Kodi Smit-McPhee Reveals How He Connects to Nightcrawler in 'Dark Phoenix'

Kodi Smit-McPhee lounges in a pool slide in this shot from his feature with Interview magazine.

The 22-year-old actor opened up with the glossy about how he personally connected with his Dark Phoenix character, Nightcrawler, through spirituality.

“I find that a lot of things I express naturally in Nightcrawler is because I’m a lot like him—aside from the fact that he’s a blue mutant with superpowers,” Kodi says. “I have a huge love for spirituality and philosophy and mythology. I have a huge passion for educating myself about myself in relation to the universe.”

He also shared a book he was reading that inspires him.

“There’s a book called ‘Be Here Now’ by Ram Dass. I call it the little blue book. It has beautiful little illustrations expressing the life of Ram Dass,” Kodi shared. “He was so successful in the Western world, materialistically and financially, but he kept questioning his life.”

“He studied science, psychedelics, and he questioned the use of psychedelics and their effect on humans–sometimes healing depression, sometimes answering the mysteries of life itself.”

Dark Phoenix is in theaters now.