An Interview with:-
SAPS: At the sword Demo In Denver at G5, it was mentioned this was
the first time you worked with F.Braun McAsh, though it didn't seem it. How
was your experience working with him?
BOB: First, I should say that I was honored to finally work with Braun.
This a man that has worked on the front lines of stage combat and swordplay
for many years, which forces you to get very good very quickly. I suspect
that Braun's advantage, however, was that he was very good even before he
began work on Highlander, having a rich knowledge of history, balanced with
practical experience in real combat and historical reenactment.
Braun is unique in his approach to stage combat and putting together a fight
scene. He approaches it in a completely real perspective, which seems like
it should be obvious, but it can be extremely dangerous if the person
doesn't also have strict rules of safety.
For example, when I choreograph a fight, I try to work at a slow and relaxed
pace. Braun, however, comes at you with a speed and energy that would do
some serious damage if he didn't have the supreme control that he does. It's
quite startling to work with, and a bit exciting, since it is obvious that
this is the same energy that comes through in his teaching and choreography.
The other thing I didn't expect from Braun is his humbleness, which is rare
in this business. I learned that he taught the knife class at G5 for a couple
different reasons. First, because he didn't want to carry a bunch of swords
around, and second, because he knew I was teaching a sword class and didn't
want to step on any toes. He was also willing to let me lead the demo, even
though I am typically Anthony's assistant and I thought it was much more
appropriate to have Braun lead. This is why the opening of the sword demo
at G5 started out with both of us staring at each other saying
"What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?"
SAPS: Tell us how you got interested in acting and sword/action
Choreography.
BOB: Through music actually. I was on a music scholarship at Miami
Dade Community College and played trumpet for 8 years. When it became too
much for me (8 hours practice a day) I left the music program. One of my
instructors, however, said I could keep my scholarship if I took his "Early
Music Consortium," where he was desperately trying to find someone who could
play a "zinc" - a renaissance trumpet. I was terrible at it, but I've heard
that it's not supposed to sound much better than a cat in heat.
One of our first performances happened to be at a renaissance fair. I remember
my costume made me look like a walking green carpet. The fair, however, was
a whole new experience, but nothing was as impressive as the Living Chessgame.
Here were guys and girls my age doing fantastic choreographed stunts which
had the audience cheering like they were at a WWF match. I was hooked. Within
three months, my brother and I were directing shows with this group, which
still exists today - The Royal Chessmen of Miami, Florida. After almost twenty
years, I still quote their logo "Fight Hard, Die Well," and always keep in
mind their two rules of stage combat "1 - Don't hurt anyone, and 2 - Don't
get hurt."
SAPS: Is there any one person or event that had a role or influence
in your making acting/Sword/action choreography your choice of career?
BOB: William Hobbs, Bob Anderson, Braun McAsh, Anthony DeLongis, Dan
Inosanto, Dan Speaker, Robert Dawson, the many talented folks I've met through
the SAFD, and the old Royal Chessmen gang... There's so many people who can
influence your life one way or another, and I'm grateful for all that I've
learned. But Sword/Action Choreography It's not really my choice of career.
It's always been a fun hobby for me, which is what it should be. There really
isn't enough work to go around, especially in LA, and many of the people
who take it too seriously have become bitter and fiercely competitive.
I've been focusing more on my acting the last few years. I've been
fortunate enough to work with Larry Moss in LA, who has recently come
into the spotlight after coaching Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry," Michael
Clarke Duncan in "Green Mile," and Helen Hunt in last year's "Good as it
Gets."
My real job over the past five years has been as a computer graphics artist
for feature films, and I actually have a strong list of credits, including
work on American Beauty, Armageddon, Con Air, and others...
SAPS: Do you prefer acting or Sword/action choreography?
BOB: I'm learning to appreciate acting more, but I'm still more
comfortable and confident with action.
