00:00 Just about every fighter we see in the movie
00:01 is a longstanding Mortal Kombat character,
00:04 while Cole is the only new fighter for Earthrealm.
00:07 - I'm Sonya.
00:10 - Name's Jax.
00:12 - That's Kano.
00:13 - I'm Liu Kang.
00:14 - Kung Lao.
00:16 - Sku Biu.
00:18 - I am Sam Sero.
00:19 - How did you kind of create a unique fighting style
00:24 for Cole while still keeping it grounded
00:26 within the unique Mortal Kombat style universe?
00:30 - Yeah, first off, I'm really glad that you liked the film.
00:33 I appreciate that, man.
00:35 We worked really hard on it.
00:36 Fortunately for me, as an actor,
00:39 playing Cole, it mirrored what was happening in my life,
00:43 and we shot the film in order, from beginning to end.
00:47 So really, Cole is experiencing this crazy thing,
00:50 and as he experiences this wild adventure, this journey,
00:54 he grows as a fighter, and his style develops and changes
00:58 as he learns who he is and where he's from.
01:01 And that's just something that happened with me
01:03 in the movie as well.
01:03 So seeing Scorpion and Sub-Zero and Jax and Sonya,
01:07 and having these iconic moments as a person,
01:10 like as a fan, like holy shit.
01:13 Those are the same things that he was actually
01:15 going through as well.
01:16 As he develops, the martial art develops,
01:19 and that's something that I've always tried to do
01:21 in my projects.
01:22 I try to pick things that are challenging
01:24 and that are gonna break boundaries
01:26 with the action community.
01:28 It's very important for me.
01:29 So yeah, I'm proud to earn my place with Cole Young.
01:34 - It was fun, but I'm not gonna say easy,
01:36 but I just had so much fun, even though it was difficult.
01:40 With Cole Young, Louis Tan,
01:43 because he's a martial artist himself,
01:47 and he knows what he's doing, and he's fit, he's fast.
01:52 He can do a lot of stuff.
01:54 And then he didn't use double,
01:55 and I didn't use double in most of the fights.
01:59 So the journey of the fight, it is real.
02:02 Because when you fight someone and then they double,
02:04 the other guy, it feels like you fight
02:07 two different persons.
02:08 It just feels different.
02:11 But when you fight the same guy again and again,
02:13 and you know the energies, it just resonated really good.
02:18 So I think that he's a really good fighter.
02:21 I think it's safe to say that Kung Lao's flawless victory
02:24 against Natara is probably one of the brutalest scenes
02:27 in the movie.
02:28 I want to know, for that fatality specifically,
02:32 how much of that was practical
02:34 versus how much of that was CGI?
02:37 - Ah, that's an interesting question.
02:40 It was a blend of both of the things.
02:45 But it was actually more practical than CGI, I have to say,
02:50 because all the blood you see, that is all real.
02:53 I can't give away too much, but it's all,
02:57 when we shot that fatality, it was coming at me,
02:59 and it was a mess.
03:02 And then later on, they worked around with the CGI
03:06 to make it even look more outstanding.
03:09 But yes, majority of it was all real.
03:11 - Wow, yeah, it was certainly gratuitous, to say the least.
03:16 But I think the finished product
03:17 ended up looking really great.
03:19 I think a lot of people felt sick on set watching it.
03:23 - A big practical example that comes to mind
03:26 is the Kano pulling out Reptile's heart.
03:29 'Cause I know we saw that on the set visit as well.
03:31 But I was wondering how much of those were practical
03:35 versus some of the CGI that you needed in the film?
03:37 - Hard to quantify, actually.
03:40 I'd sort of need to sit here for longer than four minutes
03:43 to think about it.
03:44 But probably most of them have some sort of base
03:48 in reality.
03:50 So, because my approach was to try and do
03:52 as much in-camera as possible.
03:54 Obviously, not all of it is in-camera.
03:57 There's a lot of visual effects in the movie.
03:59 But my feeling is that if we get the base,
04:03 and this is across the board,
04:04 if we get as much in-camera as possible,
04:07 whether it be sort of ice,
04:09 or whether it be the worlds we're creating,
04:11 then the visual effects that go on top of that
04:14 feel more end of elemental and authentic and real,
04:17 and therefore you believe it more.
04:19 That's my sort of attempted alchemy
04:21 to get that tone and feeling right.
04:25 So, they all had, there's probably only one
04:28 that's 100% VFX,
04:29 but that was, we actually created a real version
04:34 of the thing to then use as reference.
04:40 So, it was all coming from reality.
04:43 - Finish them!
04:44 (gunshots)
04:46 - Kano wins.
