Wednesday, December 18, 2013

New Interview: Kellan Talks about He-Man, Sword Fighting and Doing His Own Stunts

Last week we at Fangirlish were able to interview the exquisitely handsome and ridiculously charming Kellan Lutz about his upcoming starring role in The Legend Of Hercules. Did we mention how unbelievably genuine and sweet this guy is? We predict big things for this hunk!

On his most memorable scar from filming Hercules:

Riding a horse you get a lot of chaffing, which I learned and that’s not quite fun when you’re wearing a skirt and you don’t have jeans on. So I have on my ass 2 lines of scars that I had to put a lot of bio oil on to kinda get those to heal as fast as they could. So ya, they’re my most iconic. You asked for it.

On Keeping his body ripped and preparing for Hercules:

I live an active lifestyle, I just enjoy being outdoors and I’d rather play basketball or snowboard than be in the gym. I have fun in the gym, I am very creative, I compete against myself, I call it funning out, not working out. Soon as it becomes work, I don’t like working, that’s why I choose projects that are fun to me that my heart’s invested in. So preparing for the role of Hercules I always felt like as a little kid I always had middle child syndrome, I grew up on a lot of land with a lot of farm animals so I had a lot of alone time and I was able to use my imagination to create the world of Tarzan, of Mowgli, of He-Man, of Hercules, of the Ninja Turles.

I’d always be the hero that blew the fires out, it was a wierd lonely time

that I created my fantasy world in my head, and Hercules was always that original hero for me, and now that I’m an actor, I never had a dream to be an actor. I found this passion that I get to relive and fulfill this childhood dream of bringing this character to the screen. I was very well prepared for it because my education and knowledge of Greek mythology was already there I had already studies a lot of it because I enjoyed it. I really loved the Iliad and The Odyssey, I read those before they were mandatory in school to read. That fantasy world was just amazing to me because they’re all myths, and much our story of Hercules its one of the tales, there’s a plethora of tales that you could give and bring to life about Hercules that why every Hercules story can and should be different and there’s no right or wrong answer.

On learning to sword fight on screen:

Preparing to ride the horse and to work with the sword fighting I had Liam McIntire as my brother in arms who played Spartacus, I love that show, I knew he was a good guy because Renny (the director) had great discernment with who to cast, everyone I worked with on this movie was family to me, really from day one was very easy going and all had the same motive to make the best movie possible. It was amazing and I am so proud of everyone’s work. But Liam being the fighter that he is I went to him as humbly as I could and said ‘look brother, I don’t have time to learn will you help me?’. We would just battle each other and then he taught me how to use the mirror in my place to just draw 8 lines and stand there in front of it and act like I’m the bad guy, just to get the flow of it, it’s like a dance. The funny thing was he taught me what to do (with your empty hand), as your stabbing people you don’t think about this hand. Most the time they look like spirit fingers,its not a good look, cause you watch the playback and you’re like “what do I do?” you don’t realize it, so what we do is we take a little piece of metal to hold in our hands, cause its really hard to remember to do that (clench the empty fist) but if you are holding on to something that no one else can see, you get the strong strikes. That was a really great secret that he taught. He helped make me me into Hercules. I was very well prepared, I didn’t feel any pressure. I was living my childhood dream and I just embraced it.

On working with stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam:

That man is like Indiana Jones. You can have a stunt coordinator that knows his stuff but doesn’t know how to work with actors much like directors. I was blessed in this movie because Renny is such a visually stunning director but also knows how to work with actors. Rowley is the same way, he’s done all these amazing movies. He did Alexander and he’s telling me stories about him riding the horse and he lost control of the horse and he had to bale and he flew right into the tress and was like “Brother I’ve never been so scared” . Bless his heart, the rigorous horse I had to learn how to ride a horse as fast as I did, he made me feel like an all star, towards the end of the movie he was like “I don’t know how you did it,” he really built me up and that all it takes. I get in my head a lot because I am a perfectionist, if I’m told to correct 5 things at once, then I can’t do it. He really encourages me. He really knew how to speak to me and actors. I would push myself and I wanted one more take, with the horse as I’m doing the battle scene as we’re fighting guys and I’ve already been bucked off, and he’s like “No, the horse, it’s passed his bed time, there’s too many people around, safety” and I love him to death for that cause who knows, it only takes that one mishap.

On doing his own stunts:

Ya I had a great stuntman names Danko, he looked just like me and had the most boring time on the movie because I did everything. I had my horse rider and Danko who was my fight double. Whenever I couldn’t work, which was seldom, but because I was in every shot, which I loved, big difference from Twilight days, where I wanted more but script wise this was all I was doing. I love working, I love being on set, and time goes by the fastest when you’re on set 16 hours, time just flies by. It’s when you’re sitting in your trailer, like on Twilight, that you kind of lose your brain sometimes. I did 99 percent of the stunts and I really wanted to make sure I would and the producers loved that I would but there were times when Danko would fill in when I couldn’t do it and had to catch up on a shot. Sometimes the horses were finicky in the rain, and I’m an animal lover and I didn’t want to smack them, so my horse rider would get on there and do the rehearsals for me and get them ingrained with what they need to do.

On being Hercules and his faitj:

I’ve never felt such a sense of accomplishment I am proud of the work that I did, for me the inner child that’s in all of us. I’m just proud. I’m so drawn to the script and what we have. I’m a man of faith and to be apart of a script that I got teary eyes reading and getting to the part where Hercules is being crucified and he reaches for the strength of his father, I was so connected to this movie. It has a lot of biblical references that I just felt it. I was very proud of the hard work that everyone put into it. Of course I want it to do well, of course I want it to allow me to do a sequel, but that wont deter from the personal feeling I have from all the hard work. That’s all I do, I give myself, that’s how I sleep good at night.

On what real life superhero he’d love to play:

I Love He-Man, that’s one I would love to play, that’s a childhood dream. I have Tarzan, I have Hercules, let’s get the 3rd one! Aquaman! Because I love water, I’ve always wanted to play the venom villain, cause he’s venom!! I love Johnny quest! I love the Ninja Turtles but they already made that movie. I love Gaia from street fighter, If they ever redo that. I love military projects. For me growing up my heroes were in the armed forces. My brother is in the Marine’s , I wanted to join the navy seals, but my mother begged me not to, and I honored her, and now I get to play them in movies which is great! But a real life hero that I read the book of that I’d love to do is the Josh Hamilton story. He has a book called Beyond Belief. He’s a baseball player but his story and trials and tribulations that he went through he’s just a normal dude who gets tempted and makes wrong decision after wrong decision and he blessed with his ability to play ball that he really pulled himself out of a dark place and after reading the book and feeling so connected to it. I think Casey Affleck is writing the script, I actually got to meet josh through a friend of a friend who knows his wife, he’s just a cool dude and I love his story and his journey. For me he’s a hero that a lot of people can look up to. To bring that story to life would be amazing.

Source: fangirlish via klutzonline

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