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Randy Couture is considered by many to be pound for pound the greatest fighter in UFC history, a claim he backed up last year by coming out of retirement to regain the promotion's heavyweight title. It was this legitimacy which encouraged David Mamet to have Couture a part of REDBELT. In REDBELT, Couture plays former fighter Dylan Flynn, now commentator for the IFA (International Fight Association), a mixed martial arts promotion who are currently promoting an international conflict when Mike Terry reluctantly joins the undercard in a tournament. At first reluctant himself to take part in the film, Couture embraced the story and adds credibility to a film enriched in the world of fighting and mixed martial arts. To promote REDBELT, Couture took part in a roundtable which the Crypt was a part of and spoke about his storied UFC career, working in action films prior, the state of mixed martial arts today, and many more in this Crypt exclusive.
In doing REDBELT, what did you learn from it in terms of the process? RANDY COUTURE: The vast training that I have is in fighting and I didn’t have any part in the fight choreography. I didn’t have any fight scenes in this movie so the learning experience for me was going in and reading the part and being with the cast and directors. That was a great experience spending the time with David (Mamet) and finding out from him that less is more. He breaks it down real simply and everything kind of fits together. It was a very good experience for me. I’ve only done seven pictures but there was a stark contrast in how David worked on set compared to my other experiences. I was working with Vincent (Guastaferro) who is a good friend of his and he would elbow me and say “Watch, we’re going to get a whole new set of dialogue,” and sure enough I look over and David would be sitting there in deep thought. All of a sudden he would bust out of it, come over, and scribble out some stuff and say “Do this,” and we had a whole new set of dialogue just like Vincent said. It kept me on my toes and made it interesting. It just worked because of his affinity for Jiu-Jitsu, we clicked. Right away, we were speaking the same language so it was good for me. So it was good for somebody who works from a different discipline from what you are doing but understands you on the level of that discipline? RC: Absolutely and I think that there’s an authenticity that comes out of the movie because of his experiences in Jiu-Jitsu over the past six years. It wasn’t a fight film which I appreciated. I didn’t really want to be involved in a fight film. It was a plot in a movie that told a very interesting story, a story that I had to warm up to. I didn’t really like it at first. I read for the main character and obviously I don’t have what it takes to pull it off, at least from Sony’s perspective. The casting directors, Sharon and Sherry, were much different than what I was used to. Usually you just go in and there’s a single camera and you do this cold read. They spent an extra amount of time with me. They were very interested in trying to cast for this movie. They had no idea what the sport was or how I fit into the sport but they immediately started asking questions, wanted to go to the gym, and get a real feel for the environment because they had to put people in who were authentic into the picture and that made a lot of sense to me. It wasn’t a bunch of wire work. It wasn’t a bunch of craziness. It was grounded into real mixed martial artist technique and the Jiu-Jitsu technique. Do you think this will showcase you to a different audience than the films you’ve done, which are all fight films except for CRADLE 2 TO THE GRAVE? RC: Even CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE appealed to a certain demographic in the action film genre and I was definitely in fight scenes with Jet Li in that movie. The last three pictures I have done I’ve steered away from the thuggish fight roles because I could do those with my eyes closed. I was lucky enough to do athletics to open those doors and now having seen the process, I am developing a healthier respect for that process and what it’s all about, taking acting classes and trying to take it a little more seriously. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately, I don’t know, I can’t fight forever. This is a logical step, it’s a challenge for me and it’s something I see myself doing for a long time. What are the differences between Brazilian and American Jiu-Jitsu? RC: I don’t know if there is any huge distinction between Brazilian and American Jiu-Jitsu. There’s traditional Jiu-Jitsu which is rooted in Japan and it is more about stand up techniques. The Brazilian style of Jiu-Jitsu is more about being a smaller opponent who ended up being on the bottom and it focused more on ground techniques, especially operating from their back. Helio Gracie developed it and him being an athlete of a smaller stature, he couldn’t do a lot of the throws and a lot of the more traditional moves because he was small but he focused on things he could do and came up with a new approach. That is Brazilan Jiu-Jitsu. The American version is the same as Brazilian, it’s just here in America and it’s transplanted by the Gracies into the American market and American culture. What did you learn from Jet Li in the acting and martial arts aspect of moviemaking? RC: I think the thing that came out of that experience for me first of all was that CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE was the first big picture that I had been involved in. I was in a five minute fight scene and it took us over seven days at thirteen hours a day to shoot that sequence so therein lies the process of having some patience and being on set all day. He was very gracious and easy to work with. First of all, he had no ego and had no pretense of being a fighter of any kind. He said, “I’m a martial artist, I’m an acrobat. I do what I do but I could never fight, I’m not a fighter,” which is unlike some other Hollywood martial arts movie stars who believe they could fight, he was not