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Among the stars of the upcoming film Kickboxer: Retaliation are the global household names Jean-Claude Van Damme (“the Muscles from Brussels”) and Mike (“Iron Mike”) Tyson. But neither of them is the movie’s star.
Instead, doling out the film’s righteous punishment is Alain Moussi.
So what’s his nickname?
“I don’t have one yet,” he laughs. “It has to be assigned.” Then, he remembers that when he was a stuntman, before he became a bone-crunching leading man, they called him “Moose.”
As per Moussi’s wishes, the world premiere for Kickboxer: Retaliation will be in Ottawa. It takes place Thursday at Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, complete with a pre-screening red carpet and an after-party at Craft Beer Market. Tickets are $30 at alainmoussi.com/kbr-premiere.
Later this month, Moussi will travel to Los Angeles and then Beirut — not coincidentally, he is Lebanese on his father’s side — to celebrate the $13-million film, which was shot in 2016 in Las Vegas and Thailand. In Canada, the film will only be available digitally, on iTunes, on Jan. 26, but it will open in theatres in the U.S. and internationally.
While chatting at the K2 Martial Arts school in Orléans, a business he co-owns and which is just a few minutes from his home, Moussi was amiable, very much unaffected and bubbling over with enthusiasm for his film career over the past seven years. You might have seen Moussi without knowing it when, among other credits, he was the stunt double for Henry Cavill in Immortals, Jai Courtney in Suicide Squad or for Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Kickboxer: Retaliation is Moussi’s second starring role. The film is a sequel to 2016’s Kickboxer: Vengeance, which itself was a reboot of the 1999 Van Damme film Kickboxer. These days, Moussi is growing his hair long because the script for a third Kickboxer film, which is to begin filming in a few months, calls for it.
It was especially thrilling for Moussi to meet and act with Van Damme, whom he calls JCVD, because a Van Damme movie inspired Moussi’s enduring passion for martial arts. When Moussi was a 10-year-old growing up in Vanier, a friend popped in a VCR tape of the 1988 Van Damme movie Bloodsport, and Moussi was hooked.
“That’s what sparked the whole thing,” Moussi, who is now 36, remembers. “I’ve got to do martial arts. I’ve got to kick and do the splits. I’ve got to put on a bit of muscle.”
Alain Moussi is a martial arts instructor turned action-movie star. He is the star of Kickboxer: Retaliation, which also stars JC Van Damme, Christophe Lambert, and Mike Tyson. There’s a special screening of that movie at the Lansdowne Cineplex on Thursday. Photo by Wayne Cuddington
Moussi flourished at competitions and martial arts events while he attended Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. In particular, he grew to love demonstrating fighting moves at well-attended stage shows.
“The adrenalin rush when you are on stage, in front of thousands of people is incredible,” he says.
In his early 20s, Moussi opened his own martial arts studio and was being pushed to become a mixed martial artist. Instead, he became a stuntman, working especially on films and TV shows shot in Montreal and Toronto.
It was as a stuntman that Moussi came to the attention of filmmaker Dimitri Logothetis, the writer, producer and director behind the new Kickboxer movies. Logothetis asked Moussi to audition for the lead role. Moussi showed off his action abilities and acting — he admits that he was “a total rookie” — and Logothetis agreed to become his champion.
During Kickboxer: Vengeance, Moussi’s nemesis was wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy fame, whom Moussa describes as “a gentle giant.” In that film, Van Damme played his mentor. At first Moussi was a bit awestruck by his childhood hero. Now, Moussi says of Van Damme, “We know each other and we joke around.”
In Kickboxer: Retaliation, Moussi reprises the role of Kurt Sloane, based on Van Damme’s character in the late-1980s movie, and the film’s action culminates with Moussi, who does all of his fights and stunts, facing the monolithic Icelandic strongman/actor Hafþór Júlíus “Thor” Björnsson, who portrays Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane on the TV show Game of Thrones.
“We fought together for seven days. I took such a beating,” Moussi says of his David vs. Goliath sparring with Björnsson, who stands 6-foot-9 and weighs 420 pounds. Moussi recalls being thrown — multiple times — by Björnsson. “I flew 10 to 12 feet. I felt like a five-year-old tossed into a pool.”
The film also called for Moussi to be punched by Tyson, which he says “was awesome,” adding that as a boy he had played the Tyson-branded video game Punch-Out!! Moussi proudly says that the scene with Tyson shows the boxer’s knuckles digging into his chest. “It doesn’t feel good,” he says.
More genteel was the off-screen time he spent with actor Christopher Lambert, who plays the criminal who abducts Moussi’s character to Thailand to fight Björnsson’s character in a to-the-death underground bout. Lambert, the star of the Highlander films, was “really cool … a gentleman, (and) very knowledgeable.”
