Person

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

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On IJR

No public IJR answers mention Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje yet. As people ask about it and share their answers, they'll appear here.

Person

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

0 members

Overview

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (; born 22 August 1967) is a British actor known for his roles as Simon Adebisi in Oz, Mr. Eko in Lost, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, Nykwana Wombosi in The Bourne Identity, Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Kurse in Thor: The Dark World, Killer Croc in Suicide Squad, Malko in the fifth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Dave Duerson in the NFL biopic drama Concussion, and Ogunwe in His Dark Materials. Akinnuoye-Agbaje's feature directorial debut, Farming, wrapped production in 2017 and had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Early life and education Akinnuoye-Agbaje was born in Islington, London, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. When he was six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working-class family in Tilbury, Essex. His foster parents had at least ten African children, including Akinnuoye-Agbaje's two sisters, living in their house at certain points. His foster father made a living as a lorry driver and struggled to support the family financially. When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and unable to assimilate, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter. The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly British culture and environment he was raised in. As a young boy, he was subject to continual racial abuse in the white neighbourhood he grew up. After enduring repeated physical attacks by local skinheads, he earned their respect by standing up to them and eventually aligned forces with them. At 16 years old, his birth parents sent him to a boarding school in Surrey where he ultimately attempted suicide before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“It felt like a kidnap…and it rendered me mute for about nine months. I couldn't speak the language, and if I spoke English I was abused for it. It was quite a culture shock: brutal. I was so traumatised and afraid that I stopped speaking and my [birth] parents thought there was something wrong with me, thought I was possessed…”
— On being taken back to Nigeria after living abroad for years in England in “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: 'I didn't want to be black. So I joined the skinheads…'” in The Guardian (13 May 2012)
“I wanted to assimilate and go back to the abnormal normality I knew. I wanted to wash off the experience of Africa but obviously I couldn't because that's who I was. As much as I wanted to deny it, it was plaguing me, and I was reminded by the images coming through the TV, people on the streets and in the end my family in the house.”
— On returning back to England and his subsequent identity crisis in “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: 'I didn't want to be black. So I joined the skinheads…'” in The Guardian (13 May 2012)
“There was no way of getting love. If all you have experienced is humiliation and rejection, and your foster father forces you to fight back or get a beating from him, you look for any kind of lifeline. There were only two options: fight, or become a victim. I tried the victim option for a long time.”
— On the rationale that eventually led him to join the skinheads despite being British-Nigerian in “‘Farmed’ out to a white family, I became a skinhead: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on his first film” in The Guardian (8 September 2019)

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

On IJR

No public IJR answers mention Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje yet. As people ask about it and share their answers, they'll appear here.

Overview

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (; born 22 August 1967) is a British actor known for his roles as Simon Adebisi in Oz, Mr. Eko in Lost, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, Nykwana Wombosi in The Bourne Identity, Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Kurse in Thor: The Dark World, Killer Croc in Suicide Squad, Malko in the fifth season of the HBO series Game of Thrones, Dave Duerson in the NFL biopic drama Concussion, and Ogunwe in His Dark Materials. Akinnuoye-Agbaje's feature directorial debut, Farming, wrapped production in 2017 and had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Early life and education Akinnuoye-Agbaje was born in Islington, London, to Nigerian parents of Yoruba origin, who were students in the UK. When he was six weeks old, his biological parents gave him up to a white working-class family in Tilbury, Essex. His foster parents had at least ten African children, including Akinnuoye-Agbaje's two sisters, living in their house at certain points. His foster father made a living as a lorry driver and struggled to support the family financially. When he was eight years old, his biological parents brought him back to Nigeria but, as he was unable to speak the Yoruba language and unable to assimilate, he was returned to Tilbury shortly thereafter. The brief exposure to Nigeria left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly British culture and environment he was raised in. As a young boy, he was subject to continual racial abuse in the white neighbourhood he grew up. After enduring repeated physical attacks by local skinheads, he earned their respect by standing up to them and eventually aligned forces with them. At 16 years old, his birth parents sent him to a boarding school in Surrey where he ultimately attempted suicide before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around.

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“It felt like a kidnap…and it rendered me mute for about nine months. I couldn't speak the language, and if I spoke English I was abused for it. It was quite a culture shock: brutal. I was so traumatised and afraid that I stopped speaking and my [birth] parents thought there was something wrong with me, thought I was possessed…”
— On being taken back to Nigeria after living abroad for years in England in “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: 'I didn't want to be black. So I joined the skinheads…'” in The Guardian (13 May 2012)
“I wanted to assimilate and go back to the abnormal normality I knew. I wanted to wash off the experience of Africa but obviously I couldn't because that's who I was. As much as I wanted to deny it, it was plaguing me, and I was reminded by the images coming through the TV, people on the streets and in the end my family in the house.”
— On returning back to England and his subsequent identity crisis in “Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje: 'I didn't want to be black. So I joined the skinheads…'” in The Guardian (13 May 2012)
“There was no way of getting love. If all you have experienced is humiliation and rejection, and your foster father forces you to fight back or get a beating from him, you look for any kind of lifeline. There were only two options: fight, or become a victim. I tried the victim option for a long time.”
— On the rationale that eventually led him to join the skinheads despite being British-Nigerian in “‘Farmed’ out to a white family, I became a skinhead: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje on his first film” in The Guardian (8 September 2019)

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.