Latest / Cinema Yūgen / Mike Ferguson Unleashed — Stunts, Grit, and the Making of Last Hit
Transcript
- 0:00G'day. That's right. It's that time again. Time for... CINEMA! YOOGEEEAAAAAAA!
- 1:07Yes, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. Cinema Eugen in an industry crowded with pretenders.
- 1:15One man brings the real thing.
- 1:18Forged in ink, tempered in chaos, built for the screen. Mike Ferguson is not
- 1:25just part of independent cinema. He is one of the driving forces with over 185 credits.
- 1:33A viral legacy as...
- 1:36Internet's professional bounty hunter and a reputation for
- 1:40playing men you do not want to
- 1:44cross ferguson has become a walking symbol of raw uncompromising genre filmmaking
- 1:50from the explosion action hit which we're here to talk about the last hit to
- 1:56the shattered world the blackout the rising Darkness of Dracula Eternal.
- 2:01He doesn't chase intensity.
- 2:03He delivers it. Actor, producer, stunt warrior, screen presence card from pure steel.
- 2:10Now the indie cinema titan storms into Cinema Yugen for a conversation packed
- 2:17with grit, velocity, and zero filter.
- 2:20Turn it up, lock it in, and prepare yourself because this episode doesn't arrive quietly.
- 2:29It hits hard because this is Last Hit Conversation with the mighty Mike Ferguson.
- 2:39Welcome to Santa Ma Yugen, Mike.
- 2:42And thank you for that introduction. That was beautiful. God damn it.
- 2:45That's a lot of energy. Thank you.
- 2:47Oh, thank you, mate. Well, look, when I saw you come and I thought I got to
- 2:51have energy for Mike Ferguson because you're an unstoppable force in this business.
- 2:58You are a tornado of awesomeness and unstoppable.
- 3:03And you're very inspirational to many, many independent filmmakers.
- 3:07So I'm very glad to have you and was very thrilled to see last hit.
- 3:13What a thrilling heist picture. I had to get in touch with Alan actually after
- 3:17I watched it. I said, give me the other one now.
- 3:19I know he i know he reviewed like we
- 3:22you know we sometimes you know blackout man
- 3:25look yeah that one too i want to see that one next and
- 3:29your dracula picture have you put your dracula picture up for review yet or
- 3:33yeah no i i don't think so i gotta talk to yeah you gotta talk to the filmmakers
- 3:37i have nothing to do with that okay that's when you reached out to me i was
- 3:40like yeah i'll talk to you you know because i literally have nothing to do with
- 3:44all that other stuff oh okay Yeah, yeah.
- 3:46Because I'm- In black- Go ahead, sorry. I'll have to check out the Dracula one,
- 3:50too, because I'm excited to- It's a fun movie.
- 3:52It's a really fun movie. I make- Look, these are popcorn movies.
- 3:56These are Charles Band. These are- Love of- Junja with all the gore. This is all the wings.
- 4:03Can you see the poster behind me? Yeah. Yeah.
- 4:07Well, it was known as Trances in the States, but- Yeah, yeah. Trances did Jack Death.
- 4:11Huge of God, yeah. and that's that's that's
- 4:15what we're doing here is that's look we're not trying
- 4:17to pretend we're something we're not we are physically
- 4:21active like look i'm a black belt krav maga
- 4:24a stunt man uh i trained with dan henderson for a couple years yeah my my tawana
- 4:30who's in the movie who plays maya she is a was a pro wrestler for seven years
- 4:36and a champion for five yeah and she's a And she chose it too. She chose it too.
- 4:43Yeah. We're all fighters. You know what I'm saying? So, and blessed that I have
- 4:48so many good friends that would let me throw them around or vice versa. Yeah.
- 4:53And there's a lot of that in this. Yes.
- 4:56I've got to say, when you had a fight with your missus, did she ever body slam you like that?
- 5:02Yes, 100%. She has body slammed me when we fought.
- 5:06Wow. Because like, I've never seen. That's what 26, 27 years does.