SAPS: Tell us a little about your classes at the school Acting Action
Acting
Action--Film and Stage Combat Workshop
BOB: Acting Action currently meets on Sundays from 1-4pm at the Inosanto
Academy, and focuses on all aspects of fight choreography and swordplay for
stage and screen.
There are a few other stage combat classes in LA and hundreds of stage
combat classes all over the country taught by the SAFD.
I've tried to make Acting Action special, however, by teaching aspects of
stage combat that no one else does. Everyone teaches basic technique,
which is essential, but what I think is important is to develop the student's
own creativity and unique style.
Very few classes teach choreography, and I think it's important on
several levels, but most importantly, it helps the student "own"
the technique. And it can be a lot of fun. I compare it to learning how to
play the piano. If you try to learn by playing scales all the time, it's
very tedious work, and many quit before they begin. You've got to learn to
enjoy it first, and only then you'll have the incentive to go back to learning
the scales.
A few other unique topics discussed in class are: performance speed, on-camera
blocking techniques, and acted aggression. I also invite guest instructors
to teach class on occasion, which gives the student a wide range of techniques
and styles.
Finally, I create performance opportunities for the students. Last
year, Acting Action performed at several live venues which included
a Romeo and Juliet Living Chessgame, which toured several of the local
renaissance fairs. This year, I am planning on shooting an action series
for the internet using students from Acting Action.
SAPS: How did the forming of this school come into play.
BOB: I had been teaching for a long time, but it wasn't until recently
that I realized I could make a commitment to a regular class if I had a partner.
Anthony DeLongis had started his Acting Action classes in Burbank at Swordplay
Studios, but he was looking for a new home. I had just started taking classes
at the Inosanto Academy, and Anthony was an old friend and student of Dan
Inosanto. I mentioned to Anthony that the academy had offered to let me teach
a stage combat class, and the next thing I knew, Anthony and I were partners,
and the class has been meeting on Sunday
afternoons for the past two years.
SAPS: Have you worked on any Highlander The Series eps, or Highlander
Films, as either an actor, or compiling
action/sword sequences?
BOB: I've had several close calls with actually being on the show.
Most recently, I had a second callback for a role in the upcoming film. I
tried to get my acting coach to help me on the audition, but apparently he
was working with Adrian at the time.
I tried everything to get onto the series. When the local casting
director wouldn't give me the time of day (since I wasn't Canadian
and not many parts were actually cast in LA), I sent a letter to the show's
producer, Ken Gord
at the production office in Vancouver. I spoke to Ken shortly afterwards
and he assured me he was going to try and get me on the show. That was the
last I heard from them for six months until I was in the middle of coordinating
a show for DIC Entertainment. I received a page from a strange area code,
and I figured it was a mistake or something. When I
finally got off work around midnight, I checked my messages and it was the
Highlander production office saying that one of their guest stars canceled
and they needed me to fly out that day.
Note to self - always check your pages.
I was also up for the role of Kanwulf on the Homecoming episode, but lost
out to an actor who was actually Scandinavian.
I had also sent a letter and talked to Braun McAsh, and he admits now
that he tried to get me on the show for 4 years. Before I had
met them personally, Gillian Horvath and many of the other production staff
had also seen my headshot.
But I keep telling myself these things happen for a reason. My acting
coach would say "Thank God you didn't get the part, you want to be ready
for it when it happens."
I'm getting ready.
SAPS: Tell us about one of the funnier experiences in Sword/action
choreography you either taught or received.
BOB: I had a couple requests at G5 for the "chicken story," which
is no longer on my website. Although it's not necessarily a sword story,
and it has been known to offend people in the past, I include it here with
this disclaimer...
You know how movies have that "no animal was harmed in the making of this
film" disclaimer at the end of the credits? They lied. Sinbad claimed the
lives of at least six chickens, a horse, and a German tourist (although
we weren't directly responsible for the horse or German tourist).
A battle scene was called for in the script which was described as being
comical "with chickens flying everywhere". Jim, our very proper English second
unit director, took this literally and had a production assistant
find several live chickens.
