British martial arts hero Scott Adkins has built a name for himself in the martial arts and action movie industry - he’s battled everyone from Jackie Chan to Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme to Jason Statham and many more. He’s established himself as an acrobatic action hero who can handle the acting just as well as the action... and with the character of Boyka in the Undisputed series; he’s established one hell of an anti-hero. Now Adkins and director Isaac Florentine re-team for one of the most highly anticipated martial arts movies of 2013, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear. The film has just been released on I-Tunes and hits DVD and Blu-ray on December 31st. Adkins talks to Impact’s Far Eastern Editor Mike Leeder in the following exclusive interview...
Scott, how did you feel returning to the character and what’s different this time round? What were your thoughts on the original Ninja (I know Isaac has mixed feelings about the film and the way it was presented)
Scott Adkins: Isaac and I both felt we didn't do our best work on Ninja 1. From my perspective I always try to play the character that’s written on the page and in hindsight Casey was a weak lead - he was a young guy out of his depth, not very world-wise and just a reactive character, not pro-active. The villain was actually a much more interesting character than Casey... so for Ninja 2, from the very outset we destroy his world and take him to dark places, we give the character more of an edge and it's him that propels the story forwards as he sets out on a destructive trail of vengeance.
Another mistake we made with the first film was the style of the fights, it lacked what I would call "the flash" of fights like the ones we had in the Undisputed films. We tried to go more Japanese and somewhere along the way we lost some of the flash. Only in the 'Temple' fight in the first film did I really let loose.. so we have certainly corrected that for this film - the action is considerably more intense and crowd pleasing. It's tough to make a modern day ninja film and not make it cheesy and our first film was definitely too cheesy so we have tried to ground Ninja 2 a bit more. I know people will complain that maybe Casey isn't in his Ninja suit enough but we do that deliberately to avoid too much cheese.
Were you a big Ninja fan growing up in the 80’s watching Sho Kosugi and co on VHS? Why do you think that the Ninja have such a strong mystique and appeal?
SA: I was a huge fan of ninja films and ninjas in general, my Dad bought me a ninja suit when I was 12 years old and I only took it off for school. For whatever reason I wasn't into the Sho Kosugi films that much but I loved the TV show The Master and the American Ninja films always took a thrashing in my VHS player. It's amazing to think that I was watching those films back then and now I AM the American Ninja, so it was definitely a good job I watched them. I remember Sho Kosugi more from Blind Fury and Black Eagle.
Now you’d been out of action for a bit due to injury, would you mind telling us what exactly happened and how long you were out of action for? (I know you touched upon the injury in the Making of Universal Soldier 4) Was it hard for you to step back from both your career and also from just generally staying physical, practicing your martial arts and your gymnastics...
SA: Yes I tore my ACL in my left knee six weeks before shooting Universal Soldier so I basically made that film, El Gringo and Expendables 2 with just one leg. I actually damaged it much more in '...Soldier' and smashed a large piece of Meniscus out from my knee joint, not fun but this is what we do for our chosen art right? By the time I was filming Expendables I was in a hell of a lot of pain so December 2011 I went in to surgery and they used part of my hamstring to create my new ACL. But in order to make sure I rehabilitated it properly I needed to take at least six months off from making action films, hence Zero Dark Thirty and Legendary. Green Street 3 was a good warm up for me a year later which we shot November/December 2012 and then I went straight into Ninja 2 in January (2013). But luckily for me I badly injured my back shooting Ninja 2 which took my mind off the knee! I'm feeling good now though, got all my old kicks and flips back so I'm happy for that.
When did you first hear about Ninja 2 and how much time did you have to prepare for the film, what kind of training regime did you go through? For a role like this or Boyka for instance, do you have a set routine for each film or does it vary depending on what the character is, requirements of the role?
SA: It was going to go in Autumn 2012 but then it got cancelled and somehow came back for January 2013 which I'm glad about... as it gave me more time to get the knee ready but to be honest I WASN'T as ready as I should've been because I was filming all November/December and you can't really train properly when your shooting... the hours are just too long but I had a good two weeks prep with Tim Mann and Brahim in Thailand to figure out what the fights were going to be so we were well prepared from that end.