- 5:10I thought that was so awesome. I've never seen like that in a movie where,
- 5:14like, I know people say Sigourney Weaver with the Queen Alien,
- 5:18but Sigourney Weaver didn't pick up the Queen Alien and body slammed the bitch. No, no.
- 5:24I mean, here's the thing. This person is in real life, you know,
- 5:28in real life does this on the regular.
- 5:30So yeah it was nice to show audiences
- 5:33that we could do something different and make even look
- 5:36that whole bring in a kick to high kick to a gunfight yeah how iconic is that
- 5:42yeah like it needs to be on a t-shirt yes yeah and i'll probably gonna do that
- 5:48thank you for bringing that up and yeah awesome that's the thing is these are
- 5:52the little moments that i've remembered,
- 5:55and thank you so much to Mitch Parks I was able to Lacey Storm and he was too
- 6:00of these inspirations we had yeah yeah.
- 6:04And very thankful on the dp and
- 6:08look this movie was shot very fast yes i've
- 6:11heard you speak on other interviews that you do these like lightning quick because
- 6:15like yeah as you say days as days are money days are money on independent films
- 6:20so the less days you look people don't realize how much it is for post right
- 6:26yeah you know i'm saying post is gonna be the most happy budget sometimes Yeah.
- 6:30And so you got to prepare for that. And so, look, on that movie, favors were brought in.
- 6:37People flew themselves in on last hit. Oh, I've noticed.
- 6:40There was literally, I'm like, hey, guys, I need you for this. Would you do this?
- 6:44I've got a YouTuber with 37 million, 38 million today's subscribers.
- 6:51Whoa. And he's in the movie. Wow. And, yeah, I gave him a rate. It was terrible.
- 6:57Thank you for being in the movie, Nick. You know what I'm saying?
- 7:00But this kid in real life just fought on the Tate bill in Dubai.
- 7:06Wow. He literally, he's boxed in Dubai like four or five times, Florida.
- 7:12This kid's a real boxer, and he's in this movie with me. Wow.
- 7:16You know, and it's people that I get to work with every day,
- 7:22and I pulled favors, and we all do stunts on each other's shows or do whatever or movies.
- 7:28Joe Davidson from Sorority of the Damned, he's the director of Ron Beshear's new show.
- 7:36He flew himself, well, a friend of ours flew him out from Florida.
- 7:40I put him in my apartment to have him here for a couple, two or three days to do this movie.
- 7:46Yeah, it's, it's, look, it's really beautiful.
- 7:49It is what, it is what the movie business needs is, is camaraderie among filmmakers.
- 7:57And, and look, I believe there's enough room for us, for everyone in this world,
- 8:03Mike. And I believe there's enough room for everyone's dreams.
- 8:06I do too. I think we should all help each other in this small world.
- 8:09In indie film, where we're getting assaulted from AI, a big studio,
- 8:13which is more declining, which makes us even more powerful as indie filmmakers.
- 8:19The revolution is here.
- 8:22Yeah, look, it's already happened. Like literally these YouTube channels they
- 8:26work on, they're getting their own shows on Netflix.
- 8:29They're getting their own show, the Amazon Prime. They already have like four
- 8:32or five seasons. I'm screaming, I'm Mike Ferguson. Right, right.
- 8:36It's already here. We have full control of it. Let's support each other to the highest.
- 8:42Yeah, I mean, this is this is how
- 8:45it happened the last time mike you know with with the easy riders
- 8:48and raging balls we're just yes we're just
- 8:51a different incarnation of that yeah no
- 8:54it is and i'm grateful for it i'm really i'm
- 8:57grateful to be around people that see that with me right now yeah and so much
- 9:02that i was able to produce three five films last year i know and leverage my
- 9:08whatever I've been doing into that and I want to say thank you so much to Ofsana,
- 9:15I'm not going to get her last name right. Okay. This is the girl who produced
- 9:18this movie. Right, right. Story by her.
- 9:21Wow. She saw how me and my wife reacted with each other and how much we loved each other on Blackout.
