(photo courtesy of Mr. St. John)
Eric St. John has some seriously mad skills!
Not only is he an actor, but he is also trained in Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Boxing, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Just to add to that, he is skilled in Japanese and Filipino-based weapons. Basically, he can definitely handle himself in almost any situation. Fans know him from his roles in “General Hospital,” “Passions,” “It’s a Miracle,” “True Beauty This Night,” “Afterlife,” “The Boarder,” “The Shifting,” “Being American,” and “Bullet,” with Danny Trejo, Jonathan Banks, and John Savage. He recently finished up a feature film called “Ride The Thunder.”
Eric’s schedule is off-the-hook busy with the release of this amazingly fun apocalyptic movie “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse” from Asylum Studios. In addition to this movie, he has many more projects that will film in places like Juarez and Thailand. “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse” is about a team of scientists who must race against time to stop what seems to be a cascade of global disasters signaling the possible apocalypse. Check out the trailer below, and then get to know the film’s star, Eric St. John.
Colleen Bement: Apocalyptic movies are right up my alley so let’s talk about “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse.” My first question is where did the story for the movie originate?
Eric St. John: That’s great to hear! Yes, I too am a big fan of Apocalyptic movies. I’m not exactly sure where the story for the movie originated, but the screenplay was written by Lauren Pritchard (Moon Crash, Robotapocalypse) and Joe Roche (Devil’s Triangle, Planet Dune) along with our Director Geoff Meed (Fast Five, D-Day: Battle of Omaha Beach, Pam, and Tommy). Geoff was a terrific writer/director to work with and he is also a very talented actor as well!
I really enjoyed working with Geoff because he has a unique director’s perspective that stems from his years of experience working as an actor with some of the biggest names in the industry. He is an “Actors Director”, he always provided a positive working environment, and he was able to offer some very specific direction to me during the shoot which I feel greatly enhanced my performance in this movie, and he allowed me the freedom to express and to deliver a unique performance, especially in some of the climactic scenes towards the end of the movie. I really enjoyed working with Geoff as a Director.
CB: Do you have any stories from the set such as challenges that you had to overcome?
ESJ: Well, the biggest challenge, as with many movies, was time. For example, many Hollywood Studio movies typically take between three to six months to film a movie. 100 days of filming is not uncommon and many times they may only film one page of the script per day. Miraculously, we filmed this entire movie in 6 days. We filmed between 15-20 pages of the script per day to make our days at each location-which is truly amazing, especially considering the excellent locations we had for this production, some of which were outside of the Los Angeles SAG 30-mile radius, which in turn eats into your scheduled filming time to allow for travel.
Time and money are always considerations for any production, large or small. Most every production is always in need of more time and/or more money, from large scale Hollywood tentpole movies to independent films, and so I think the limited time factor was by far the biggest challenge to overcome in filming “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse”. I am grateful to David Rimawi and David Michael Latt, co-founders of Asylum Studios, for the opportunity to play the lead role in “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse”. I have worked on three Asylum Studios movies now, the other two are “Isle of the Dead” and “The Rebels of PT-218” and they are always so much fun! Asylum Studios is great because they make very entertaining movies, and they allow the opportunity for a lot of actors to work their craft in some very exciting roles. I am also grateful to Casting Director Cambria Hankin, who cast “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse” and whom I have worked with a number of times now, for bringing me in on the movies she is casting.
CB: What do you think viewers will like the most about the film?
ESJ: I think viewers will really enjoy the fun nature of this movie and the over-the-top scenarios, which are highlighted by the visual effects, even though the movie is based on a very serious series of events. I think what makes this movie work is the honest and truthful performances by the actors juxtaposed with the heightened and outrageous circumstances that they find themselves in. I think the audience will find the movie to be very entertaining! I also think my fans will enjoy and appreciate my character going into an “altered state of mind” towards the climax of the movie.
I love playing characters that go through a major change throughout the course of the movie, especially when it involves some kind of “altered mental state” or “fractured” psychological state of mind…a “psychic break” from reality, as is the case with my character Major Oakley Jones in “4 Horsemen: Apocalypse”. That is always really fun for me to play, and it is usually fairly unexpected to see my character go into this “mental state”. I have been fortunate to have played a few roles where I get to explore this concept. In another Asylum movie I did with Director Nick Lyon (Species: The Awakening, Bullet, They Found Hell) called “Isle of the Dead”, which was one of three movies I have done with Nick. The other two were “Bullet” and “The Rebels of PT-218”.
In “Isle of the Dead” my character opens the movie as a military commander who is working with a doctor played by D.C. Douglas (Resident Evil, Ad Astra, Aquarium of the Dead) on a remote island lab facility where they are conducting “human experiments” and I get attacked and then turn into a kind of “Super Zombie” who comes back to try and kill the doctor and the team of military soldiers who are sent in to try and contain the situation. That was a lot of fun!
So, to answer your question, one of the things I hope the viewers will enjoy in “4 Horsemen:Apocalypse” is the moment my character becomes infected and loses his mind mid-flight of a helicopter he was flying. That’s all I will say as I don’t want to spoil the movie, but that is something I think the viewers will enjoy seeing!