The battle scene was to take place in Petra on the side of a cliff. Several
dozen warriors were hidden in the rocks, poised to attack when Jim gave the
command to "throw the chickens"... and the PA whipped three of the suckers
at least twenty feet into the sky over the side of the cliff.
And of course, chickens... don't fly.
There was a brief moment, though, when I saw the look on one of the chickens,
"hey, look guys, I can fly!" The look was replaced all too quickly by the
look of terror as the bird plummeted to the ground with his feathered buddies.
The suckers hit the ground like bags of wet cement. The only sound that followed
was the sound of pain from everyone hiding behind the rocks "Oooooo", and
the sound of intense pain from the chickens "Bawwkkk". (From then on, this
was the sound we made whenever anything went wrong on the show "Oh no! The
camera fell off the cliff - Bawwkk")
Of course, elaborate fight scenes such as this are rarely shot in one take.
Four takes later, two of the birds were dead and the third one was seriously
confused. I overheard one of the extras volunteer to put the last bird out
of its misery, and the production assistant simply said "No, I think he's
got one more left."
After eight takes, we had killed three more chickens for our valiant cause,
but the PA kept lobbing dead chickens into the air until Jim said (in a very
proper English accent) "Don't throw the chickens anymore, it doesn't look
good."
Anthony DeLongis was the one who decided at that point that it didn't look
good to have dead chickens laying about with their little feet in the air,
so he neatly propped them up using rocks. The birds are obviously dead, but
now thanks to Tony, they look like they're just taking a nap. I don't know
if posing dead chickens is listed on Tony's resume, but he might want to
consider it.
After the incident, we were supposed to shoot a scene which involved some
warriors who accidentally ride their horses off the side of a cliff. We never
got the rubber horses we ordered, so we were considering using the dead horse
and German tourist (which again, were not our fault). We figured we were
already responsible for six chickens, the horse and tourist were dead anyway,
why not?
We decided against it, but the fact that we considered it should say something
about the entire experience...
SAPS: Any current projects you are working on, and if so what?
BOB: As any actor in LA would tell you, there's so much going on that
it's hard to keep track of. One of the reasons that I don't get as much done
as I'd like to is that I'm constantly being pulled in a dozen directions
at the same time. I just unpacked from G5 a couple days ago and now I'm getting
ready to do another convention in Kentucky, and Legacy at the end of May.
I just finished two low budget pilots, Privateers (pirates in space) and
Kyra (an R-rated Xena internet series). I'm also working on a script to shoot
my own internet action series this summer called "The Hunted," which is a
cross between "Buffy" and "Highlander."
This is in addition to my day job doing visual effects (currently working
on a Chow Yun-Fat film called "Crouching Tiger"), acting classes, Kali classes,
and teaching the Acting Action class on the weekends. Makes me tired just
thinking about it.
But shows spring up overnight, and jobs come out of nowhere at any time.
I was just at a reading for a new series yesterday called "Erikson," which
is a Highlander-type series being shot in Iceland this summer.
SAPS: Finally Bob, what are your hopes or goals for the future.
BOB: Like everyone else, I hope to someday live up to whatever my
potential is. I'd like to know that everything I've learned hasn't gone to
waste - the acting, the action, the music, the directing, the writing, visual
effects...
I feel very fortunate that I've found a medium where I can use all of these
talents, and I'd like to start a film production company someday, and give
something back that might inspire others to live up to their own potential...
Well there you have it, I don't know how he does it, he is one busy man!
I would like to give my special thanks to Bob, for his time and his humble,
gracious manner in giving me this interview for all of us to enjoy. And next
time you are at a Con, and Bob is there be sure to check out the Sword Demo...you
will not be disappointed.
I think I will sign up for some sword classes next time!
Deb
(Pics kindly contributed by Ruth aka RMS4AP
and Candy aka LVbandc)
Designs by Kath |
