Scott Adkins is a pretty bad motherfucker.
It’s not just his intense scowl, which suits him best in his many villainous roles (EXPENDABLES 2, THE LEGEND OF HERCULES). It’s not just the fact that he can rifle through accents efficiently, from his Russian Yuri Boyka in the UNDISPUTED sequels (all directed by frequent collaborator and CLOSE RANGE helmer Isaac Florentine) to his American dialect in the NINJAs, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING, and now CLOSE RANGE, and his native British accent, on display in GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS 3. It’s not just the fact that he’s got the face and build of someone who should be headlining movies, even though he’s one of the best looking martial arts stars out there right now. And it’s not even just for the fact that he’s capable of jaw-dropping, balletic movements, having trained in various martial arts for the past quarter-century.
It’s also that he’s proven to be one hell of an actor. His Boyka character entered the UNDISPUTED series as an Ivan Drago-type villain, and quickly evolved to the leading man of the franchise (the fourth film, coming soon, is called simply BOYKA: UNDISPUTED). His quiet intensity gave the NINJA films their own, more serious and sincere identity apart from Cannon white-ninja flicks like ENTER THE NINJA or AMERICAN NINJA. He was MEMENTO-level confused and lost while still retaining full badassery as the lead of the best UNIVERSAL SOLDIER film, the hyper-ambitious DAY OF RECKONING. And here, in CLOSE RANGE, he plays a tough sonofabitch, a former merc who finds himself on the right side of the law, for once, when facing off against a cartel gunning for his family. As Adkins’ performance makes abundantly clear, this guy is no cupcake (when asked if the bad guys are friends of his he succinctly grunts in response, “I ain’t got no fuckin’ friends.”), just a guy fighting to protect his sister and niece from attackers the best way he knows how; specifically by punching, kicking, shooting, and driving his way through all of them. He’s one of the most fun guys to watch performing martial arts onscreen these days, and CLOSE RANGE serves as a great showcase for what makes him such an awesome leading man.
Adkins and I only had a brief time to talk over the phone, and the conversation was plagued by connection difficulties, but we were able to get into why he and Florentine are such effective collaborators, the joys of playing more rough-around-the-edges types, and some of the films he has coming up, including BOYKA, THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY, and DOCTOR STRANGE:
VINYARD: I think this is your seventh film with Isaac Florentine. Why do you think you guys work so well together? What about your relationship makes you want to keep collaborating with him?
ADKINS: First of all, for my part, Isaac really knows how to shoot action. He shoots action better than any American director I’ve ever worked with. For me, being an action guy, I really look forward to the opportunity to work with Isaac, because I know he’s going to make my stuff look good. That’s why we so often work together. For his part, he’s got a lead actor who will put 110% in each project, and physically do things that are really hard to do and sort of tiring. You get a lot of injuries. You need to be fully committed to make a martial arts or action film. I’m one of the few actors that can do his own stunts and fights, and I think that’s why he likes to work with me.
VINYARD: There’s also a lot of shooting and driving stunts in CLOSE RANGE.
ADKINS: I didn’t do much of the driving. I did a little bit. I’m a pretty good driver, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna trust me (laughs). It depends. I don’t have much knowledge of real firearms. I’ve fired a few weapons and tried to get the feeling of how to use a real gun, ‘cause I think once you’ve held a real weapon, that translates to when you’re holding a gun and firing it. You hold it a different way, and you respect the fact that (the character’s) got live ammunition. I’ve done a little bit, but I’m by no means an expert. But obviously, I’ve made a lot of action films, and I’ve fired a lot of shots. I can find my way around a gun on a film set. And it’s not that different than fight scenes, really.
VINYARD: Was there anything about the script that attracted you?
ADKINS: When you’re working on a low-budget action film, you don’t have the luxury of time. I wish I did, but I don’t. We took to the concept that it all takes place pretty much in one location. That’s what attracted me, because we felt like we could shoot more quicker. We didn’t have to move to different locations every day and blah blah blah. We’re always gonna be in the same location, so we could get more done in that allotted amount of time required to do a straight-to-VOD movie.
I also really responded to the character because he’s sort of a ronin, a rogue bad guy on every other day, but on this particular day, he happens to be a good guy. Not because he’s a good guy, but because of the circumstances, the fact that his family’s at take, on this particular day, he’s a good guy. It’s a pretty ambiguous stance in that way, and I found myself attracted to that.
VINYARD: You flip-flop between heroes and villains a lot.
