I cannot say that I have a particular favorite of any of the films I have been a part of. For me it is all about the experience I had while working on the films. The collective experience of the film as a whole and the individual experiences within the whole, i.e. the people I met, the places I went to, what I learned on the show. I cannot control the outcome of a film as there are so many other people involved in that, but I can control how I react to and what I learn from the individual and collective experience. Of course, some films turn out better than others, but I learn from all of them and often I learn more from the more unpleasant experiences. Either way, every experience points me in the direction of .. and helps me to create who I am and who I choose to be.

 

Working with PM Ent was always a pleasure for me. They were a very tight knit group of people, and they always made me feel like part of the family. They knew their market and what sold movies at that time, which was the action so that is where they spent their time and money. I was very new to the business at that time and probably at my physical peak (although just developing as an actor), so I loved doing the action. We would often have 3 units running at the same time and I would jump from one to another, either fighting someone, shooting someone or doing a crazy stunt.  They always brought in the best stuntmen, and I got to work on 3 or 4 films with Spiro Razatos, one of the best action designers and action directors in the business along with his team.

 

I was honored to be a part of ‘The Expendables’ and a part of such a great cast and to be directed by Sylvester Stallone, a true action icon. I will always be thankful to Chad Stahelski for getting me involved. It was a different kind of experience for me playing a stunt / actor role as I was used to playing leads but again, I will say it was a great learning experience for me to see how life is on an 80–90-million-dollar budget film compared to how it is on a smaller independent film.  All the cast were nice guys, there were no massive egos, and everyone seemed to get along. I think that is a testament to how everyone respected Stallone.

 

My end fight with Jet and Jason went through quite a metamorphism. Originally it was created at 8711 stunts back in LA before filming began and then the choreography was changed when we got to Brazil which was changed again when Corey Yeun (Jet Li’s fight choreographer) arrived from Hong Kong. But Stallone didn’t approve of that version, so it was changed once more for the version that was finally put on film. This is not as surprising as it might seem as all film shoots are fluid, alive and grow as the process evolves. It was an easy and pleasurable fight for me to shoot as both guys were very professional and talented.

I got involved with ‘Bring Him Back Dead’ as I had worked with the producer Jeff Miller previously. When he sent me the script, I liked it a lot and thought that it had a lot of potential.

 Yes, Alex is an ‘Anti-Hero’. I think we all know that human nature is not so black and white. Sometimes we feel that good people do bad things and bad people do good things. For me I do not believe that there is intrinsic good or bad, right or wrong in the universe. Right and wrong are just philosophical / subjective judgements based on individual value systems. When someone says that something is right, basically what they are saying is that they agree with it and when they say something is wrong or bad, they are saying that they disagree with it. We live in a universe, a world that is a contextual field of opposing forces / energies and we all have free will to decide who we choose to be, and this is how we evolve as human beings.  So, Alex finds himself in a situation where he has to do what he feels is right given his current circumstances. You can decide if he is right or wrong based on your perspective. We all see life through the filter of our own experience.

Well, I still train regularly, 5-6 days a week, I believe that consistency is the key. And when you work in the action film industry the gym is your day-to-day office. As long as you train your body regularly, eat and drink the right way and focus on meditation / regulating your mind and breathing, then there is no reason you cannot stay active into your later years. I feel it is important to forget the illusion of time and the constraints of age that we set upon ourselves. Let the assessment of your abilities and the setting of your goals have nothing to do with time. We must free ourselves from those artificial constraints.

 Well, most of the work of doing the choreography was done by David and his team in pre-production. They put together a great previz which was sent to me. I didn’t know David before this show, but I thought he did a great job with the choreography as well as including important dramatic elements to the fights.  Before shooting we only had a couple of days of rehearsals with the actors where a few things were changed based on their individual abilities. The producer let it be known to me that he wanted more kicks so David and I discussed where we could put some in. David was great to work with. Some problems popped up on set on the days of the shoot when the director didn’t share our vision and the time, we had to shoot was minimal, so we didn’t get all the shots we wanted, and all the choreography didn’t make it into the film.