Now the film was shot in Thailand, where you previously worked on Black Mask 2 & the Medallion, how did it feel to be returning to Thailand and as the leading man this time round? How did you find the Thai crew to work with? Are you a fan of Thai action cinema yourself
SA: As you know, Mike, I started my career in China and Thailand and it’s good to come back to both places after ten years, it brings back lots of memories. I love Thailand and the people are very humble and hardworking, a pleasure to shoot there. I'm obviously a big fan of Tony Jaa and actually Isaac and I got to go to dinner with Prachya Pinkaew and Panna Ritikrai one night which was fantastic to hear their stories. I'm looking forward to meeting Tony soon as we have discussed making a film together which I would absolutely love to do. The great thing about shooting in the far east is the heat... no need to warm up, it keeps you nice and flexible. On Green Street I was fighting in -10 degrees, so that was a nice change.
The film sees you working with Isaac Florentine once again. The two of you make one hell of a team and I would love to see the two of you being given bigger budgets, better schedules and a broader canvas to work with for your future projects. Describe the relationship between you and Isaac, and your thoughts on him as a director...
SA: Well, for me, I have a director who first and foremost is a dear friend and a wonderful person - you'll be hard pressed to find a more good-natured and decent family man in Hollywood. He is the guy that discovered me and gave me my first break in a leading role (Special Forces) and he fought for me to play Boyka when everyone else thought it was a huge mistake... kind of hard to believe that now I know, but it's true. This is enough of a reason to keep working with the guy but on top of that he is the best martial arts film director in the Western world, bar none.
I make action films that have a huge emphasis on martial arts, so it just makes so much sense for us to work together. So many times on other movies I'm left scratching my head and getting frustrated because I can see that they just don't 'get' how to shoot the action. If I'm working with Isaac I don't have to worry about that, we can spend more time working on my performance. Also we now know each other so well that we can just be completely honest with each other - if I think he's making a mistake I will tell him and he doesn't have to beat around the bush trying not to offend me. When it comes to the acting, if the take sucked... it sucked and he can just tell me that and there's no bullshit. And from his point of view he has a lead actor that is serious about his craft, performance and story but also he knows I will give 150% physically to the role. He can push me hard to get those long takes and he can strive for perfect shots because he knows I'm there to help him get that and I will do it at the expense of my own health to try and achieve something that we can be proud of. He also knows that we are on a tight schedule and that I will come in prepared and ready to go. So it's a great working relationship which I know will continue for many more years.
The film sees you fighting, flipping, kicking and buckling your swash to full effect, there’s like 14 fight scenes or so. The film saw you working with choreographers Tim Mann and Brahim Achabakkhe and their team for the first time…how do you keep going through a film like this, where you’ve got so much action to perform and no real rest time? And how did you find working with Tim & Brahim and their style of action?
SA: Its brutal, man! I often turn up for work the morning of a two-day fight scene with an overwhelming sense of dread because I know what pain and discomfort awaits me. It's one thing to get warmed-up and do some great moves on a sprung floor then go home and rest... it's another thing to be able to do it day in day out for SIX weeks when you are riddled with aches and pains and the occasional injury. But we had a great team on this with Tim and Brahim, they had blocked out and shot all the fights in the gym by the time I'd got there and they were so prepared. One of the best choreographers I've worked with.
I did hurt my back really bad when we shot the bar fight, something tore so we had to compromise on the Burma alleyway fight so that I could recuperate for the end final fight which we shot the following week. It's really frustrating when you get injured but looking back on the film now it's amazing how much I was still able to do. This is the difference between a big film or maybe a Thai or Hong Kong film where they can maybe reshuffle the schedule or sometimes even shut down for a few weeks, we just have to get on with it. I'm very very happy with the fights in Ninja though, people are in for a treat!
What would you say were the hardest action scenes for you and why?
SA: That bar fight was hard. Then alleyway fight was the next day and that was the hardest day as my back was really painful at that point. I'd have to say that Ninja 1 and Ninja 2 are the toughest shoots I've ever had, it's not easy being a Ninja.