04:48 You fucking beauty.
04:49 - I wanna know more about some of Kano's hilarious dialogue
04:53 and how much free reign you had
04:56 with some of those one-liners,
04:58 'cause I have a hard time believing
05:00 that every single one of those were in the script.
05:03 - No, they weren't.
05:04 I got, no, Simon McCoy definitely let me off the chain
05:11 to have a bit of fun.
05:12 And I'm not sure any two takes were ever the same.
05:16 So, yes, there would have been a lot to sift through.
05:19 But yeah, no, I had a lot of fun.
05:22 I was able to kick the tires.
05:23 Everything was, of course, there was a script
05:25 and then there is a lot of scripted stuff too.
05:27 But yeah, I was definitely able to,
05:29 yeah, just to have a bit of fun.
05:32 And that was part of the way
05:33 I found the character, to be honest.
05:35 I was able to sort of riff around, improv,
05:38 and through that I was like,
05:39 yeah, I'm starting to understand this guy.
05:41 He's, yeah, he's a bastard.
05:42 He shoots his mouth off.
05:43 His bark is probably a little worse than his bite in a way.
05:47 But it's, yeah, yeah, it was really fun
05:50 to be able to figure out that Kano's words
05:54 were as much of a weapon as his fists were, yeah.
05:58 - And they were, what impressive words they were.
06:01 He had me howling in the theater.
06:04 Where did the Kano and Gnome bit come from?
06:07 (laughing)
06:09 - He's such a horrible character, right?
06:12 He's such a despicable creature, Kano.
06:16 He's funny, and that's Josh Lawson,
06:20 is a gifted comedic actor.
06:21 And he's just so foul on so many levels
06:25 that he needed his comeuppance
06:29 to be humiliating and pathetic
06:36 because ultimately he is pathetic, you know?
06:40 And so it was all about how to get a comeuppance
06:45 that was balanced out based on his character.
06:50 And we just thought that would be perfect for him.
06:54 I mean, he's hilarious, but revolting and foul.
06:59 And what better way to kill him than with a gardener?
07:03 - Ludi, for you, there's a moment where Kano
07:06 is beaten by Lutin with a series of low kicks.
07:10 Which, if you played the video game,
07:12 you'll know that's a pretty common tactic.
07:14 Did you actually play the game
07:16 to identify some of those strategies,
07:19 and special moves, and kind of weave that
07:22 into the levity of the film?
07:24 - Yeah, for us who actually played the game
07:27 from the cast on set, we're just really gearing
07:29 to get a lot of Easter eggs that really,
07:31 we call it fan service, right?
07:35 But it's true, you know, Liu Kang's leg sweeps
07:37 are one of the cheapest things in the game.
07:39 You could just do it over, and over, and over again.
07:41 Same with his overpowered moves.
07:43 Those are all in there.
07:44 So yeah, admittedly, that was one of the things
07:49 we want to get in.
07:50 And same with the other lines that recall back
07:52 to the Mortal Kombat lore, and a lot of the feel
07:56 where it pays homage to the video game,
08:00 and the history, and the universe of Mortal Kombat.
08:03 (dramatic music)
08:07 - Flawless victory.
08:10 - There's a scene where Sub-Zero fights Scorpion and Cole.
08:14 And throughout that fight, he kind of sheds his armor.
08:17 He gets down to like a stripped down,
08:19 almost like you could say a palette swap look.
08:22 And then, you know, eventually he's defeated,
08:24 and his body is brought back to the Netherrealm by Shang Tsung.
08:28 Is that kind of like a little bit of a wink, wink,
08:32 nudge, nudge to fans looking for maybe Noob Saibot,
08:35 or perhaps even opening the door
08:37 for maybe Noob Saibot to be in a sequel?
08:39 - Well, everything you saw in the movie,
08:45 in the final fight, that was planned, of course.
08:49 And then I think from the costume itself,
08:52 because Sub-Zero usually just blue,
08:55 but Sub-Zero in this one, Sub-Zero behind in this one,
08:58 you see the blue is very dark.
08:59 So from there, it's actually a journey.
09:02 The costume tells a story that actually he is like
09:07 the Dark Sub-Zero, like the darkness,
09:11 the darkness, the phantom is eating him alive.
09:14 Even the costume is kind of like changed to more dark blue.
09:17 In the final fight, we see that he has the inner layer.
09:20 It's not just like a blue Sub-Zero,
09:22 suddenly just, you know, costume changed to black
09:26 as Noob Saibot, but we want to fill the bridge.
09:28 We want to fill, there is a story,
09:30 there's a bridge into the darkness,
09:32 eating him alive from the inside.