- 9:28Right, right. So she had this script written by Anthony Leon,
- 9:31which I love this kid's writing.
- 9:34It reminds me of a more coherent Stephen King.
- 9:39Okay. You know what I'm saying? Like when he went by other pen names,
- 9:42he wrote more coherently. Right, yeah.
- 9:46And yeah, I think he, well, I think he wasn't doing as much cocaine.
- 9:51I believe that too. He had a good run. Right.
- 9:56You know, I got monster and marijuana, God bless. Cause I mean,
- 10:00cocaine's a hell of a drug is, is Rick. No, it was, it was, I remember in the 90s.
- 10:05But yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, you, you have to be careful of the bears
- 10:10too. When this guy. Yeah, no. Yeah.
- 10:13And God bless him for doing that. look i worked
- 10:16with her on skincare i didn't be credited uh proper
- 10:19credit okay yeah i worked with
- 10:22her on skin she she realized what's happened yeah
- 10:25happened elizabeth banks or whatever her name is yes and she directed cocaine
- 10:29bear because she saw the shift yeah and an indie film i mean that by all means
- 10:35that was that was an indie film and even skincare was a smaller budget indie film for that lady.
- 10:43But yeah, look, last hit, that bump I took on the table and then fall on the
- 10:47thing, I did that four or five times. Wow.
- 10:51I'm 54. I was 53 when we shot that. You're made of heavy metal, man. Bro. Heavy metal.
- 10:58And he ran that all-in-one bit with this thing up. They didn't think we were
- 11:04going to break it up into pieces.
- 11:06Cody, that dude is amazing. He's a maniac. heck, he had to pick me up like eight times. Yeah.
- 11:12He's bigger than me. Look, I'm 6'3". He's great. He reminded me of Brian Jane.
- 11:17He looked like Brian Jane. He's 6'7", 6'8", picking my 200 pounds up,
- 11:22slamming me over and over. No.
- 11:26God bless him, man. And this is how action movies are made. Yeah.
- 11:29You know what I mean? Yeah.
- 11:30I don't know how you guys do it and get up the next day and do it again.
- 11:36Look, man, I'm glad this movie was only seven days. I couldn't probably live
- 11:39longer than that. You know what I'm saying? I was about to say.
- 11:43Look, and I want to say to Leanne, look, at the time, I didn't see her development
- 11:47in the script because I was so obsessed with who my character was.
- 11:52And she's got a really great arc in this movie. It led me to play.
- 11:57Look, man, I'm kind of method. and I walked in, I didn't like the guy at all. And he was marvelous.
- 12:04Yeah. And we really played off that energy. And he was marvelous.
- 12:10And watching the film after it, I love his depiction.
- 12:14I love everything he did. We got to shoot that in Elizabeth Taylor's mansion
- 12:18on Burton Way in Beverly Hills. Yeah. Wow.
- 12:22Yeah, Tori, who's in the movie, she's been in a bunch with us.
- 12:26She got body slammed by my wife in the movie. Her boyfriend owns that property.
- 12:31A bunch of other ones we get to film out occasionally.
- 12:34That's awesome. The power of indie cinema.
- 12:36Wow. See, people listening, independent filmmakers and dreamers and people who
- 12:42want to know, look, it's, if you get together, it's, it's, it's about finding,
- 12:46like you said on an interview before, I think Mike, it's about finding your tribe, right?
- 12:51Funny tribe. Look, in 2019, I've looked on Craigslist and saw a movie shoot
- 12:58for $75 out in the high desert. Yeah. So I took the job.
- 13:02I drive out there. They got a red camera. I'm a human trafficker.
- 13:07I'm going to do whatever. It's $75. It pays my gas and a pack of cigarettes.
- 13:12Right. And I go out there, and in 2021, that was five roles of success with Orson Obowitz.
- 13:21Right great gritty dirty crime movie yeah he gave me a call for the action movie.
