Joel Kinnaman was spurred on by fear for Silent Night role

Joel Kinnaman had an "element of fear" for his role in 'Silent Night'.

The 44-year-old actor plays grieving father Brian Godlock – who seeks revenge on a gang who killed his son and removed his own ability to speak in a drive-by shooting on Christmas Eve – in John Woo's movie and knew the risks of taking on a part without dialogue.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Joel said: "I would say the (excitement-fear) ratio was something like 80:20. If you get it wrong, it'd be a failed attempt to do a movie with no dialogue, and that just sounds like a boring travesty.

"But it's very cool to get to a cinematic experiment, something that is artistically courageous. That's what you dream of doing, and it happened to be with a legendary filmmaker.

"So I'll say 80:20, but I have to have some amount of fear in everything I do or I'm in trouble. That element of fear helps motivate and push you."

Joel explained that he always had an "inclination" to do a non-verbal movie as it requires skill as a performer to communicate to the audience without relying on speech.

The 'Suicide Squad' actor said: "Well, I've always had this inclination. Coming up as a young actor, people were always clamouring to get more lines, because the people that speak the most are considered to be the most significant, but I was always trying to get rid of my lines.

"If I could convey the same thing without saying it, it's going to be more interesting. When an older actor told me that nugget, it just stuck with me, and then I started noticing it when watching films."

Joel added: "So, if you can get the same thing across without saying anything, it's a better way to tell the story. It's more subtle, and the audience gets to tell themselves the story in a way. You want to make the audience a co-creator, and having them perceive the inner dialogue is always more powerful."