CB: Do you other projects in the works that you can tell us about?
WSJ: Yes, I am very fortunate and grateful to have a number of projects coming up and I actually just finished filming a horror/thriller TV Series called “Dark Gospels” by creator/writer/director Robert Diaz LeRoy, which will be out soon. “Dark Gospels” explores possession and exorcism, and I play a burned-out Homicide Detective named “Durmont Lucius” whose twenty-two years in the force have made him bitter, angry, and dangerous. He was a good cop at one time, but those days are far behind him. In this role, again, I get to explore the “Fractured Psychological State” I mentioned earlier, when my character becomes either “possessed” or has a “mental breakdown” or some kind of “psychic break”, the audience will get to determine for themselves what is happening to Durmont when they watch the series!
Next, coming up in August, I begin principal photography on a feature film titled “De Gringo A La Tumba” where I will be playing the title role of “Gringo”. Award-winning writer/director Jacob N. Stuart wrote the incredible screenplay and will direct the movie, and I am really looking forward to working with Jacob as a director. “Gringo” is the kind of movie role I have always wanted to play as an actor. He is a very complex and tormented individual who is dealing with a lot of inner conflicts because of actions he took in his past, which greatly affect his present, and in turn, greatly affect the people that he loves. He is dealing with a mountain of guilt from his past and in the story, he is offered, or rather forced, into a situation that allows him to atone for his past transgressions and offers him one last chance at redemption. He has the opportunity to help a little girl, to give her the hope for a better life. “De Gringo A La Tumba’ which translates “From Gringo to the Grave,” I hope I’m not giving too much away here, is a Cartel Story, focused around the Mexico/US Border and we will be filming in Juarez, Mexico, El Paso, Texas and parts of Arizona.
One of the many things that make the movie “De Gringo A La Tumba” unique is the authenticity of both the location as well as the actors that will be in the movie. As I mentioned, we will be filming in Juarez, Mexico and many of the actors that have been hired to play characters in the movie are from Juarez. Director Jacob N. Stuart and the producers of the movie wanted to keep the movie very real and authentic, right down to having the authentic Juarez regional dialect spoken by the Juarez actors, as well as the importance of filming in Juarez, which at one time was the murder capital of the world due to all of the Cartel violence. Many other Cartel movies film in other places, like New Mexico or other southern states in an attempt to give the “look and feel” of Juarez…but it was important to the Director to actually film the movie in Juarez, which I greatly respect.
One of the things I am looking forward to doing as part of my preparation for the role of “Gringo”, is going down to stay in Juarez for a couple of weeks before we film so I can breathe in the air and absorb the sights and sounds of the city, which is an integral part of the story, and Juarez itself is a kind of “Character” in the movie. I’m really looking forward to working with Director Jacob N. Stuart and the international cast in making this movie!
Another project I have coming up, that will be filming this fall, is a Top-Secret Action movie, which I will also produce. I am under a strict NDA with this project so I am not at liberty to share much of anything about the story, including the title, but it will be an “edge of your set” Action/Thriller. Another project that is in development is a movie that I am playing the lead role and also producing is “Fists For Hire”, written by my producing partner Chris Calzia. We are hoping to begin principal photography in December and will film the movie Thailand. We are working with Les Nordhauser, and his production company Greenlight Films located in Bangkok and this movie will be a full-blown martial arts extravaganza! We are in talks with some incredible talent for this one and I am certain audiences will be thrilled to see the movie.
And finally, at the beginning of 2023, I will begin principal photography on a beautiful movie titled “Forget Me Not” by Director Derek Aghchay, which will film in Rome, Italy. It is a beautiful timeless story that has been compared to a modern-day “Romeo and Juliet”, and I will play the disapproving father to the troubled young boy who falls in love with the wrong girl, at least in my eyes as his father.
CB: What inspired you to become an actor, and did your amazing skills in MMA open doors for you in looking for roles?
WSJ: Well, I guess I always had the idea of being an actor in my mind, ever since I was a kid, and would watch movies with my father. Just the desire to want to be in that other world where the story takes place, the idea of living the lives of the characters in those stories on the screen, which were so different from my everyday reality. My Dad is a big Humphry Bogart fan, and we would watch his movies, along with John Wayne westerns and all kinds of movies from every genre, from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to Clint Eastwood’s “The Outlaw Josey Wales” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and all the great old Spaghetti Westerns. Iconic movies like “Rocky” and I remember the first time I saw Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon”, that made quite an impression on me. Regarding my martial arts skills, I want to thank you for your compliment, I do appreciate it! Martial arts is a passion of mine and I have been training in multiple martial arts my whole life, starting at the age of 7. I started competing when I was a teenager and won the Gold Medal in the Jr. Olympics in Taekwondo in the Black Belt division and competed in National tournaments all over the country. From there I branched out to Muay Thai, Jeet Kune Do, Kali and the Filipino martial arts, Silat, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and other disciplines.
