{"id":364658,"date":"2025-11-08T13:57:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364658\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T13:57:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T13:57:18","slug":"who-is-dek-actor-dimitrius-schuster-koloamatangi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/364658\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Dek Actor Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tWhen Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi<\/a> first auditioned for \u201cPredator: Badlands<\/a>,\u201d he didn\u2019t know he was trying out to play the first of the titular aliens to be the hero, instead of a villain, in the 38-year-old franchise. In fact, he didn\u2019t know he was auditioning for a \u201cPredator\u201d film at all. He wasn\u2019t even provided with any written lines.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll it said was \u2018a creature,\u2019\u201d Schuster-Koloamatangi says. \u201cThe little character brief just said, \u2018It\u2019s all up to your interpretation.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 24-year-old actor has had to rely on his own imagination. As a kid in Auckland, New Zealand, he relished going to his local cinema and drank in movies as often as he could. But as the child of a Tongan father and Samoan mother, \u201cI grew up not really seeing too many Polynesians on screen,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t think it was possible, to be honest, to have a brown face on screen, especially from my end of the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead, as part of a family of athletes, Schuster-Koloamatangi saw rugby as a possible career path. \u201cGrowing up, it\u2019s either rugby or go to university and get a nine to five,\u201d he says. \u201cActing was never, never something I thought was even possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tEven so, he found himself drawn to performing. In middle school, he started his own YouTube channel\u00a0\u2014\u00a0until it was taken down for copyright infringement (which he didn\u2019t know at the time would be an issue). In high school, he acted in school plays and took a media studies course his final year, where he met two Tongan filmmakers and peppered them with questions. A few months later, they called him in to audition for a small role in a New Zealand miniseries about a Kiwi rugby player. He nailed it.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was only, like, three scenes, and my character died,\u201d he says. But from there he landed an agent, and then the lead role in the 2021 miniseries \u201cThe Panthers,\u201d about a group of Polynesian youths who form their own political movement inspired by the American Black Panther Party. It was then \u201cthe switch started.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve never been good at anything off the bat,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always just kind of been average or below average, so I\u2019ve had to really work at things to be good. It\u2019s cultivated just a ruthless work ethic.\u201d He took acting courses to hone his craft and dedicated himself to the profession.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have big ideas,\u201d he says, breaking into an infectious grin. \u201cWhen I decided fully that this is the career path that I want to chase, it came with a lot of big visions. \u2026 I see myself going to the Oscars. I see myself with all the top players. I see myself being on the biggest stage possible. And I\u2019ll get there somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, Elle Fanning<\/a> and Dan Trachtenberg<\/a> at the \u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d premiere in London.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLia Toby\/Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tWith his performance in \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d Schuster-Koloamatangi has taken his first big step into that spotlight. He plays Dek, a young member of the alien species known as Yautja who is cast out by his father for being the \u201crunt\u201d of the clan. To prove himself, Dek travels to Genna \u2014\u00a0known as one of the deadliest planets in the galaxy due to its profusion of lethal animal and plant life \u2014\u00a0so he can hunt and kill the Kalisk, understood to be an unkillable predator in its own right.<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause the role is so intensely physical, for Schuster-Koloamatangi\u2019s second audition, director Dan Trachtenberg (who also helmed the 2022 \u201cPredator\u201d prequel film \u201cPrey\u201d and the animated feature \u201cPredator: Killer of Killers,\u201d released in June) had the actor tackle an obstacle course with a team of stunt performers \u2014 some of whom were also gunning for the part.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe way Dimitrius moved was so cool, so ferocious \u2014 so much cooler than the stuntmen were doing it, frankly,\u201d Trachtenberg says. \u201cWhat I was not prepared for was him throwing down on set and really being incredibly powerful and intense. He just insanely elevated the movie far past what we could have expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSchuster-Koloamatangi\u2019s only co-star, Elle Fanning, plays Thia, an android who\u2019s been stranded on Genna without her legs. Dek carries her on his back for most of the film. It\u2019s a fitting metaphor for the task that faced\u00a0Schuster-Koloamatangi, who has the weight of the entire film on his fearsome shoulders, in a performance delivered entirely in the invented Yautja language, wearing a full Yautja body suit with his face replaced via performance capture CGI.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe spoke with Variety about his unconventional audition process, the how he bonded \u2014 literally and figuratively \u2014 with Fanning, the experience of shooting in his home country and how he mastered the Yautja language.<\/p>\n

