Barbarella Chats with BEAST Daniel MacPherson!

Hey friends, Barbarella here. Coming to theaters, Friday, April 10, BEAST tells the story of a former MMA champion drawn back into the ring for the most consequential fight of his life. With high stakes, Patton seeks the assistance of his former trainer (Russell Crowe) to return to the ring for one last fight. There's much more to BEAST than meets the eye, and it's an enjoyable watch. Even more enjoyable, I had an opportunity to talk with the beast himself, Daniel MacPherson. After we broke the ice discussing our shared love of both Austin, Texas and Australia, we shifted gears to converse about the film, which also stars Bren Foster, Luke Hemsworth, Amy Shark, Mojean Aria, and Kelly Gale. Check it out!

 Barbara: One of the things I really liked about this movie was just your character’s connection with his daughter. That seemed so genuine. How did you make that happen? Have you worked with her before? 

Daniel: No. We just met on this film, but she was an extraordinary young actor from an extraordinary family. Her parents were Brazilian. Her father was one of the original jiu-jitsu proponents who brought Gracie Jiu-jitsu to Australia, so they were a martial arts family.

Daniel (cont.): It was the family aspect of the script that I immediately resonated with. It was the union of husband and wife and kind of a small nucleus of family. It was the us-against-the-world feeling of that that really inspired me. The union of that family and the love that they shared gets put at risk during the story. The story becomes about a man deciding to chase and fight for his own purpose and his own identity and for his own future. But that’s for the good of his family, as much as it is for his own reasons. It was really that family element that became the spine of the story for myself and for Tyler [Atkins], the director. We jelled over that immediately. If we got that part right, if we made that part meaningful, then suddenly the punches mean something different. I probably couldn't have made this movie if I wasn't a dad. That made it all the more meaningful for me, and maybe those connections just made it more natural. 

Barbara: What’s your experience with fighting, and how did you prepare for this role? 

Daniel: I'd had a career pretending I knew how to fight. Particularly in shows like Strike Back or even Foundation - there was a big fight sequence - but I'd always just pretended. I came from a sports background, but not a martial arts or a fight background. For this, thankfully, the film was on again, off again for over three years. That allowed me three years to train for it, and I'm really grateful that it did stop and start a few times, because I was not going to be experienced enough. I was not going to be technically proficient enough, and I was not going to have the size, weight, stature, and gravitas that a character like Pat needed. I probably wasn't also going to have the life experience either. 

Daniel: Fatherhood and all those kinds of challenges that some men go through at that time in life (post 40), and going through a pandemic added a little bit more weight and a little bit more meaning for not only things I could put into the character, but also the great privilege of being able to make a movie and go to work and do what you love and be on top of the call sheet opposite Russell Crowe. There was a great gratitude and a great privilege and a great respect that I took into this opportunity because it was a-thousand-to-one to get made. We had to give it everything. 

Barbara: Yeah. Indie films are among my favorites because I just love their original stories and things like that. 

Daniel: Also, just with the indie film, by its very nature, there was so much more frustration that comes through because you don't have the time, the budget, the resources. And thankfully, all our frustration on BEAST went on screen, and it was perfect. Everything that we felt making a movie, we were able to channel onto the screen, and I think it helps. 

Barbara: Going back to the training, preparing for this, did you have a single trainer working with you? What'd you do? 

Daniel: No. I kind of used every toolset that I had at my fingertips to try and build a character with a certain level of skills. First thing I did was reach out to a friend of mine in Sydney who was a professional boxer, and I jumped in with his boxing coach who happens to be one of the best in Australia. I then sought out a jiu-jitsu, Brazilian guy living in Sydney who's an ex-MMA fighter and a master in Sydney, and I started jiu-jitsu. Then I did the same with Muay Thai. And then after I became proficient in each sort of discipline, then I put them together and started learning that MMA is a completely different sport, but at least then I knew the tools that went into it. Then I took myself up to Thailand a few times and threw myself into camp in Bangkok and down in Ko Samui a couple of times, not letting on that I was an actor. I jumped into pro MMA sparring classes and came out pretty worse for wear. 

Daniel: But once everybody knew that I was actually an actor and was prepping for a role and was representing them, there was a lot of support, a lot of help and tips. It was amazing, [the] level of outpouring of support and energy and whatnot. So again, I took a great responsibility in portraying the lives of these warriors, and it wasn't something I took lightly. I really threw myself into the training. And then I was 44 when we shot this. So then it was physio and trying to drop body fat and look the part, as well as the acting and everything around it. It was on an indie film budget, on indie film resources. It stretched every level of my skillset. I've been acting for 25 years, and I've come from a sports and athletic background. It challenged all of that to the nth degree. 

Barbara: Which discipline was the hardest to learn?  

Daniel: They're like languages. Jiu-jitsu for me was not the hardest, but the words didn't quite flow as seamlessly. I found with Muay Thai that once I got into a rhythm, these old triathlon legs were actually really good for kicking people. And these shins that I've used to ride bikes for 25 years, semi-professionally, have got a great level of density and weight in them, and they're good to use as weapons as well. I spent 30 years trying to get my hips to go in one direction in a linear plane. And then once they started moving, it was probably the Muay Thai that came the most naturally to me. I found the grappling probably the most challenging. 

BEAST comes to theaters on Friday. Check out the trailer!