character, I would chant at least two hours in the morning and then an hour at night.

LUDACRIS: That’s deep, man. I was talking to Charlize Theron one time—she’s in The Fast [& the Furious] universe—about how on earth she did that The Devil’s Advocate character. She would just go in her trailer after the scene and watch reality television to break her out of the mold. If you go really deep in terms of negativity, you need something, so this is great to hear.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: And Sam is relentless in his pursuit of the truth. So you got to traverse realms that are very, very uncomfortable.

LUDACRIS: That’s dope. Well, thank you, man.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Thanks a million, Cris. Appreciate it.

LUDACRIS: Absolutely. Listen, continue to inspire. Continue to kill these roles, man. The best is yet to come from you.

AKINNUOYE-AGBAJE: Yes, man.

———

Grooming: Janice Kinjo using Andis and Luzern Labs at Made Artists Agency.

Lighting Technician: Derek Perlman.

Lighting Assistant: Matteo Dalla Chiesa.

Fashion Assistant: Zakiya Zazaboi.

Production Direction: Alexandra Weiss.

Photography Production: Georgia Ford.

Production: Eppy and Brooke Ramirez at Radish Films.

Location: Nova Studios.