- 13:29Showdown at the grand like in 21 hey
- 13:32i got a movie for you and i'm like shut up
- 13:35because i took that other one dude i had was six on the call sheet and they
- 13:40had omissions on the when i went to go beat up john what's his name from deer
- 13:44hunter oh i'm so stupid right now i'm gonna remember it later but i i show up
- 13:51on set i don't even have that in my script i show up with boo,
- 13:55john savage yes savage right so that whole scene with john savage literally
- 14:00is given to me on the day wow and but i just got to bless to work with all of
- 14:06these great people what's john have a showdown with terrence howard and a gunfight
- 14:11with them wow yeah you know what i'm
- 14:14And so, and that was being part of the indie film community that got me on that
- 14:19side film, is going out and doing a little bit more. Wow.
- 14:23And taking and running this, I'm a human trafficker, I'm like,
- 14:26how bad can I be? And that ended up being the breaking point for the lead of the movie.
- 14:31This little snippet we shot in the high desert at dusk with a red cam.
- 14:36And Orson's dad was the DP, so it was crazy. You know what I mean?
- 14:41Man to quote tom petty in the postman i heard of you man you're yeah yeah look
- 14:48man i i mean look it's everybody trying to help everybody look this is to get
- 14:52a film done is an impossible feat,
- 14:54it's a wonder any film gets made sometimes hey no 100 and and this was brainchild
- 15:01within a couple months and and collaborated on we shot this within a six-month
- 15:07period of blackout and that's how fast this team got everything together and
- 15:11we got everybody on page very quick. Yeah.
- 15:14You know, there's big lines of dialogue. To learn that much shit in a very short
- 15:18period of time and understand your characters, whatever it may be, is tough.
- 15:24And then you throw in fighting on top of it. We've got some BTS rehearsals on
- 15:28those. Yeah. I did get to work with a couple people, which was blessing.
- 15:33Leanne crushed it in this film with Trent. They gave a really beautiful fight.
- 15:40Believable my wife look those punches
- 15:43i can i've seen her do those so that you know
- 15:46what i'm saying yeah i wouldn't want to
- 15:49be in front of one no no she's a cannon that's
- 15:52a lady who was an ex bodybuilder pro wrestler crown
- 15:56mcgahn structure real life happy wife happy life yeah yeah so no body slamming
- 16:03yeah and that's the thing i think that's the thing is that people are looking
- 16:07for is in action movies and movies these days are people they can identify with from other things.
- 16:14You you know what i'm saying and then her having a career wrestling and and
- 16:19now she works uh for a homeless foundation is working on her own 501c homeless foundation working out,
- 16:26she's just saying god bless her you know what
- 16:29i'm saying but all of us are working within this
- 16:32sphere of doing and helping and trying to
- 16:35create something sure it's not hollywood's not
- 16:38singular it's it's multiple movies it
- 16:42is a tribe yes and people
- 16:45don't i i think people outside of the business don't realize how many layers
- 16:49there are in fact yeah yeah yeah it they think like they see the movies at the
- 16:55theater and they think that's the business that's it right no man look i i just
- 16:59got a tip of the ice now i just got text message i'm going to talk about because i can't say names,
- 17:05Mike if you can bring us some MGs or some shows ready to fly we have access
- 17:10to a 50 million dollar fund I'm gonna make that call at 4 o'clock with this guy,
- 17:17and look I mean I gotta be careful who I hitch my that would be a good idea
- 17:22it's probably not gonna be the idea I take.
- 17:26Because there's always a give and take and this business is changing and a lot
- 17:30of middle people made money for a long time where the artist or the filmmaker
- 17:35or whoever didn't have ownership. Yes, yes.
- 17:39It that's that that's that's the most yeah look
- 17:43that's the biggest thing you can work for everybody your
- 17:45whole life yeah but you'll have nothing yes but
- 17:49if you have ownership a percentage of that yeah try to get over 10 or more but
- 17:55make yourself that important yeah if you own your film you've got a better yeah
- 18:00i mean look that's that's the thing these days and that's yeah and i think that
- 18:04Everybody has access to this.