Working with Louis and Daniel was a pleasure as they are both very talented and very professional. As were Katie Keene, LeJon Woods and Ryan Shaw.

I feel that if CGI is done right, it can really enhance a film. If you look at the top 5 grossing films over the past decades like ‘Titanic’, ‘Avatar’, the Marvel films they are all heavily dependent on CGI. But I feel that it is heavily overused in a lot of action films nowadays. I feel it is important for an audience to be able to associate with their heroes but too much CGI and wire work has made the action stars so ‘untouchable’ so impervious to obvious danger that they no longer retain a sense of vulnerability. The sense of danger has been taken away when they can survive anything, a plane crash, a million bullets fired at them or a building falling on them. I think there is a sense of honesty that an audience can appreciate when they see an actor getting himself out of a dangerous situation. But this is just my opinion.

Again, we go back to this question of what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’. It is subjective judgement. I am a fan of Hong Kong action from the 80’s and 90’s where action was shot very clearly so that has influenced me, but sometimes tighter shots and shaky cam can be used to cover up a performers inability to execute proper technique or to add a sense of realism. It all depends on a director or an action directors’ specific style and what he wants to convey.

Well, I have to say that I really enjoyed working with Jackie Chan. It was another job that came early in my career, so it was a massive learning experience. When it comes to doing fight scenes, I would say that I often prefer to work with experienced stuntmen over actors that just learned some moves for the film. Stunt guys are training in film fighting all the time so they have the best reactions, a greater sense of timing, they can use hands, feet, weapons equally and have no egos. So, you can get a better end product. There are a few action actors I would like to work with, Donnie Yen being one of them but for me it is more important that I get to work with top quality action directors and directors, guys that want to work with me and can help to bring out the best in me.

First of all, thank you for following my social media posts. I have been in this business for around 35 years now so of course there have been many changes in my life in that time. The only thing in life that does not change is the fact that everything in life is always changing. The purpose of life is to evolve, how we evolve is a choice, that we evolve is not. As human beings we are creating and re-creating our lives on a moment-to-moment basis with every thought, choice and decision that we make.   As actors we are professional experiencers, we try to remember every experience and how it made us feel so that we can use it for our characters. So, I definitely feel that I am a much better actor now than I was 35 years ago thanks to many life experiences, the good ones and even more so, the not so good ones. 

 Well, I have to say the things that I am the most of are my 4 sons and how they have all grown to be good boys, all independent thinkers. I am happy that for the most part I have managed to live a life of choice through conscious action rather than a life of chance through unconscious reaction. At the age of 8 I saw Bruce Lee for the first time, and I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and I have to say that I pretty much followed and stayed true to that path. Of course, there have been surprises and curve balls along the way, but it is important to realize that, whether consciously or not, everything that happens in our lives we have created with our thoughts, words, choices and our actions. Everything is perfect in our own creation, none of us are victims. As for the proudest moments in film I would have to refer to my answer to question #1. I still feel that there is something that I need to accomplish, a message that I would like to express so hopefully the best is yet to come.

For me there is no past or future, there is only the moment of now. Every single moment of life carries the power of creation and every single one of us has the power of creation. We are not just physical beings; we are beings being physical. We are not just our bodies, our bodies belong to us, but we are so much more, what we are is limitless and without end.  My journey is more of a spiritual journey nowadays, a journey within, if you do not go within .. you will go without. I spend a lot of time in meditation and contemplation, and I hope that I can find a way to marry that with my career.  I am working with a company in England on a project called ‘Rivals’ and if that comes to fruition then I may get that chance, fingers crossed.

Thank you for your questions, your interest in my career and your continued support!

BRING HIM BACK DEAD is Out Now on DVD & Digital from Uncork’d Entertainment!