09:33 So you're right.
09:35 I'm glad that you, you know,
09:38 I thought that people probably not gonna see it,
09:41 but I'm glad you're a true fan of Noob Saibot.
09:43 That's why you know.
09:44 The transition of color, like from blue to black,
09:47 the strip, everything is actually planned,
09:50 that we hope, we hope, we can only hope,
09:53 we can see Noob Saibot in the next one, fingers crossed.
09:58 - For Sonya Blade, now that she's finally gotten
10:01 that status of a chosen fighter for Earthrealm
10:05 by the end of the film,
10:06 I wonder if you have any fighters, maybe from,
10:09 that we didn't get to see this time around
10:11 that you think Sonya would like to square off against
10:13 in a potential sequel?
10:16 - I mean, I'd love to see her square off
10:18 against Johnny Cage.
10:19 I wonder if her and Cassie Cage can square off.
10:24 That might not be very PC.
10:26 - Or Mac.
10:28 - Um, Bacara.
10:29 Katana.
10:33 Wouldn't mind slapping the shit out of Johnny Cage.
10:36 - Do you guys have anybody in mind
10:38 that you would like to see Johnny Cage?
10:40 Does anybody just leap out at you and you say,
10:42 "Oh, would love to see him throw in some kicks."
10:45 - I'm not sure.
10:47 It's really tough.
10:48 I don't know.
10:50 I'm of the mind that I'm like,
10:52 make them audition like we have to audition.
10:54 Make them go through the hard songs
10:57 like we had to.
10:58 No, but I would love to see it.
10:59 You know what would be great for me?
11:01 I would love if I got to go in on the auditions
11:04 and audition against people.
11:05 I've always wanted to do that.
11:07 So no, I'm gonna have to just leave it up
11:09 to see who puts their hat in the ring.
11:11 - Look, I've said it before and I'll say it again.
11:14 The one person I kept thinking about,
11:16 and he's a buddy of mine, but is James Marsden.
11:20 I just, I don't know.
11:22 He's gotta got a Johnny Cage vibe to me.
11:24 Maybe I'm wrong, but I, yeah.
11:26 I just think he's, there's something about him.
11:28 He's got that Hollywood look, you know?
11:30 And I think he could pull it off.
11:32 - I don't know.
11:33 Like, I'm gonna leave that in the capable hands
11:35 of Warner Brothers and Todd Garner and Simon McCoy
11:38 and New Line and everybody who's gonna weigh in
11:41 on that decision.
11:42 However, it would have to be somebody who could fight.
11:46 You know, like every actor has really, really brought
11:50 everything that they could to the table
11:51 when it comes to doing their own fight scenes.
11:54 So like, we'd have to keep that up.
11:56 I think, and also have to be somebody
11:57 who can pull off the comedy.
11:58 So I don't have anybody, I don't have any favorites.
12:02 I think there's plenty of good options out there.
12:05 And I think that's a penthouse problem
12:07 that we're willing to deal with
12:10 'cause that means there's a sequel.
12:12 - Yeah.
12:13 That's a champagne problem.
12:14 I think that, you know, Johnny Cage
12:16 is such an iconic character.
12:18 And I think that, you know, we're building a new energy
12:22 for this movie.
12:23 We're building something that is respectful
12:25 of the franchise from before,
12:27 but we're also bringing a new era,
12:28 like the trailer said, you know what I mean?
12:30 And that's how we really feel about it.
12:32 So there's many ways that it can go, in my mind.
12:35 In my mind, you know, there was an April Fool's joke
12:38 on Twitter that I saw where it was like,
12:39 Keanu Reeves is gonna play Johnny Cage.
12:41 And I was like, that's a pretty interesting casting.
12:44 Then there's guys like Scott Adkins,
12:46 who was an incredible martial artist and an actor.
12:49 And I think that that would be kind of a cool way
12:51 to go about it.
12:52 There's another route, which is we can just, you know,
12:54 find somebody completely new,
12:57 something that's so fresh and hold auditions
13:00 and, you know, find the perfect Johnny Cage.
13:03 And then there's guys like maybe like Chris Pratt
13:05 or someone who's like, has those comedy elements to him,
13:08 but also is known for doing, not his own action,
13:12 but in the action world.
13:14 So he would have to probably train for that because-
13:16 - Chris Pratt is great.
13:17 That's a great choice, actually.
13:18 - Let's go.
13:19 - That's a great choice.
13:20 - Throughout history, different cultures all over the world
13:23 reference a great tournament known as Mortal Kombat.
13:29 (dramatic music)
13:32 you
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