- 18:06We have a phone in our pocket. We have a 4K camera.
- 18:09We have, it's limitless. Yes.
- 18:12Look, there's that YouTube kid just did Iron Log. I haven't seen it yet.
- 18:15No, no. But it made money. Yeah.
- 18:18$3 million made like $20 million. Yeah. So, I mean, what it signals is the shift is on.
- 18:24And look, the race to the top is on.
- 18:29Yeah. Because if Indie Cinema can get through this window now while it's open,
- 18:34while the studios are in complete and utter disarray. Yeah.
- 18:38The sky's the limit for us if we can if we can
- 18:41uh get through the gate and and just yeah and and
- 18:44then it's just navigating through distribution deals and navigating with or
- 18:48going to portal yourself yeah there's so many ways you have these days but it
- 18:53really solidifies things and i think and that's doing last hit and putting you
- 18:58know i have a stand-up comedian in there uh who's who run stage at Flappers.
- 19:04I have a YouTuber with 37 million subscribers. I have a pro wrestler.
- 19:09I have... Look, these people all add up. The YouTuber already helped promote it and stuff like that.
- 19:16They all add up because it takes a village.
- 19:20And I think it's really those people have more value.
- 19:25And I'm not going to say anything bad on anything than a lot of other names.
- 19:28Look, I just did a movie with ruby rose and terrence howard an action movie
- 19:33awesome it's a it's a post-apocalyptic train heist movie and i'm a trader that
- 19:41has with that has past history with chad michael collins,
- 19:46from from uh the sniper stories and all that he's the lead of this terrific guy and and,
- 19:54We're lucky to be able to get that because those names we have,
- 19:57Terrence is worth money.
- 19:58Ruby has 19 million people on Instagram. Yeah. 19 million.
- 20:03Yeah. She has a gigantic soapbox. I think that's where the blind spot in the
- 20:09studios is, is they don't realize that now the artists have a direct link to their audience. Yes.
- 20:15Yes. They don't understand that these people have a direct line to the people
- 20:22that want their material.
- 20:24Well, what's funny about it is they're starting to realize it.
- 20:26So I just did a Disney Hulu show with Topper Guild, who I've been working on
- 20:31YouTube for four years now. He had 2.5 million subscribers.
- 20:34He's at 85 million today, four years later.
- 20:38Paramount has 69 million. The Stokes Twins I work on have 139 million subscribers.
- 20:45They all have shows on Prime now.
- 20:47Zong stokes twins multiple seasons
- 20:51with me on it we mainstreamed now they're
- 20:54putting money into their own shows rabbit hole
- 20:57is the hulu one and it's all of the big youtubers with their own episodes not
- 21:03in one of the episodes wow as mike ferguson who i play right mike ferguson is
- 21:10mike ferguson yeah mike ferguson is mike ferguson because that's what mike ferguson does that's Yeah.
- 21:16And everybody was like, why are you talking about yourself third person?
- 21:18I was like, watch, it's going to pay.
- 21:20Like the James Cameron thing in South Park, you know, Mike Ferguson does what
- 21:24Mike Ferguson does. Mike Ferguson is Mike Ferguson.
- 21:28And I did all these YouTube videos that are at 100, 150 million views,
- 21:31190 million views, saying that over and over, which gets transcribed to Google.
- 21:38So it's God bless. Yeah. It was a shot,
- 21:43you know, when we took it and we started figuring and out the kids know it
- 21:46tomorrow i'm doing traditional media
- 21:49stuff friday i'm back on youtube monday i'm
- 21:53getting a pedicure on friday i get
- 21:56my nails painted they're paying me for that do you sleep mike
- 21:59at all like five six hours a night look here's wow i wouldn't i wouldn't yeah
- 22:05i would never guess that you take time off um here's the thing like this was
- 22:11my day off The person I've been seeing is in Vegas right now.
- 22:15That's real bad now. I've interrupted the machine.
