‘Boy Kills World’: Bill Skarsgård is thirsty for blood and revenge

LOS ANGELES — In a world living under a totalitarian regime run by the evil and deranged Van Der Koy family, Bill Skarsgård plays “Boy” — a deaf, voiceless orphan.

Rescued by a mysterious shaman, Boy is trained to become the ultimate killing machine — one seeking revenge in the wake of his family’s murder.

“Boy Kills World” director Moritz Mohr told Spectrum News he set out to create a movie like the ones he grew up watching — one that viewers would enjoy watching just as much as he would.

Throughout the film, you will not hear a word (save for maybe a scream or two) from Skarsgård. Instead, his performance is all expressions and body language — a portrayal amplified by an impressive body transformation. He lost 20 pounds, building a lean and sinewy physique for the role.

“Bill is a terrific actor, so it was not that hard for him to perform like that,” said Mohr.

But the vocal performance that you do hear from Boy — or, at least, Boy’s inner voice — comes from an unexpected source: H. Jon Benjamin, the lead voice actor for Fox animated Series “Bob’s Burgers.”

“That was sort of the base idea for all of this. It was, we have a young boy with an old voice. That was just to make it special. To make this different,” Mohr said. “I thought it would be a great source of comedy and interesting scenes and interesting interactions.”

While “Boy Kills World” is very gory and violent — and not to excuse violence — Famke Janssen tells Spectrum News, the film is like a video game: “It’s hyper-reality. It’s so unrealistic,” she said.

How worried are Janssen and Brett Gelman about eventually living in a world much the like one portrayed in the film?

“Aren’t we already? We are also co-creating our reality,” says Janssen.

“There are certain parts of the world that are in that place, unfortunately,” said Gelman. “It is a worry that things get worse. We must keep hope alive.”

“Boy Kills World” hits theaters this weekend. It stars Bill Skarsgård, Jessica Rothe, Isaiah Mustafa, Andrew Koji, Yayan Ruhian, Famke Janssen, Michelle Dockery and Brett Gelman.

Click the arrow above to watch the full interview with the director and cast, who also share what their favorite martial arts films.