Reddit fans get down and dirty in a martial arts Q&A with Scott Adkins in his first Reddit AMA…
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Scott Adkins, actor and martial artist, has starred in action movies, travelling between the Western and Eastern hemisphere. He first started training in judo at the age of 10, then expanded his interest towards various martial arts including kickboxing, ninjutsu, taekwondo, Karate, jujutsu, wushu, Krav Maga, capoeira, Jeet Kune Do and gymnastics.
His versatile style and charisma caught the attention of the Hong Kong Stuntmen Association and soon Adkins was offered a role in a martial arts film Extreme Challenge (2001) directed by legendary actor and stuntman Wei Tung. In the following years Adkins worked with other prominent Hong Kong action films directors (Woo-ping Yuen, Sammo Hung Kam-Bo, Corey Yuen and Jackie Chan) as well as played alongside Hollywood action films stars like Jean-Claude Van Damme. So far, he is best known for playing Yuri Boyka in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (2006) and Undisputed III: Redemption (2010). Adkins portrayed Russian MMA underground fighter, just enough villainous, rough and charismatic to break into the mainstream. Then he has also made his mark starring in The Expendables 2 (2012) joining other action film legends.
In 2016 Scott Adkins has seven movies coming up so he is busy as ever. Especially with the premiere of Boyka: Undisputed, the fourth movie from Undisputed franchise entirely centered on Adkins’ character questioning his identity and values. Moreover his new movie, Hard Target 2, is coming out on DVD, Blu Ray & Digital. In the midst of his busy schedule, Adkins took time to hold a question and answer session with fans on Reddit, easternKicks has the best bits here for you!
What has been your favorite on-set memory? – liamquane
The Medallion with Jackie Chan. It was a short fight with Jackie that I was being tested to see if I was good enough and I passed the test. Needless to say, I felt pretty good about myself.
As a martial artist do you have much competitive fight experience? Is there any realism to your choreographed fight scenes, as in would you able to fight like that for real , (knowing you have the skills and ability to do such moves) how effective are they? – ssj_Goku
I’m a trained martial artist and I can handle myself in most situations but I have travelled a different path. I believe I’d be a good fighter if I trained for that but its a different type of training and I’m happy not getting punched in the face TOO often. I doubt I’d be able to land a Guyver Kick on the streets. Best to keep it simple, that’s what works best.
Hi Scott! I was just wondering if you felt any pressure starring in a sequel to a classic action movie like Hard Target? Also how do you feel about the fight sequences in the film? – ActionFlixJMJ
It certainly is a classic and I’m a huge fan of the original. I was nervous to do ANOTHER sequel to a Van Damme film but when I read the script it seemed very suited to me and I knew it would be a quality production form Universal so I went with it.
Were you in contention for lead character in the Kickboxer: Vengeance movie? Do you think Hollywood will continue to remake or reboot old Van Damme movies? – SaulsAll
No I was not. They offered me the brother role. I’m glad I didn’t do it and I’m very disappointed they didn’t show more respect to my dear friend Darren Shahlavi who is sadly no longer with us. He’s fantastic but I hear he wasn’t featured very much. Big mistake.
What was it like working with Paul Greengrass? – liamquane
Chaotic. Thrown in the deep end. Never knew where the camera was (a good thing by the way). A big adventure that saw me driving through Friday night Madrid traffic with a camera crew in my face before I’d even had chance to meet him. He’s fantastic director. Just wish he’d keep the camera still when people are fighting <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2/72x72/1f642.png" alt="