Alexander Skarsgård is starring in the new film "The Kill Team," which offers a fictionalized look at a real-life whistleblower story about a stunning turn of events involving American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Skarsgård recently stopped by the ABC News studios to talk about his role in the film as a platoon leader.
"It was a fascinating role," Skarsgård told ABC News. "It was very disturbing. It's very dark. It's not the archetypal villain. There was a great complexity to the character that I was excited to work on and explore."
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The film, directed by Dan Krauss, who wrote and directed a 2013 documentary of the same name, follows what happened when whistleblowers attempted to expose the murders of Afghan civilians by U.S. soldiers. It's Skarsgård's character, Sgt. Deeks, who leads his team down the wrong path.
"He obviously doesn't think that he's doing something horrific," Skarsgård said on "Popcorn with Peter Travers." "He really believes in it."
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Skarsgård, 43, said the film shows just how easy it is to surrender your morality to authority.
"In the beginning, they feel like they're a part of a unit and the unit has it's own morality and it's own moral compass. And the leader of that unit is Deeks (Skarsgård). So all they have to do is just follow blindly."
He added, "This also feels quite timely because it's about a whistleblower which is quite topical right now."
Watch the full interview with Peter Travers and Alexander Skarsgård in the video above.
