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How did you get involved with the Street Fighter project?
I was contacted by Joey Ansah through Facebook. He obviously had been following my work on Kickboxer and contacted me about this project and sent me a bunch of information on the character Charlie Nash. He wanted to know if I would be interested in auditioning for it. I did some research on who Nash was and I loved it and thought it was really cool. As soon as I saw the character he wanted me to play I was like "DUDE I'm down, I have to play this character!" The next thing I know I'm Charlie Nash. Where you familiar with Street Fighter and the Franchise before?
I was, but I'm not an active gamer. I played it as a kid on the Nintendo and played it a lot actually, however, it’s been years. I had to go back in and research and really get to know who Charlie Nash is and understand the history in order to portray him correctly. It's funny I've seen the Nash Character before he died and now I get to see the version of him coming back from the dead with the necrotic skin and his Frankenstein look is amazing. To me it was an opportunity to go through a transformation. You don't necessarily get to do that very often, so I thought that was pretty cool.
What's the difference between doing stunts on films like Suicide squad, Warcraft and Pacific Rim and in a lead role like Street Fighter Resurrection?
It is! There is so much more to do. Doing stunts is acting within the action. In stunts you are there to make sure that anything they physically can't do or is too dangerous for them to attempt, you are there as support. You are the physical expert and you are there to support and make the audience believe that the actor does everything. It's like being a ninja in the shadows nobody knows that you were there. All of the sudden you go out there and kill someone and no one knows you were there.
Then when you are doing everything and doing the acting along with it, you are on all the time and to me that is always what I wanted to do. It is so much fun to bring the character into the action. You get a chance and an opportunity to create this character and live in the action as opposed to just having a generic action scene. For me what makes an action scene interesting is that you feel the character within the action and that is important. When I stepped into the room as a lead actor, I was scared s**tless. There is a lot of pressure and a lot of the pressure comes from yourself, but at the same time I feel it so much and I love acting. Street Fighter was an exceptional experience doing that.
Kickboxer was my first lead roll and then Street Fighter was a whole new ballgame, but it was so much fun along with great great people. What happens with a stunt double is that I can spend 12 hours waiting and then we get to that "fall" where I have to fall off that scaffolding. I come in, I fall and then I'm done. Then there are other days where I’m doing action all day long. When you are acting and are the lead you are on all the time. On Street Fighter I had three hours of prosthetics and make up before we started and then an hour of clean up. We ended up having 16 hour days more or less. I was on every day over and over again. It was grooling at times and physically demanding. It is a challenge but a fun one.
Did you have to do anything special to prepare for Street Fighter Resurrection?
Yeah I did actually, I did months of preparation for Kickboxer, the character in that was much closer to myself, where Nash is the furthest thing away from myself, but in a way you have to find a piece of yourself in every character to make it. From the prosthetics to the hair and the voice you have to find what you want to come out of it. Nash became this creation; it was the first time I was able to create this kind of character. He's a Bad*ss and he doesn't see the line between good and evil, really he jsut sees the mission in front of him. It was quite a fun experience to create this character.
What is Charlie Nash like in further detail?
He likes long walks on the beach, likes tea... *laughs * Charlie Nash is a tortured soul, he has been through hell and back. He's died and then come back to life. He has a lot of anger and hatred towards Bison because everything he's been through. At this point he only feels the need and thirst for vengence. To accomplish this, he is a man on a mission, but he can't do it alone. This is another challenge for him to go through and realize that no matter what he will need allies to get the job done. He is pulled in a lot of different emotional directions, while he is doing all of this. He is almost like the terminator, he is out there kicking *ss and he will crush you and that is pretty much how he feels.
What was your favorite scene when filming Street Fighter Resurrection?
I have two of them, but I got to watch what I say. I don't want to give away any spoilers. There are a few awesome action scenes. There is this awesome scene with Ken, Ryu and Laura that is just killer and amazing. There is a cage fight between Ken, Ryu and Nash that is cool. What is cool when you are watching it the characters are there and you feel everything coming from them. Every character is committed. Another one of my favorite scenes is between Decapre and Nash that is killer. I haven't even seen it yet. I know it is there and it is really cool. I can wait to see how it all unfolds. We left it all out there in our fights and we went at it hard. We all came away with bumps and bruises. A lot of that stuff isn’t fake; Mike at the end of one of the days had this humongous bruise on one of his arms. It was like swollen and I was like oh my, what happened? We definitely went all out on it and you see it. In the trailer where Ken goes in and kicks Nash on the shoulder... it was completely real. There is no faking that. A lot of the fight shots that we filmed where completely real.
About Street Fighter Resurrection: The long-presumed dead Charlie Nash is back, and is targeting legendary Street Fighter champions for mysterious reasons. Ken and Ryu must uncover his lethal plan and discover if he is ally or enemy.