I have been very lucky to have studied and trained with some of the greatest martial artists in the world, my Taekwondo coach, Master T.K. Lee, was a coach on the US Taekwondo Team headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO. My first Muay Thai coach, who was also a World Champion Muay Thai fighter before he became a coach, was Kru Rex, who sadly recently passed away. I was grateful to be at his bedside during his passing. I have also had the privilege of training under world-famous Guro Dan Inosanto, who was close friends with Bruce Lee and was Bruce Lee’s training partner during the time that Bruce Lee created his groundbreaking martial art Jeet Kune Do “Way of the Intercepting Fist” and he also introduced Bruce Lee to the Filipino martial arts weapon, the “nunchaku”, which Bruce mastered and showcased in many of his iconic movies.
I have been very fortunate to be able to add value to the productions that I have been involved in as an actor because of those martial arts skills I have acquired throughout my life. I would say that, yes, my martial arts skills have definitely opened doors for me, but more as a talking point, or a point of interest. Sometimes a Director or Producer may have seen fighting or martial arts scene I have done in a movie and that piques their interest, many times I still have to audition for the roles I am cast in, which is based purely on acting ability and also the physicality of the actor does come into play when casting the right actor for the right part as well. I am frequently cast in roles that require a strong physical presence or some kind of physical ability, and many times the characters I play are forceful or violent, which I am completely the opposite of as a person, I’m this nice, kind, well-mannered guy, who enjoys great humor, but I frequently play characters that are violent and explosive. In fact, I have only played a few characters that do not become violent or physical at some point, which is one of the things I love about being an actor…playing characters that are not very much like me as a person in my everyday life…but we all have different facets to our personality, different tendencies, and various energies, that we are called upon as actors to deliver in a performance…we get to express those different facets of our personality and express those sometimes “dark” energies and tendencies through the character, many times in extreme circumstances, in our work as actors.
That is really the joy of being an actor for me, to be able to express those different parts of my personality. Robert DeNiro was once asked what it meant to him to be an actor in the simplest terms, he said “Self-Expression”. I think that is the essence of what acting is, “self-expression”… through the given circumstances of the story and character. I really can’t think of another art form that utilizes all aspects of a person to such a degree as acting. It is all-encompassing, as we use our physical body, movement, and form, our voice, and our emotions which incorporate memory and imagination, all in an attempt to bring our individual truth to the creation of this illusion, which is the movie.
CB: I can just imagine the amount of choreography and rehearsal that goes into the fight scenes. Do you do all your own stunts, and how difficult is it?
ESJ: Oh yes, there is a lot of fight choreography that goes into the fighting sequences in these movies. If we’re lucky, we get to rehearse the fight choreography during pre-production, and the more time we have to do this the better the final results will be on the screen. But many times, we are under the constraints of time and money, and I will have to learn the fight choreography and do a blocking rehearsal on the actual day of shooting. This is where my martial arts background is really an asset because I can pick up the moves and execute them in sequence very quickly due to my extensive training, it is second nature to me, and directors and producers are very appreciative of this, especially when they are under a tight shooting schedule and need to move quickly. There have been many instances where the scene will be written as a basic fight, and I will get with the director and fight choreographer and let them know that I am a trained and highly skilled martial artist and can learn fight choreography very quickly, so if they want to boost up the action and film a more dynamic fight scene we can create something that will really wow audiences and enhance the action of the movie and make the movie better for lack of a better term.
In one movie I did, the scene was written that my character just “shoots” the bad guy, and once I talked with the producer and shared my martial arts background with him, he brought the fight choreographer right over with his team and they choreographed an intricate fight sequence right on the spot which turned out to be fantastic! The fight sequence received a lot of praise, and it was even a focal point in the trailer for the movie. That’s one thing that having good fight sequences in a movie does, it ups the excitement and creates a nice contrast to the dialogue scenes. One director who I greatly admire and think does this very well is Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives, The Neon Demon). He is a master of combining moments of storytelling, slowly unveiling the plot, and then suddenly he will have a burst of action or violence. As for doing my own stunts, I do all of my own fight choreography, and some light stunts, which is important because the audience is emotionally connected to the actor as the character in the story, and if we see the actual actor doing the fighting on screen, it allows for a much more visceral experience for the audience.
All of the top-level Action Movie directors like Chad Stahelski (John Wick, The Matrix, Captain America) and David Leitch (John Wick, Atomic Blonde, Hobbs and Shaw), who are themselves, world-class martial artists, know how important it is to have the actors in their movies actually doing the fight choreography, which is why stars like Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry go through months of intensive martial arts training to prepare for those roles in their movies. But when it comes to actual stunts, anything that is potentially dangerous or life-threatening for the actor, professional stuntmen are always the ones doing those stunts. The most I will do is fall on the ground or get slammed into a wall or something like that, but I would not get thrown through glass or do a high fall off a building or any kind of truly dangerous stunts, I just stick with the fight choreography and the professional stuntmen do all the truly dangerous stunts. I really think there should be an Academy Award category for Best Stunts because the Stunt Men and Women really deserve to be recognized for their incredible work in movies right along with all of the other professionals who are recognized.
In closing I want to thank you so very much for your interview Colleen, I greatly appreciate the opportunity!
And Nerd Alert News thanks you, Eric. What an entertaining interview!
Written by Colleen Bement
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