ADKINS: Honestly, it’s more fun to play the villain. Sometimes, when you play the hero, you’re bound by the stuff you have to do, and it can come across as cheesy, it can come across as a bit bland. I’m excited to play good guys that have a bit of an edge, ‘cause in real-life, that’s what people are like. There’s a lot of bad heroes, there’s a lot of guys who fight for their country who have a checkered past. It takes someone who’s a little bit rogueish and a little bit edgy to do great things sometimes, I believe. It’s more interesting to me to play either a villain or a hero who you’re not quite sure which side he’s on. A little bit dirty, and a little bit bad. That’s more acceptable to me than the clean-cut hero.
VINYARD: One of the things that does unify your roles is that they’re all great martial artists and they all look great as they’re doing martial arts. What’s the process behind performing moves that are both effective and look good on camera?
ADKINS: CLOSE RANGE wasn’t originally written with martial arts, but of course when it comes to me, then you have the complication that you need martial arts in there, because people are going to expect that, and I don’t want to be the one to disappoint them. I really want to stretch myself as an actor and try many different things, and I normally do do that for the role if it fits the project. But if it’s an action film, and I’m the number one, then I don’t want to disappoint my audience. I want to give them great fights. It’s what I’m there for.
Doing fight sequences on film is obviously very different than real life, and it really has more in common with dance than real-life fighting. All that choreography, all that distance and timing, and the smoke and mirrors of trying to make that move look like a hit when it actually didn’t through the use of camera angles. I think the filming and directing of a fight scene is about as cinematic as you can get, in that shooting a fight scene is…only real filmmakers can do it, because of the angles and the speed changing and everything. Sound effects, special effects, filmmaking all comes together for that. I’ve always been a big fan of doing fight scenes on film, for whatever reason, and I’ve gotten pretty good at it, even though physically it’s very difficult.
VINYARD: I know you had an injury during NINJA 2, what about this time?
ADKINS: No, luckily nothing serious. The usual stuff. I think I’m a bit more careful these days as I’ve gotten older. Before, I would just barrel on through. I didn’t want to let anyone down, but I’m aware of my body a bit more and where I know when I max out, so I’m a bit more clued in.
VINYARD: I remember talking to Joey Ansah a while back, and he said you were his dream pick to play Guile in his STREET FIGHTER series. Has there been any development on that?
ADKINS: Joey’s a really close friend of mine, and that absolutely sounds very exciting. Depending on the format of the project, is it going to be a series? Is it going to be a film? These are all questions that need to be answered, but absolutely I’d be happy to consider that.
VINYARD: You also have roles in UNDISPUTED IV, THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY, and DOCTOR STRANGE coming up. Anything about those movies you wanna talk about?
ADKINS: The last one I can’t say anything about. UNDISPUTED IV, BOYKA: UNDISPUTED. Lots of people looking forward to that film. The character of Yuri Boyka has gotten a life of his own. People really like that character. I’m really happy to finally do number four. It’s probably coming out the first half of next year. We have a preview that comes out in a couple weeks that people should be on the lookout for. The best place to see that’s probably be going to be on my Facebook page. We’re really excited about that, it’s really been fun.
VINYARD: What about BROTHERS GRIMSBY?
ADKINS: That’s coming out in February, and I had a great time filming that with Sacha Baron Cohen and Mark Strong. It looks really funny, but I still need to see the finished cut.
VINYARD: Was it different to do a comedy instead of an action picture?
ADKINS: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. We did some improvisation with Sacha, and I had a great time doing that. I don’t think it’s gonna make the final cut to be honest, but hopefully it’ll make the DVD extras. It was something different. It’s great to do different things than what people expect. It’s a very English film as well, with a lot of British comedians. It was a lotta fun.
VINYARD: Is the ultimate goal to do a film where you don’t have to do any martial arts, where it’s just straight acting?
ADKINS: I have done films where I don’t do martial arts, but normally it’s a supporting role or something like that. I will, but while I’m young, if I’m going to be the lead, and it’s going to be an action film, then I do think it’s a good idea to put some martial arts in there, because I’m good at it and that’s what people expect from me. I feel like I’d disappoint people if I didn’t do it. But JARHEAD 3’s coming out. I’m not the lead, it’s more of an ensemble piece, but that’s an action film where I don’t do martial arts. So I’m already doing that.
CLOSE RANGE is currently playing in select theaters and on iTunes/VOD.
