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We caught up with three of the stars of the Mortal Kombat sequel, namely the actor's behind Shao Khan, Jax, and Cole.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to Gamereactor. Today we have a really exciting interview coming up for you because I had a chance to speak with not one, not two, but three members of the Mortal Kombat 2 cast. I got to speak with Martyn Ford, Mehcad Brooks and Lewis Tan, also known as Shao Khan, Jax and Cole from the film. So please do enjoy the interview and for more on Mortal Kombat 2 stay tuned because the movie, well, it premieres on May 8th, I believe, so it's coming up very, very soon. Right, well, obviously you guys are three really important figures in the Mortal Kombat 2 movie but I figured we start by just talking a little bit about video game adaptations, if that's fine, because they've become incredibly popular as of late. So I wanted to just start by asking, you know, why do you think or what do you think it is that makes video games such a compelling commodity to adapt into film and TV? I mean, for Mortal Kombat especially, there's already an audience ready to absorb and we all have imaginations, we all kind of, you know, what would it be like if this was real? What would this be? How would I be? Who would I be?
And so on and I feel the gaming industry is so huge, you know, respectfully probably bigger than the film industry in many parts and it's a no-brainer to make a film for those fans and the way that this has been created, I feel the important secret is to be very honest and truthful to the fans and give them what they want, give them the fights, give them the action, give them the fatalities and all of that and you kind of had a, you have one fan base ready to sell to but you have the cheat code on how to make that film desirable and that's why I feel that this especially is going to be welcomed so well and the response so far has been incredibly incredible and it should make for a great summer blockbuster. I think so too. I have nothing to add, that was perfect. Thank you. Oh, you're on my line. Well actually, speaking with Lewis and Makad actually, you guys are both obviously returning from the original Mortal Kombat so I guess how did you two, how did you build on that foundation that was laid in that first film and expand on it in this sequel and to build on that for Martin as well, what homework did you do to ensure stepping into the role of Shao Kahn felt natural?
It's a great question. Yeah, great question. I actually took the character Jax to my therapist."
"I wanted to know why he was making the decisions he was making. So for instance, like you're talking about a guy who did six tours in Afghanistan and that wasn't enough, he wants to fight and hunt interdimensional ninjas and monsters. I'm like, hold on and you have to take that seriously. You have to step into that world and say what motivates that person to do that, right? Why is he there and why is he comfortable doing that? And so we spent some time deciphering and deconstructing his choices and that was really interesting and that actually helped, it informed his fight signature, right? And I played the game a lot and that's where I got his posture from, that's where I got his moves from, like I wanted to move that was the same way that Jax moved in the game and I think in the second movie it was, it felt like second nature for me. Lewis? I think we just wanted to expand on what we did in the first film and, you know, we took a lot of feedback from fans and, you know, like Martin was saying, he said very well, it's the fan base and the fandom that has already stood the test of time with this movie or this franchise. So for us it's just about respecting that, taking it to a next level, making the action even better, making the fights even crazier and just, you know, really stepping it up so we have something iconic at the end of the day and that was our, all of our goals, all of us worked our asses off to get that and I think you'll see it on screen."
"Yeah, it was a great pressure to have, to know there's a fan base who majority of them will probably know the characters more so than we do ourselves. Speak for yourself.
Well yeah, obviously we don't know your one, but for us they've got real characters.
Where do you come from? I set him up for that, I set myself up for that."
"But for me there's always a pressure when creating a film, you know, there's a hell of a lot of money that goes into it, there's people's jobs that go into it and as an actor you are responsible for making sure that those people shine. They can do all the work behind the scenes but we ultimately are the ones that have to make them look good as they make us look good at the same time. So there's already that responsibility when you're an actor, but to also have the responsibility to carry the franchise under your belt, it makes sure that, you know, you always do research but here it was especially important to make sure we tried to use all the resources we had."
"Wonderful, well thank you guys so much for speaking with me and no doubt we'll get to speak again in the future. Have a great day, take care, thank you so much.
Have a good one."