To prep for both films, Moussi took weekly acting lessons with Ottawa actor Robert Bockstael. But Moussi says there was only so much lessons could do in advance of the film’s demands.
“Let’s say you’re woken up by cold water from a fire hose, you’re naked, in a jail cell, in Thailand,” he says. “You try to make it real in the moment.”
He acknowledges that Sloane’s at-times dead-serious demeanour is a far cry from his usual positive, smiling self. “As soon as we call ‘cut’,” I start to laugh and joke around, whatever.”
In addition to performing, Moussi was also the film’s fight co-ordinator. He’s especially proud of a scene in which he fights 17 assailants in a Thai jail. The scene was all the more elaborate because it was four-minute “oner” — meaning that it was shot without cuts with a camera operator trailing action on the move — and Moussi and the crew were able to capture it on their first day of filming, with just three takes, after 90 minutes of rehearsal.
“I call it the miracle shot of the movie,” he says. He adds that in a big-budget film, a comparable fight scene could take several weeks of planning, rehearsing and shooting, and could involve “magic cuts,” which create the illusion of unbroken camerawork, and “cowboy switches” that substitute stunt doubles for actors during the pandemonium.
Might Moussi one day move to Los Angeles to pursue his career? “No, I don’t think I would because it would be too far away from the people I love,” he says.
He is married to Janie Des Rosiers, an anesthesiologist at the Montfort Hospital whom he met when he was in high school. They have a six-year-old daughter, Annabelle.
Making movies can take Moussi away from his family for big chunks of each week or even weeks or months at a time, with only daily FaceTime sessions to keep them connected. Fortunately, grandparents and friends can pitch in when he’s away. “We have such a great support system,” he says.
Between movies, Moussi teaches minimally at K2 but is more involved with business decisions and program development. That way, in addition to training, he can bring his daughter to school and pick her up from daycare. “When I’m here, it’s all about that,” he says.
The Alain Moussi File
Born: March 29, 1981 in Libreville, Gabon
Raised: in Ottawa’s east end, where he attended Collège catholique Samuel-Genest
Training: Jiu-Jitsu under John Therien, kick-boxing under Jean-Yves Theriault and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Machado
Selected stunt work: White House Down, Pacific Rim, The Smurfs 2
Selected stunt doubling: for Henry Cavill in Immortals, Jai Courtney in Suicide Squad, Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Apocalypse
Feature roles: Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer: Retaliation, the forthcoming Kickboxer: Armageddon
phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
查看原文...
Instead, doling out the film’s righteous punishment is Alain Moussi.
So what’s his nickname?
“I don’t have one yet,” he laughs. “It has to be assigned.” Then, he remembers that when he was a stuntman, before he became a bone-crunching leading man, they called him “Moose.”
As per Moussi’s wishes, the world premiere for Kickboxer: Retaliation will be in Ottawa. It takes place Thursday at Cineplex Cinemas Lansdowne, complete with a pre-screening red carpet and an after-party at Craft Beer Market. Tickets are $30 at alainmoussi.com/kbr-premiere.
Later this month, Moussi will travel to Los Angeles and then Beirut — not coincidentally, he is Lebanese on his father’s side — to celebrate the $13-million film, which was shot in 2016 in Las Vegas and Thailand. In Canada, the film will only be available digitally, on iTunes, on Jan. 26, but it will open in theatres in the U.S. and internationally.
While chatting at the K2 Martial Arts school in Orléans, a business he co-owns and which is just a few minutes from his home, Moussi was amiable, very much unaffected and bubbling over with enthusiasm for his film career over the past seven years. You might have seen Moussi without knowing it when, among other credits, he was the stunt double for Henry Cavill in Immortals, Jai Courtney in Suicide Squad or for Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Kickboxer: Retaliation is Moussi’s second starring role. The film is a sequel to 2016’s Kickboxer: Vengeance, which itself was a reboot of the 1999 Van Damme film Kickboxer. These days, Moussi is growing his hair long because the script for a third Kickboxer film, which is to begin filming in a few months, calls for it.
It was especially thrilling for Moussi to meet and act with Van Damme, whom he calls JCVD, because a Van Damme movie inspired Moussi’s enduring passion for martial arts. When Moussi was a 10-year-old growing up in Vanier, a friend popped in a VCR tape of the 1988 Van Damme movie Bloodsport, and Moussi was hooked.
“That’s what sparked the whole thing,” Moussi, who is now 36, remembers. “I’ve got to do martial arts. I’ve got to kick and do the splits. I’ve got to put on a bit of muscle.”
Alain Moussi is a martial arts instructor turned action-movie star. He is the star of Kickboxer: Retaliation, which also stars JC Van Damme, Christophe Lambert, and Mike Tyson. There’s a special screening of that movie at the Lansdowne Cineplex on Thursday. Photo by Wayne Cuddington
Moussi flourished at competitions and martial arts events while he attended Collège catholique Samuel-Genest. In particular, he grew to love demonstrating fighting moves at well-attended stage shows.
