Oh, that must have been satisfying when you got that for the neighbours' people to go, oh, stick that in your

pipe.

Yeah, so that was great.

And that was a step up.

You know, it was still episodic and it still had like a 25 or 30 year pedigree behind it.

Oh, yeah.

The first two shows I worked on had a combined age of like 50 years of television or something.

Of the professions you've

it can be a, a challenging, I think, difficult time, isn't it?

Yeah.

My, my personal sort of challenging time was either side of 40, and it was, and that was where I felt I was...

You know, I was in my late 30s, I've been working, I've been traveling, I lived around the world, but I felt like that was where I really let go of boyhood.

Um, and that sounds quite late in life for a lot of, lot of people, but for me, I felt a distinct shift in who I was, where I was, and what I wanted.

And that probably came after a lot of years on the road too.

Like, I was, you know, I was, even in the years prior to that was a year in New Zealand, a year in Budapest, a year in Malaysia, a year in Croatia, a year in Chicago.

So is that what it means to you, masculinity?

Uh, maybe Jackie Chan was the first one to do it, uh, but then driving that-

that-You know, people like Tom Cruise and Keanu.

It's like, "Oh, no, we're gonna have to get in there." No, we gotta go in.

We gotta go.

But also, like, what a great privilege.

Yeah.

Like, and, and I'm incredibly...

Yeah

So what was the inspiration for it? What was the, the point of the movie?

We wanted to make something, and I wanted to make something that showed a man fighting for his identity and fighting for his purpose.

Uh, so that has translated far beyond the cage.

It's, it's resonated a lot with particularly men either side of 40 that have kinda lost their identity and their sense of purpose, particularly where it's resonated people coming out of sport, people who have had great success in the sporting arena and have struggled to transition out of that i- into life.

And the other one has been those, uh, particularly who worked in the military and, and in, and in, um, sp- armed forces.

Did it give you a great appreciation for what those fighters do?

Oh, incredibly.

I mean, not, not only, you know...

Mm

... and enjoying myself and having a great time, and I went, "Ah, okay, if I, if I really want some longevity, and if I really want to get the satisfaction that I crave out of my career, um, then I have to ch- choose one thing a- and really commit to making it my life's work." And so I went back to acting, and it was like that was, that was something that I loved, and I really loved it and I, and I really enjoyed the challenge of it.

And, and I've always, uh, always succumbed to the mentality that, that the more you put into something, the more you get out of it.

Mm.

And I, and I saw it, I saw the potential in the film.

It was originally set in America, but we transposed it back to Australia.

I saw the, um, connections to my own personal life and experience that were in there as a young father and, and trying to provide and, and, um, family and marriage and, and, and relationships and everything.

Um, so I connected to that really, really early and, and, and then I was a- you know, I described it as a perfect storm of where I was in my life-

What took three years? Was it the body? Was it the mind? Was it, was it everything? How far were you from the end result three years ago?

Uh, we were g- I was given the script at the end of 2022.

I'd just finished a film called Land of Bad up on the Gold Coast with Russell.

It was our second film together.

And the writer of Land of Bad said, "I've got this great MMA script.

I think you and Russell, Russell should do it, and, and we'll go in 2023." I said, "Great, I'm playing the lead in this fight movie." Except one little thing, I had never learnt in my life how to fight.

So I didn't know how to throw a punch, didn't know how to kick or anything like that.

Men are getting their ears injected to replicate cauliflower ears, so they look like MMA fighters.

[laughs]

... you know, scattered around Mum's place.

Yeah.

But it's so, it's so bizarre.

You know, I still, you know, I, I still feel like somehow I'm at the beginning of, of my career in a lot of ways, and I, I'm still coming with a freshness, and it feel, feels exciting.

And I, and I forget that there's, you know, there's 30 years of, of work behind me, of, of like you say, really just diverse bits and pieces that I've, I've always enjoyed, you know, challenging myself and sort of-Doing the unexpected and seeing what it's like working over here, and what's it like over there? And I'll do a bit of this, and I'll do a bit of theater, and a bit of musical theater.

And that's one of the joys of, of what we do, and it, it, you know, beats, beats working for a living.

Cool.

[laughs]

... you know, scattered around Mum's place.

Yeah.

But it's so, it's so bizarre.

You know, I still, you know, I, I still feel like somehow I'm at the beginning of, of my career in a lot of ways, and I, I'm still coming with a freshness, and it feel, feels exciting.

And I, and I forget that there's, you know, there's 30 years of, of wake behind me of, of, like you say, really just diverse bits and pieces that I've, I've always enjoyed, you know, challenging myself and sort of doing the unexpected and seeing what it's like working over here, and what's it like over there.

And I'll do a bit of this, then I do a bit of theater, and a bit of musical theater.

Cool.

[laughs]

Don't know how, how I'd go.

But no, there, there's a huge step up even, you know, from, from where I got to, to...

There's so many great martial arts gyms in, in Sydney, around the country, and then obviously, you know, MMA has, has taken off.

But Bren Foster, who, who plays my nemesis in the film, um, great actor, but also multiple, nine, 10-time world champion, black belt in, I think, four or five different martial arts himself-

Oh, like physically, physically?

Yeah, my son, uh, my son is six and a half now, Austin, and um, you know, he, he started watching me train for that from when he was three years old.

Um, did it scare him? Yeah, some of the, some of the stuff in the film is probably not, um, not for, for a six year old's little brain.

Mm.

Now, the NRL world has been rocked by this news.

As I, as I brought you in the news just then, Jai Arrow is his name.

He's 30 years of age.

He's, uh, he's an origin star, uh, currently playing for the Rabbitohs.

He's been forced to retire immediately because he has been, at 30 years of age, new dad, diagnosed with MND.

It is devastating.

I felt like I was watching Russell Crowe be cranky old Russell Crowe.

I felt like I was watching Russell Crowe be cranky old Russell Crowe.

[laughs] Um, I, and I think, look, he invested a lot of himself into it, in that he, he loves the genre.

Cinderella Man was so important for him and, and, and it's such an important part of his career.

He co-wrote the script.

Um, he championed me in- into the role, so it was our third film together, and it was the one where he said, "Mate, this is, this is your turn.

I'm gonna support you." A- and so that was-

As an actress.

Yeah.

Wow.

So I, originally it was gonna be 2023, and then 2024, and then eventually it came end of '24, December '24, start of '25.

And so the first time around I was prepping for it, I just got really...

Like, I did, I did that.

I shredded for a cover shoot.

Yeah.

So the second time around I got a bit better, and then the third time around I was able to hold loads of muscle, eat completely differently, train completely differently, and then I was doing boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, jujitsu, and MMA, and all this sort of stuff.

But just-

Mm.

Even, you know, even when we only had him for, for a couple of weeks on this, but he did a pass of the script.

He, he came in, he suggested Amy Shark, he suggested George Burgess, who both came and auditioned for the film, both of whom were brilliant.

And the brilliant auditions-

Wow.

And those kinda high-level, um, military guys and girls are, are pretty special.

And there was a bit of crossover between the mentality that I'd sort of developed through triathlon and high-level sport-