CraveOnline: Do you want Casey to be happy eventually?
Scott Adkins: No, keep him angry and hurting people.
Was doing the angry fight in the bar dramatically challenging as well as physically?
Not so much. How much do you play being drunk and how much do you concentrate on the fighting, which is really hard to do. I’ve got even more respect for Jackie Chan now with his Drunken Master fighting.
I didn’t even mean playing drunk, but the idea that Casey is losing control in that scene and it’s showing the state of his character during the fight.
You try and show it in the moments in between the fighting. When you’re actually doing the choreography, to be honest it’s so meticulous and difficult, I find it best to be very concentrated on the actual fighting part of it. Then you can find bits for the drama in between when it slows down a little bit.
That’s good to hear actually, you focus on one thing at a time.
Obviously, you’re always acting when you’re doing it but it’s so difficult just to get the choreography right, you need to be very concentrated on that.
What did you play in Hercules 3D?
I’m King Amphitryon who is the stepfather of Hercules.
Did Renny Harlin want to use your moves?
I don’t think they want me to talk about Hercules.
Okay, so you can’t even say if you fight?
There’s action. Yeah, I do action. There’s plenty of action.
How about Green Street 3?
Green Street 3, I really love this film. It’s the first British film I’ve ever done. Being British it’s about time. I’ve been in the business 13 years. It’s a hooligan movie. It sets up a situation where the government have banned fighting in the terraces which has actually happened. In the ‘80s it was happening all the time in England. Now not so much because the government has cracked down on it. So it’s kind of gone underground.
Let’s say Aston Villa are going to face West Ham this weekend. The firms from each respective team will meet up at a secret location to go at it five against five, and if you win you get a point and if you lose you get nothing. They’ve got a league table and everything. But what happens is my character was like an uber hooligan from the ‘80s, got into a lot of trouble with the police, has moved up to Scotland. He’s living up there, he’s a fight trainer and he’s got his own gym. His little brother who he left in London has got into the scene and he turns up dead. So the character that I play, Danny, comes back to London to find out what happened to his brother and inevitably gets pulled back into this whole new aspect of underground hooligan fighting.
Are those more like brawls than choreographed fighting?
It’s all choreographed but we’ve made it more brawly. In the trailer they show a lot of martial arts but that’s just because they’ve put a lot of those moments in there. It’s more hooligan brawling than martial arts but my character is a martial artist. I know people that are martial artists that are cage fighters that also fight over the weekend in the football [firms] so it’s not as far fetched as you might think.
You know, the deal for that was done at Fantastic Fest last year. James Nunn directed it, who was here last year with Tower Block. I had a meeting with him before I came out. When we came out, over a few beers, we made the deal to do Green Street together and I’m really glad I did. He’s a great young director that’s going to do well.
Isaac said Undisputed IV is being written. Are they using the ideas you had for Boyka?
I hope they’re going to use my ideas. Sometimes we’re not in control of the script, but I hope they listen to my ideas because I feel like I know Boyka inside out.
In the Q&A you mentioned Donnie Yen as someone you’d like to fight in a movie. Are you excited by any of the Indonesian guys that are coming out now with The Raid movies?
Yeah, absolutely but I say Donnie Yen because he’s a peer to me. He’s older than me, I look up to him. Tony Jaa is my age and Iko [Uwais]’s younger than me, so it’s like [Yen]’s always been there and somebody I’ve always wanted to work with. That would mean getting beaten up by him which is fine, but with the others I’d have to beat them up. I’m only joking.
I will make sure that translates in print. What are your favorite movie fights?
Best fight ever in a movie, They Live. I want to do a martial arts version of that, where you think it’s ended and it just keeps on going. I love that fight. It was funny as well. Unexpected. “You sneaky motherfucker!”
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