“The adrenalin rush when you are on stage, in front of thousands of people is incredible,” he says.
In his early 20s, Moussi opened his own martial arts studio and was being pushed to become a mixed martial artist. Instead, he became a stuntman, working especially on films and TV shows shot in Montreal and Toronto.
It was as a stuntman that Moussi came to the attention of filmmaker Dimitri Logothetis, the writer, producer and director behind the new Kickboxer movies. Logothetis asked Moussi to audition for the lead role. Moussi showed off his action abilities and acting — he admits that he was “a total rookie” — and Logothetis agreed to become his champion.
During Kickboxer: Vengeance, Moussi’s nemesis was wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista of Guardians of the Galaxy fame, whom Moussa describes as “a gentle giant.” In that film, Van Damme played his mentor. At first Moussi was a bit awestruck by his childhood hero. Now, Moussi says of Van Damme, “We know each other and we joke around.”
In Kickboxer: Retaliation, Moussi reprises the role of Kurt Sloane, based on Van Damme’s character in the late-1980s movie, and the film’s action culminates with Moussi, who does all of his fights and stunts, facing the monolithic Icelandic strongman/actor Hafþór Júlíus “Thor” Björnsson, who portrays Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane on the TV show Game of Thrones.
“We fought together for seven days. I took such a beating,” Moussi says of his David vs. Goliath sparring with Björnsson, who stands 6-foot-9 and weighs 420 pounds. Moussi recalls being thrown — multiple times — by Björnsson. “I flew 10 to 12 feet. I felt like a five-year-old tossed into a pool.”
The film also called for Moussi to be punched by Tyson, which he says “was awesome,” adding that as a boy he had played the Tyson-branded video game Punch-Out!! Moussi proudly says that the scene with Tyson shows the boxer’s knuckles digging into his chest. “It doesn’t feel good,” he says.
More genteel was the off-screen time he spent with actor Christopher Lambert, who plays the criminal who abducts Moussi’s character to Thailand to fight Björnsson’s character in a to-the-death underground bout. Lambert, the star of the Highlander films, was “really cool … a gentleman, (and) very knowledgeable.”
To prep for both films, Moussi took weekly acting lessons with Ottawa actor Robert Bockstael. But Moussi says there was only so much lessons could do in advance of the film’s demands.
“Let’s say you’re woken up by cold water from a fire hose, you’re naked, in a jail cell, in Thailand,” he says. “You try to make it real in the moment.”
He acknowledges that Sloane’s at-times dead-serious demeanour is a far cry from his usual positive, smiling self. “As soon as we call ‘cut’,” I start to laugh and joke around, whatever.”
In addition to performing, Moussi was also the film’s fight co-ordinator. He’s especially proud of a scene in which he fights 17 assailants in a Thai jail. The scene was all the more elaborate because it was four-minute “oner” — meaning that it was shot without cuts with a camera operator trailing action on the move — and Moussi and the crew were able to capture it on their first day of filming, with just three takes, after 90 minutes of rehearsal.
“I call it the miracle shot of the movie,” he says. He adds that in a big-budget film, a comparable fight scene could take several weeks of planning, rehearsing and shooting, and could involve “magic cuts,” which create the illusion of unbroken camerawork, and “cowboy switches” that substitute stunt doubles for actors during the pandemonium.
Might Moussi one day move to Los Angeles to pursue his career? “No, I don’t think I would because it would be too far away from the people I love,” he says.
He is married to Janie Des Rosiers, an anesthesiologist at the Montfort Hospital whom he met when he was in high school. They have a six-year-old daughter, Annabelle.
Making movies can take Moussi away from his family for big chunks of each week or even weeks or months at a time, with only daily FaceTime sessions to keep them connected. Fortunately, grandparents and friends can pitch in when he’s away. “We have such a great support system,” he says.
Between movies, Moussi teaches minimally at K2 but is more involved with business decisions and program development. That way, in addition to training, he can bring his daughter to school and pick her up from daycare. “When I’m here, it’s all about that,” he says.
The Alain Moussi File
Born: March 29, 1981 in Libreville, Gabon
Raised: in Ottawa’s east end, where he attended Collège catholique Samuel-Genest
Training: Jiu-Jitsu under John Therien, kick-boxing under Jean-Yves Theriault and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlos Machado
Selected stunt work: White House Down, Pacific Rim, The Smurfs 2
Selected stunt doubling: for Henry Cavill in Immortals, Jai Courtney in Suicide Squad, Hugh Jackman in X-Men: Apocalypse
Feature roles: Kickboxer: Vengeance, Kickboxer: Retaliation, the forthcoming Kickboxer: Armageddon
phum@postmedia.com
twitter.com/peterhum
查看原文...