\t\tSince you didn\u2019t know the character, let alone the movie, at first, how did you audition for \u201cPredator: Badlands\u201d?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI had to do one in English, one in an alien language that\u2019s up to you to make up. I had a lot of fun just remixing Samoan and Tongan and gibberish. From there, I got a call back, and it was an obstacle course. I was like, what is this job?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tHow did you approach the obstacle course?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause I am competitive, I had to keep reminding myself, \u201cIt\u2019s not a race.\u201d I had to keep slowing down to focus on performance, just show as much creature as I could. They had been drip feeding us information throughout. I was finding out, like, the director is Dan Trachtenberg, the studio is [20th Century]. I was doing a little research in the background, like, \u201cWait, this could be Predator, but I\u2019m not sure.\u201d So I just took a swing and was aiming my performance towards a Predator-like creature. I think it worked.<\/p>\n

\t\tHad you done obstacle course, Ninja Warrior-type stuff before?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, that was my first time. I was like, \u201cWhat am I even doing here?\u201d They had stunt men hanging around doing flips and whatnot. The people that I was auditioning with, a few of them were stunt people that had been in the game for a long time. It would have been easy to kind of overthink it. But I don\u2019t know. I grew up playing sports and just having the mindset, \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be here.\u201d Not getting too caught up in imposter syndrome, you know? Just give it your best. If it doesn\u2019t work out, it\u2019s not mean to be. But it was really exciting. I felt like I was in \u201cWipeout.\u201d I was just missing the big red balls. It was cool, man.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t20th Century Studios<\/p>\n

\t\tOnce you got the part, when did you understand that you were going to be carrying Elle Fanning on your back?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tSo that\u2019s funny, too. The first read through of the script, I saw that Dek carries Thia on his backpack, and I was like, \u201cThis is a great idea, but this will be like, CGI, right? This isn\u2019t actually going to be a thing because she has legs in real life.\u201d But with Dan, he can make anything a reality.\u00a0We were rehearsing with the stunt team for a month all the different rigs that they had come up with to carry Elle on my back. It worked really well. Elle\u2019s legs were in a sling. They both had us in harnesses. When we were strapped up, we couldn\u2019t get ourselves out. Someone had to unscrew us to release us. It was a massive learning process. They were making up rigs on the spot to accommodate the both of us. I think it adds texture to the film, and it makes it feel real and authentic. You can see it on Dek\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\t\tI understand that you met Elle when you started work in rehearsal. How did you break the ice there?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt happened so naturally that I couldn\u2019t even tell you when exactly we just started clicking. I had my reservations a little bit before meeting her. She\u2019s a massive name, and with that comes a little bit of uncertainty on how she might be. But Dan said that Elle was really down to earth and lovely to work with, and from the first second of properly talking to her, I could tell she was going to be a breeze. Once we were strapped up, I was always checking in and making sure she was good, and I think she really appreciated that. So the trust formed quite fast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe had literal hours strapped together. A lot of the time they would just leave us strapped because it was too much time and effort to release us while they moved around cameras. There would be days where we just stayed linked up and would just talk about random things.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tI imagine bathroom breaks must have been very tricky.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tOh man, those were the worst. In the suit, you can\u2019t really get in and out too easy. So I\u2019m kind of cramped up in the bathroom stall. My body\u2019s in a C shape, trying to track the aim. It was a whole process. If someone had a camera in there, they would make a lot of money from the positions I tried to be in to go to the bathroom.<\/p>\n

