Mens Health Australia May 2017

86 MAY 2017

What have you learnt from working with Stallone?
It’s hard to pinpoint some kind of philosophy.
It’s more of an intuitive thing. He has a lot
of confidence and great ideas about how
things will play out. He doesn’t work from
a textbook and he didn’t learn it from film
school. He is Rocky. That’s what he’s like.
Everything he does seems to be with a natural
swagger. And, like in any kind of business,
when you see someone doing their thing so
well, you become a sponge. You soak it up.

If you asked someone to think of a ‘real man’
or a ‘tough guy’, they’d likely think of you.
Who would you think of?
Ha! These public labels, the things the media
like to paint you as, I don’t really look at
them. I see myself as a pretty standard sort of
chap, really. I keep a lot of my pals close to me
and I think that’s what keeps my feet on the
ground. I don’t know if they’ll say the same
thing! But we all come from the same place.
Some of us have certain jobs and some of us
don’t. Hollywood has a caustic effect on a lot
of people. It’s a cruel business. You can get a
big head about things. But what goes up must
come down.

It’s inevitable that people will confuse you with the
characters that you play. Even so, you’re indisputably an
action hero for this generation. Who were your heroes?
Bruce Lee graced the walls of my brother’s
bedroom when I was a nipper. He was a
massive inspiration and for me he’s never had
anyone who could get close to him in terms of
physical ability and confidence. He was just

something very, very special. And he could

probably take on ten guys for real. Today,

you’ve got to put on a pair of tights and a cape

to be able to do that. He was authentic and I

think that’s the key word. Muhammad Ali was

exactly what he was, too. These people are

inspirational because they’re not pretending

to be something that they’re not.

Are you still doing much martial arts training?

Yeah. Essentially that’s what I have to give

most of my time to these days: training for

what I have to do in terms of providing action

in an authentic manner. If I’m trying to show

something on screen, I want to be able to do

that and not rely on special effects or a bunch

of other chaps who can do it better than me.

When I talk about authenticity, it’s people

like Jackie Chan and Jet Li... and even Sly

himself, he gets stuck in. These are the people

that I like to work alongside because there’s

an authenticity to those chaps.

Your old mucker Guy Ritchie is a black belt in jiu-jitsu,

and brown in karate. Do you ever spar together? Can

you take him?

I remember when we started out, we’d go on a

press tour for Lock, Stock and we’d be moving

all the furniture out of the way in the hotel

room, trying to choke each other out.

That’s one way to keep interviews interesting...

Exactly! You turn up with a scrape on your

head and the interviewer is like, ‘Where did

that come from?’ They probably thought we’d

stumbled out of some bar and had a fight with

the pavement. I’m a huge fan of MMA and

always have been, ever since the first days of

the UFC. It really filters out the non-effective

aspects of many of these martial arts: you get

to see what works and what doesn’t. I love it.

Where do you stand on Conor McGregor?

I love him, too. He’s so good. He’s got every

aspect of what he does down to a fine art.

He’s got the ability and he’s so confident.

When it comes to the banter, the destruction

of his opponent mentally, there’s no one

better. I can’t get enough of him. I think

he’s superb.

As we mentioned earlier, you’re about to turn 50

... what do you know now that you wish you’d known
when you were 20?
You don’t have to grind so hard. It’s not
about quantity; it’s about figuring it out, the
refinement of the movement: that’s where
the benefit really lies. Before it was about
getting the work done. But even when I was
diving, the coaches really knew nothing
about how you can generate the most power
and how the movement is essential to that.
What I’ve learnt is that I’ve missed out on so
much. Every detail of how you do an exercise
is key to how you progress and get really
good at something. And that translates all
the way down, from Olympic lifts through to
the gymnastic skills, everything. If I’d have
known then what I know now, I would
have certainly gone back to the basics a lot,
lot sooner.
Fast & Furious 8 is out on April 12