Faris Steps Up in Never Back Down
By Paradise Afshar, The Miami Herald
Mar. 13–By mixing the complex fighting senses of Fight Club with the lessons of discipline in Karate Kid, the producers of the mixed martial arts action flick Never Back Down have created a surprisingly good teen movie.
As impossible as it may sound, Never Back Down (Summitt Entertainment) manages to be the perfect fit for male and female audiences — with a love story for the ladies and enough blood and punches to keep any guy happy.
Never Back Down follows the story of Jake Tyler (Sean Faris), a troubled student who has a tendency of getting into fights. He moves to Orlando with this family only to discover an underground mixed martial arts scene that he cannot avoid.
While the movie is full of young, up-n-coming actors, they pale in comparison to two-time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou, who plays Roquoa, Tyler’s mixed martial arts coach. His acting clearly sets a higher standard for everyone else on the film.
As for the younger star of the film, Faris delivers his standard performance as a teenager, but this time he does it with a bit of maturity. Faris seems to have mastered playing a high school student, and with any luck, he will use his role in this movie as a stepping stone to adult parts.
The acting talent in the movie shines in the fight sense, executed perfectly. The beauty of mixed marital arts, a hot industry these days, is the variety of fighting styles that are used in a violent yet ballet-like manner.
On paper, Never Back Down looks like every other teenage movie. Yes, it is cliche in ways. New kid in town, hard time fitting in, but in the end finds himself and gets the girl. It’s not exactly original. However, the added fighting and acting, which are sincere, make this movie worth watching.
Never Back Down opens Friday, March 14, and it’s Faris’s debut in a lead role in a major motion picture. He had a press conference Friday, Feb. 15 at the Shore Club Hotel on South Beach in Miami.
What would you say was the most exciting part of shooting this film?
“The most exciting part of shooting the movie, I’d have to say, probably the day we did or the week we did all of the fight tournament stuff. It was just really crazy to see all the different fighters doing these things, and the crowd was just so exocentric and loud and electrifying that it really was quite exciting.”
From the sports perspective how intense was the training?
“The training was extremely intense we trained for three months before we even left to come to Florida we were doing about six hours a day six days a week and that included Muay Thai, Ju-Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, a lot of stretching, and then we’d do that for about four hours, be a little out of it and have lunch, take a nap, go see a chiropractor, whatever. And then we would go to Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach, work with a weight trainer named Tito who helped me gain 13-14 pound for the movie.
“We only say 15 because that was the goal but when your training six hours a day you just cant do it I was eating about 5,000 calories a day, having meals delivered to my door everyday. And it is really hard actually eating every two hours, stuffing your self, but it was needed. We actually were set up with chiropractors and massage therapist to keep us in tune so that we could show up to work each day and continue training.”
Were you a fan or were you aware of the mixed martial arts world before you took on the project?
“Yes. Before I took on the project I was a huge fan. In fact, I’d been a fan of the UFC back in the way when they didn’t have rounds or time limits; you know when they would just go at it until somebody won. Back when Gracy was doing UFC and what not. But I’d never trained or anything like that before the movie.”
How well do you relate to your character Jake?
“I actually have some similarities to him. I moved when I was younger. When I was 12, I moved from Huston to Cleveland. At first, I did have some small issues in adjusting with the change being from the South with a thick accent and suddenly being in the Northeast. I also have situations in my life where the fight came to me, I didn’t ask for it, didn’t want it but other than that no other similarities.
During the fight scenes or during production of the film, did you have any bruising or injuries?
“Yes, I actually broke my thumb, and that was the second to last day of filming I broke my thumb because I was exhausted. And I broke the L-3 spinal trances process. This is your spine here. It’s one of the little bones that comes off the spine, and it’s just kind of cracked in half.
For two weeks I still continued to do my stunts, so my back locked up. I couldn’t walk one day, and then they took me to the surgeon. And the surgeon said, ‘You can’t fight.’ So they pushed all the fight scenes to the end of the movie, and that’s why I ended up breaking my thumb because three weeks of 12 hours a day nothing but fighting, you’re exhausted.
“You can barley move. You forget. I let my thumb hang out a little too far one time. Actually I was supposed to catch the other guys punch. I got my arm around, and my thumb was hanging out, and I caught his hand, and I popped it back. I just popped it back into place and kept on going.”
You worked on a lot of television series including Reunion and Life As We Know It. How is it doing your first feature film and having a major part instead of being part of an ensemble.
“The thing is the way my career is going I’ve been, I guess, tailored to take on the lead role. Because in Life As We Know It, even though it was an ensemble cast, it was kind of geared toward my character. And then Reunion was an ensemble once again, but then there were a couple of films I did that haven’t come out yet that were independents where I played the lead, and those kind of set me up for this.
Now then take all that you jump into Never Back Down. That was big budget, big studio. My first big lead in a film that people were definitely going to see. There was some pressure but a wonderful time for me to learn.
“I learned so much from this set as far as to how to lead an actual set. As lead actor, you set the pace, and it is your responsibility to show up right to work, happy to be there at work, because the energy of the set focuses on that. And also, too, it’s up to me to say no, sometimes. Maybe I should have said no to a couple of takes where I could have gotten injured because I didn’t realize I could shut down production by being injured. But these are all lesson we learn as we go.”
The media makes it look very hard for people in Hollywood to focus and not get involved in the whole Hollywood scene. How is it for you to focus on your career out there. Is it difficult?
“I just look at it from one point. That is I’m here to have a career and not party. Don’t get me wrong. I do my thing, and I have a great time, but work is work, and play time is only when it is time to play. It’s irresponsible to not focus on your job and show up unable to do your job because you were out partying. That’s just childish and irresponsible.”
What message would you like kids to get from the movie?
“I hope kids take from this movie the idea that my character Jake Tyler learns through training, self control, and if you are going to fight, fight for the right reasons. There is no reason to go out and just go mix it up. It’s ridiculous.
“The whole purpose of a fight is to hurt the other guy before he hurts you. You should only be fighting, if you need to defend yourself, your family, your friends. Unless you know you’re in a tournament, you are trained, and that’s different. It’s organized. You’re not going to kill someone by accident.”
How was it shooting in Orlando (Clermont)?
“Shooting in Orlando was tough. I’m not going to lie. It rains everyday at 1 til 3, somewhere around there. So in the heat of the day, when it’s raining like that, we come back after the rain, and it’s like being in a steamroom not to mention just the heat itself.
“I lost 17 pounds the last three weeks of filming from all the fight scenes, and we were doing those at night. You just drop sweat from your system. You had to hydrate yourself all day long. The heat was really bad as well. We were shooting on the black top of a high school, and the temperature coming off the ground was 136 degrees.
“Every third take, I had to change my shirt because sweat was coming through. We had ADs dropping of heatstroke. We had our first AD and our second AD drop in the same day from heatstroke, and we’re out there running around fighting and what not. So, yeah it was pretty intense.”
This movie has kind of a Fight Club thing to it. What was your favorite fighting movie.
“My favorite fighting movie ever? Probably Fight Club. I liked Fight Club a lot. As a kid, Karate Kid, of course. Who didn’t love Karate Kid as a kid? We all wanted to be the Karate Kid, when we were kids. But Fight Club definitely is probably my favorite. Well, On The Box is pretty cool, too. Tony Job is a bad man. So is Kung Fu Hussle. I like them all. I really do. I really like action fighting movies, just entertaining eye candy.”
So you did all your stunts?
“I did 75 percent of my stunts. I would have done them all up until I broke my back.”
Paradise Afshar is a student at Florida International University.
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