- 22:18Yeah, the person I've been seeing is in Vegas right now, so I'm like,
- 22:20sick. Wow. I just was in my underwear until an hour before this.
- 22:26I ate a plate of eggs, fried eggs in butter.
- 22:30I had two bagels with cream cheese. I wore it down a little bit.
- 22:35Yeah, look, I got a pull-up bar right there. Wow. At a dip station. There you go. Yeah.
- 22:41You are Mr. Unstopped. I'll tell you what.
- 22:44I don't know why they haven't called you yet to play Randy Savage in a movie. I have no idea.
- 22:51Look, here's- Macho Man Year. Yeah. Macho Man Year. Look, I got that down.
- 22:57I've been running it for a minute.
- 22:59And the kids know me. Yeah.
- 23:01That's beautiful. But anyway, I'm sorry I went on a tangent.
- 23:05That's all right. Monster.
- 23:07That's okay. monster and monster and goodies
- 23:10and all that sort of thing but the last hit ladies and gentlemen where
- 23:13can can people could see that last hit now look people could see we i want to
- 23:18thank glasshouse distribution i think they're now called studio dome okay but
- 23:23they they have been wonderful they have helped out that's david josh lawrence
- 23:28and tom malloy they they have been so wonderful,
- 23:34so transparent one of the good guys I think it's because I've known David Josh
- 23:38Lawrence since 96 but you can watch the last hit on Apple TV on VOD you can
- 23:46watch it on Prime on VOD and you can watch it on YouTube on VOD,
- 23:52now it'll be rolling out to other streamers soon but look I think it's like
- 23:573 bucks watch the movie support Indie Cinema It's worth, it's worth every cent.
- 24:03Yeah. Every single cent of that. And will you eventually, do your movies come
- 24:07to, to Blu-ray and DVD or that sort of thing? Or do you do film? No, some of them do.
- 24:12So that we haven't, we, we, we have that option with this.
- 24:15Mitch did static codes, which came out 20, 2023.
- 24:20It just re-released with a director's to onto DVD.
- 24:25So we do have that course. Right.
- 24:28I haven't talked to anybody about that. We do know how important that market is, especially in this.
- 24:35Yeah, it is. So there will be a DVD for this.
- 24:38Yes, that is awesome. I can't wait to get my hands on that.
- 24:42Listeners, you have heard it from the mighty man himself, the titan of indie
- 24:47cinema, Mike Ferguson, as Mike Ferguson.
- 24:51Mike Ferguson doesn't do what Mike Ferguson does because he's Mike Ferguson.
- 24:56Mike Ferguson does what Mike Ferguson does, because Mike Ferguson is Mike Ferguson.
- 25:01And he is a champion of independent cinema.
- 25:05He is a bright and shining light of hope in dark times.
- 25:11This is a fantastic film. Last hit, my review, filmthreat.com.
- 25:16My guest, Mike Ferguson. Soon we hope to be playing the mighty macho man, Randy Savage.
- 25:23God knows why they haven't contacted him
- 25:26for yet that yet i will never know mike
- 25:29thank you for being my guest on cinema yugen
- 25:32thank you so much and thank you
- 25:35for the kind words and man keep on
- 25:39believing and keep watching yes the mighty
- 25:42mike ferguson last hit gotta check
- 25:45out blackout 2 dracula eternal anything really with this genuine screen presence
- 25:52indie titan what is he he's the energizer bunny with a nuclear reactor shoved
- 26:01up his bum he's absolutely,
- 26:05infectiously insane electric exciting he's everything you want.
- 26:11In a complete breakfast cereal, the mighty Mike Ferguson. He's got it all going on.
- 26:18Unstoppable, uncontrollable, unrestrained. And that's exactly how we like him.
- 26:24That's how you love him, Mike Ferguson. Get down to the links in the description.
- 26:31And as always, my little Eugenites, thank you for listening to us on Spotify,
- 26:36iHeartRadio, or wherever you choose to listen to your favorite podcasts.
- 26:40I'm Kent Hill. And until next time, you've been listening to us on Cinema U-Games.