like that at all. What was interesting to me was seeing all the choreography that goes into making a fight film, seeing the stunt coordinators was special. Corey Yuen did a lot of the fight scenes and he never worked with me; he doesn’t know me from Adam but he allowed me to have a little input on what works and what doesn’t from my perspective. That was the process that was interesting to me so that was a good experience. What were your thoughts on the way that mixed martial arts were presented because you said earlier that you initially didn’t like the story? RC: My resistance to the script came from a different perspective, it wasn’t about the fights. I thought mixed martial arts and the whole tournament format was well represented. Obviously we’ve never done anything like drawing the handicap and the arm tied behind the back but it certainly came from a tournament format sport where you fought multiple times in one night and most of the technique that was done was very well grounded in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu which is where UFC and MMA in the United States came from. I was very comfortable with that part of it. My initial push back from the script was the attitude of the main character of the movie which was “I don’t like the sport, it weakens the fighter.” Being a fighter and someone who participated in the sport for over ten years, I didn’t share that view. I had to come to terms with that and look at it in a different context. I saw an American Samurai story in that context and then realized there was an honor and an integrity that was being represented here. I’ve heard traditional martial artists early on in MMA say that “I’d never compete at that because if I unleashed my full force in UFC I would kill somebody.” I would always call “Bullshit” on that. I never agreed on that. There is a distinction of rules of engagement that we operate under but it’s not a very big leap to cross that line in a life or death situation which was where that character was coming from, and I agreed with that right away. When did you start training in Jiu-Jitsu and did you do any training in the Army? RC: When I was in the Service, unfortunately the hand to hand training in that era was very traditional, butt strokes and bayonet tactics and things that don’t really apply to what they do now. Now they have this combative program that’s very grounded in mixed martial arts and I’ve done a lot of work with law enforcement and soldiers since I’ve started fighting that is nothing from my time of service other than the wrestling that I did applied. When I joined the UFC, my very first fight was in 1997. I entered solely as a wrestler and I had five days to prepare for that competition. I didn’t know who I was facing, it was a tournament format and I had no idea what my opponent’s background was going to be so I had to take a crash course in styles. Fortunately, none of my opponents were experts in Jiu-Jitsu so my wrestling was very effective and the rest is history. David Mamet made a point of talking about the correct, moral vision that comes out of Jiu-Jitsu. Do you think that this philosophy will be apparent to the audience? RC: I think it’s self evident in the movie. The main character is resistant to go against his belief that competing in these competitions weakens his art and what he tries to teach. He’s doing everything he can to keep doing it, even to the point that when he’s right there, he finds a reason to take that turn and resist competing. He still ends up fighting but all of that is to maintain that integrity and to be able to stand up for what he believes. That’s his belief in that the things he teaches his art are for life and death situations. It’s for law enforcement and for soldiers and by putting rules of engagement and limiting what you can do, which is what the sport has to do, he thinks that it weakens the combatant. How did you get the nickname “The Natural?” RC: My second UFC fight, I was a huge underdog against a Brazilian fighter, Vitor Belfort, he was a very good puncher. I beat him and the editor in chief of FULL CONTACT FIGHTER magazine said “You were a natural, I’ve never seen anything like that. Is it alright if we called you that,” and I said it was fine. I’ve been called worse things. It got stuck and that’s where it came from. What do you think about the state of boxing and mixed martial arts now? RC: Being an MMA fighter, we’re constantly measured by boxing standards and that’s created a little bit of an adversarial relationship and I don’t think that it’s going to last for long I think. At some point, there are things that mixed martial arts can learn from boxing in the things of what boxing does well and I the same thing is true about things that boxing can learn from mixed martial arts on what mixed martial arts are doing well now. I think we should start working together in finding ways to cross-promote each other’s sport and share this because they’re both combative sports. I don’t know a single mixed martial artist who doesn’t appreciate boxing and studies it. It’s part of what we do and I still like it. I understand the problems with it. Mixed martial arts are becoming a big enough sport now where there are all these other promotions coming up where it’s starting to become fragmented like boxing and it’s one of the issues we need to avoid. I don’t want it to be like the IBF, WBO, IBO, all these different organizations and there’s a champion in each one so you’ll say to yourself “Who is the real Champion of the World?” We’re getting close to that argument in our sport where UFC say they have the best fighters, Pride say they have the best fighters, now Elite XC is coming up, so who is the World Champion? There needs to be an independent ranking system and create one champion in the sport, recognize that champion and continue to fight the best guys regardless of what promotion they represent. Thank you for your time Randy. RC: My pleasure. REDBELT opens in limited release on Friday, May 2nd from Sony Pictures Classics (Special Thanks to Falco Ink) |
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