INTERVIEW: Luke Hemsworth on his love of fight films, including ‘Beast’
Photo: Luke Hemsworth stars in Beast. Photo courtesy of Lionsgate / Provided by KWPR with permission.
Beast, the new film about a mixed martial artist pulled back into the ring, has two interesting co-writers: David Frigerio and Oscar winner Russell Crowe, who also stars in the film. The movie features the acting and fighting talents of Daniel MacPherson, Luke Hemsworth, Bren Foster, Amy Shark, Mojean Aria and Kelly Gale.
In the movie, Hemsworth plays the character of Gabriel. The actor came to the project because he counts himself a big fan of fight movies.
“I love an underdog story, a story of redemption,” Hemsworth said in a recent Zoom interview. “He’s a great character. I really love this character of Gabriel Stone who is … the entity that no one wants to see. He’s driven by forces that are unclear other than his own ego and his own love of money, but I also think this character is a big fight fan as well. And I think at his heart, he’s afraid of being insignificant. He’s surrounded by all this incredible talent, and he wants people to remember his name as much as they remember other people’s names. And he’s kind of a fun, interesting character.”
Hemsworth, known for Westworld and several TV and movie projects, loves that Gabriel’s motives are unclear. The audience doesn’t quite know what to make of him. “I think it’s the same with every character,” he said. “The mystery is a wonderful part to play with.”
The actor, who is a member of a famous Australian acting family, said he’s been a fan of MMA and fights for a long time. In fact, he’s enjoyed a lot of boxing in his time, even a little bit of jiu-jitsu and judo.
“Actually after seeing this film in its entirety, I went back and was like, OK, I’ve got to get back into Muay Thai or something,” he said. “I picked up the pads again and am training with a guy … down here who is kicking the shit out of me, but I’m loving it. I really love it.”
Hemsworth added: “Sundays are UFC days, and it usually involves all of us sitting around one of the boys’ houses, a couple of beers. And my kids are there as well; Chris’ kids are there. It’s become rather than Sunday football; it’s Sunday UFC. And I think with this film, it’s always a danger when you do a fight film. Is the choreography going to be good enough? Will it ever compare to anything we see on the TV? And I think we do a really, really great job. I think fight fans will be absolutely blown away. I can’t really compare this to any other fight film in terms of its pacing, of its invented choreography. … So the level of groundedness, the level of realness, of the feeling of being so close to the fight is very, very unique, and I hope people will get a kick out of that.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Beast, featuring Luke Hemsworth, is now playing in movie theaters.
