Character actor Michael Eklund recently appeared in the horror/thriller Bright Hill Road, but shortly before that, he played Rasputin in DC's Legends of Tomorrow and the villain in Netflix's Welcome to Sudden Death. The latter is a remake of the 1995 Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, Sudden Death, with Eklund portraying the character that Powers Boothe played in the original.
Welcome to Sudden Death stars Michael Jai White in the lead, and when we recently chatted with Eklund, he told us that because he had previously worked alongside White in Tactical Force, the martial artist actually recommended him to co-star in the Netflix film.
Eklund went into detail about working with White on both Tactical Force and Welcome to Sudden Death, breaking down his experiences with him and explaining why he praises him so highly as a master of martial arts. Hear all of that and more in our exclusive chat with the actor below!
"Michael Jai White was amazing to work with. It was my second time working with him, and it's really cool. When I got the call to come on to set and play the baddie in Welcome to Sudden Death, it was a blast doing an action film and having to go up against martial arts expert mastermind Michael Jai White. I learned so much from him. I gotta say I give him so much respect. That man is not only a talented actor with great comedic timing as well, he's actually really funny too, but his martial arts and what he does is an art form. When you watch him, it's not just his martial arts; it's him performing it in a film, which is very different than in real life. And he was the best coach I could have ever asked for, to do a fight scene with him.
I did a movie called Tactical Force, and that was the first time I worked with him. That was years back. Years later, I get a call that Michael Jai White suggested me to play a role in Welcome to Sudden Death. So I thought it was very kind of him to remember that movie we did years ago, and then we got to collaborate again, which was really cool. And here's hoping to do it again, but this is a different level. In the past, playing a bad guy, I did a couple of little fight scenes, and I'm usually the guy getting beat up. I get beat up really well, but to be in control and commanding a fight scene with Michael Jai White, one of the greatest martial arts fighters in the world, I was like, 'I know I can act, but come on.' And he's so technically perfect. I'm serious, you have to study this guy, how precise and what an expert he is at his craft of martial arts."
"One example I have is that we have a scene together, a fight scene. And there's a moment in the fight scene where he takes off his belt and uses it as a weapon. And in the scene, he whips me with it, with the buckle hitting me. Now that's not CGI, and there's no CGI belt added in after; it's a real belt with a real buckle. There's no foam buckle. It's not a rubber buckle. It's a metal buckle. And we did two days of fight training, and I come from zero fight background. I don't have any fight training other than faking it in movies. But these guys are the real deal. These are real martial arts experts. So I was in way over my head with these guys. But again, I'm an actor, so I have to make it look good.
We had a stunt double on set, and he did some of it, and I ended up doing a lot of it myself, which I was very surprised because they love having those face shots of the actual actor in the scene. And I remember being a little nervous with the belt buckle part of the fight scene because he takes it off and he whips me in the face with it two or three times, and where the camera was set up and the angle, there wasn't a way to cheat it. This buckle has to look like it's hitting me in the face. And he could tell I was, and I even said, 'dude, I'm nervous about that.' And he just looked at me very calmly,' and he was like, 'Michael, I will never hit you with this belt, it will never come in contact with your face ever.'
I said, I know, I know, but I know when I get really into it, I might lean in too close, I take a belt to the eye, and he goes, 'I'm watching you, Mike, I take all that into account. If I see you lean in, I reposition myself.' So it's like he slows time down, I think, in his mind, and controls the whole scenario of what's going on. He goes, 'trust me; my job is not to hit you with this belt buckle.' And I was like, 'Oh, okay, man, but I've gotten hurt so many times, I know how accidents happen, and they're usually my fault.' So I knew if I'm off my mark by a foot, that belt's going to hit me in the face. But he promised me, he's like, 'I will never,' and not once did that belt buckle hit me in the face ever. And I missed my mark a lot. When I'm doing fight scenes, I'm way off my mark, and he takes that all into account."
If you dig what Eklund has to say about Welcome to Sudden Death, be sure to check out his thoughts on his roles in Arrow, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, The Twilight Zone, Van Helsing, Bright Hill Road, Smallville, and Altered Carbon below!
Michael Eklund discusses which comic book villains he'd like to play:
Michael Eklund discusses what he'd like to see for the future of Rasputin in Legends of Tomorrow:
Eklund as Rasputin in DC's Legends of Tomorrow
Michael Eklund talks about Altered Carbon, Wynona Earp, The Twilight Zone, and Van Helsing:
*This interview has been edited for clarity.*
When a misstep after a workplace shooting puts alcoholic Marcy on leave, she heads out to see her sister in California. Halfway there, she stops for a couple of days at the Bright Hill Road Boarding House. The walls close in on the deeply troubled Marcy, as she loses touch with reality and comes face to face with the misdeeds of her sordid past.
Bright Hill Road was released on Digital and DVD on January 12, 2021.