00:00With an iconic performance such as Denzel's,
00:03you don't want to touch it.
00:05As an actor, it's a mistake to try to recreate that.
00:09When I watch that movie, the thing that I really love
00:12is the heart and the soul that's in that performance.
00:15I honor that by doing my own iteration.
00:18Have at it, man.
00:20You're probably doing me a favor.
00:21This is Yahya Abdul-Mateen II,
00:23and I'm about to tell you everything
00:25that went into playing John Creasy
00:27in my new Netflix series, Man on Fire.
00:30My way in was to just take each moment one at a time,
00:34just breaking these super large themes down the size
00:38into something that I could sort of fit
00:40in the palm of my hand,
00:41something that everybody can relate to,
00:43having an obstacle, being lonely, feeling lost.
00:46I think he's been hurt and he's been broken.
00:49He's learning how to put himself back together.
00:53We meet him at the top of the show
00:55where he's very good at something,
00:57and then he encounters a tragic event,
00:59puts him in a very dark place.
01:02Really, to me, this journey is about a man
01:05who's attempting to lift himself out of that hole
01:07by any means necessary.
01:09Once you sort of know the problem
01:11that you're trying to work out,
01:12the acting path becomes a whole lot smoother.
01:15Everything really starts with the first meeting.
01:17Why would he even tell you about that?
01:19He didn't have to tell me I was there.
01:22Myself and Billy, we're there for every single episode.
01:25So it was very important for us
01:27to have a working relationship early on.
01:29And she's incredibly, incredibly talented.
01:31She was incredibly prepared.
01:33You know, hopefully it came across on scene,
01:35but it was definitely a pleasure.
01:36What are the most out-of-the-box training exercises
01:39you did to prepare?
01:41Everything was actually out of the box
01:43because I'm an actor.
01:45So everything that I did, whether that was boxing
01:48or learning some kick fights,
01:52I had to get myself out of my comfort zone
01:54and learn a new physical vocabulary.
01:56So all of it was pretty unconventional.
01:59It was a lot of emotional work, actually.
02:01Getting into his mind, how did he get this way?
02:03What is he afraid of?
02:05And then one day it clicked.
02:06Oh, he's afraid to let himself be loved.
02:09Creasy can help everybody else.
02:11He's always down to help,
02:12but he has a hard time letting someone else
02:15do the same thing for him.
02:17Did you actually learn how to field strip
02:19and reassemble a Glock?
02:21Yeah, I actually can.
02:22Slow is fast, smooth is fast.
02:25First it was 18 seconds, then 15 seconds,
02:27and then one day I finally got it.
02:29So I think my fastest that I ever got it
02:30was 12 point something.
02:32Thank you so much for tuning in,
02:34and you can watch my performance
02:35as John Creasy in Man on Fire only on Netflix.
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