Jai Courtney stars as Kyle Reese in the upcoming Terminator reboot Terminator Genisys and was recently cast in the DC Comics-based film Suicide Squad, but the emerging action star managed to set aside eight days in his busy schedule to reprise his role as the villainous Eric in Insurgent. While the 29-year-old Australian actor struggles to view the dystopian films he’s been getting cast in as more than mere forms of entertainment, he admitted to the Seattle Times that his latest films may help kids “see themselves in someone who is different from the others and is struggling in a world to find acceptance.”

Since graduating from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Courtney has had no shortage of acting jobs, and landed a major role in 2014’s Divergent. Courtney was busy filming Terminator Genisys when he jumped on a plane to Atlanta and filmed the entirety of his role in the Divergent sequel Insurgent in a mere eight days. While many actors may have struggled with that rapid transition, Courtney says he didn’t have any trouble slipping back into his character’s violent mindset.

“You have the script there so you can sink right into that, and it does, it’s like muscle memory,” said Courtney, who added that his brief time on set meant “there wasn’t time for any mischief” with his Insurgent castmates.

In the Divergent book trilogy, Courtney’s character Eric is a antagonist to the central male hero Four, and Courtney was forced to find compassion for his primarily one-dimensional character during filming in attempt to bring him to life for the films.

“Maybe he gets off on the misfortune of others, but it’s more that he’s a loyal soldier,” said Courtney. “He has ambition so it’s like he’s doing these things for elevation within the system itself.”

While Courtney initially had the impression that the Divergent and The Hunger Games films are “just entertainment,” watching Insurgent with a friend who brought along his children helped him discover that the recent influx dystopian film series give off the message “that kids will see themselves in someone who is different from the others and is struggling in a world to find acceptance.”

Insurgent releases in theaters on Mar. 20, 2015.