\t\tYou also performed in the Yautja language, invented by linguist Britton Watkins solely for this film and \u201cPredators: Killer of Killers.\u201d\u00a0\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought I wouldn\u2019t have to learn any lines because in the audition process \u2014\u00a0they were like, \u201cMake up a language.\u201d So I was like, \u201cMan, I can just freestyle the whole time. This is great!\u201d Later on, they told me I had to learn a whole language. So that was fun.<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat was your process to learn that language?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI was on Zoom calls with the linguist, probably three to four times a week the month before [filming]. When I wasn\u2019t doing stunt work and training, I was at home,\u00a0drilling the language over and over. That\u2019s the only way to learn any language. You just have to fully immerse yourself in it. And because it was constructed like a real language, there was a lot of material that Britton had come up with to learn. I\u2019d just have it in the car when I\u2019m driving everywhere, on my speaker at home, when I\u2019m chilling, practicing. The clicking with the throat was probably the hardest just get my head around, because you have to breathe out while breathing in at the same time. It was just getting my mouth and my throat used to those movements, and a lot of honey ginger teas.<\/p>\n

\t\tWere you always speaking the language on set, or were you sometimes doing it in English?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tThe majority of the time was in the language. There would be a few days where we\u2019d get new lines, like, 10 minutes before we shot, and we couldn\u2019t get the translation fast enough from Britton, so those would have to be shot in English and then later [recorded] again in Yautja.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tYou grew up in New Zealand, so how did it feel to shoot in your home country?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI was very proud to show off my backyard. You\u2019d hear all the Americans raving about the landscape, and I\u2019m standing there like, \u201cYeah, this is standard\u201d \u2014 but in actuality, I hadn\u2019t been to some of these locations before and I was just as in awe. H\u016bnua Falls, Bethells Beach, the Redwoods in Rotorua \u2014 these were all places that I had never been before, even though it was my home. A lot of locals don\u2019t really take the time to see their own country. They always feel like they have to sightsee somewhere else. I was very blessed and fortunate because of the access the film gave us. If it wasn\u2019t for the shooting, I wouldn\u2019t even be allowed in some of these places that are blocked off to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t20TH CENTURY STUDIOS<\/p>\n

\t\tWhat was it like to see your performance transformed into Dek\u2019s face as a Yautja for the first time?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI only just watched the full cut when we were in London for the premiere. I hadn\u2019t seen any cuts with CGI when I started doing ADR. It was just still my face. So I didn\u2019t really know if this was going to work. I worked really hard on the Predator\u2019s animalistic and primal behaviors, that presence that he has in all the previous films. But at the same time, I was also trying to inject my own unique flavor to Dek \u2014 they shouldn\u2019t all look and be the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tBut once I saw all of the finished product, it was so cool to see. And it was really cool to be able to separate myself from it as well. A lot of the times when I\u2019m watching things that I\u2019m in, I can\u2019t help but just nitpick at things. But since it looks like an alien, I can just watch the story and fully invest, like an audience member.<\/p>\n

\t\tNow that you\u2019ve got your first Hollywood movie behind you, what about the past year has most surprised you?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tIt sounds really bad, but I think because I\u2019ve seen it so clearly in my mind before that it didn\u2019t really come as too much as a surprise. The best thing that has come out of this year was I was able to bring my family to the premiere in L.A., and they got to see me work. None of them are in the industry, so none of them really know anything about what I do. I\u2019ll go home and tell them, like, \u201cWork was good,\u201d but they didn\u2019t really know even what to ask.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tDo you know what you\u2019re next going to do?\t<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m working on a local New Zealand film at the moment. I land on Saturday back home. I go into rehearsals on Sunday and then we start shooting on Monday. I get to get back to my roots a little bit. It follows a young Tongan immigrant who is trying to make a living for himself back in the \u201990s. It goes from a comedy-drama to a thriller. I\u2019m really excited for it. I get to play human for this one, which is great.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis interview has been edited and condensed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi first auditioned for \u201cPredator: Badlands,\u201d he didn\u2019t know he was trying out to play the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":364659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[61443,176618,1051,171,53,61444,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-364658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-dan-trachtenberg","9":"tag-dimitrius-schuster-koloamatangi","10":"tag-elle-fanning","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-movies","13":"tag-predator-badlands","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115514431874507539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}