Karl Urban Is Ready to Unlock the Next Level

"“Fuck, I loved playing [him],” Urban says of Judge Dredd, the brutal law enforcer from the 2012 cult film whose fans yearn for a sequel. “I didn't read comics growing up. But Judge Dredd I did read. The challenge was how you communicate without your most effective tool.” Urban obscures his eyes behind his hand. “How you express fear, doubt, anxiety, without that. It was fucking great. I want to see more Dredd regardless whether I'm in it or not. I probably won't be, and I'm good with that.”"

"It's hard not to acknowledge Urban's rarefied air in Hollywood as the man who brings machismo to the multiverse. I've watched Urban since babysitters left Xena: Warrior Princess playing in the living room, and when he, as Eomor, intimidated Grima in Lord of the Rings. In eighth grade, my future brother-in-law helped me skip school to see Doom in theaters. ("You must have been the only two in the theater," Urban quips from behind a mug of black coffee.)"

"For a man jet-lagged and whose body clock is still on New Zealand time (it's approximately 5 a.m. in the actor's brain), Urban, a spring chicken at 53 years old, is up, alert, and feeling great. He compliments my raincoat, a decades-old impulse buy from a New Jersey Macy's. Karl Urban walks into the room like a goddamn movie star. Meticulously coiffed hair, a brown-green henley that highlights his shoulders, piercing eye contact when his reflective Ray-Bans come off-this is who greets me with a hand extended outward in a midtown hotel lobby one drizzling April afternoon."

Karl Urban arrives with a polished, confident presence and engages warmly, complimenting a visitor’s raincoat. He reflects on a long personal history of watching his work, from early roles to later franchises. He discusses Judge Dredd from the 2012 film, noting he did not read comics growing up but did read Dredd. He explains that the challenge was communicating emotions without using the most effective tool, specifically expressing fear, doubt, and anxiety without that reliance. He says the experience was exciting and that he wants more Dredd even if he is not involved.

Read at Esquire