Latest / Cinema Yūgen / The Loren Avedon Tapes: Part 1

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The Loren Avedon Tapes: Part 1 · Cinema Yūgen

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G'day. That's right, it's that time again. Time for Cinema Yugen.
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Music.
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Yes, welcome back. Another classic episode. Cinema Yugen.
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Lauren Avedon had a great chat. This is actually the first part one,
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part one of the Lauren Avedon tapes where I interviewed Lauren about all of
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his seasonal films, King of the Kickboxes, Raging Thunder, Blood Brothers.
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But it's known for his portrayal of Jake Donoghue in King of the Kickboxes.
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Scott Wilde, of course, in No Retreat, No Surrender 2, also known as Raging Thunder.
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It was a fantastic chat for a
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book that i guess still working on it's a bit
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of a behind the scenes project about my
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love and the way i fell in love with the seasonal films
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it was fantastic to talk
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to the man of the man and the legend
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lauren avid and we've got extensive episodes
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for you as lauren and I journey through
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the making of those seasonal films
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so stay tuned around part one the Lauren
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Avedon tapes please welcome to Cinema
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Yugen the mighty the king
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of the kickboxes Jake Donahue Lauren
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Avedon so did you
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I guess did you receive did you receive the scripts as
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you came to each project or did you receive them
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when they just began or began shooting no I
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wasn't privy to the development uh in
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most cases i was given basically the
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shooting script or as close to the shooting script as possible and you know
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that's just a smart thing to do if you're producing a film because it can become
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an intellectual battle when you you know get into you know actually.
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With these Hong Kong films we never sat down and did a table read we never you
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know did what you would typically do.
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On a film you basically
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if you worked in Hong Kong in their system to begin with you had to be ready
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for anything at any time you just you know whatever was thrown at you it's very
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similar in you know any professional business whatever you know everything is
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going to change whether Murphy is involved or not Murphy's Law.
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So basically what I got was as close to the shooting script as they could get.
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And so King of the Kickboxers, if there were any changes made,
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usually it would be because of whatever we couldn't get or couldn't do or whatever
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the budget wouldn't allow.
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And a lot of these things are written for budget or should be written for budget.
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You know, you can't have outlandish airplane stunts or whatever,
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you know, or a couple million dollar movie.
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So you know that's basically how i got it and
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then it's my job no matter
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what is on the page right
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to deliver it and make it you know entertaining and also be in my character
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because again not traditional way of filmmaking the way the chinese would do
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it they you know start a scene in the middle or at the end and you'd be stand
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i'd be standing there going What are we doing?
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Because there's two or three languages and, you know, I'm trying to figure out where we are. Yeah.
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Because I know it's my face and my butt at the end of the day that's going to
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be recorded and immortalized.
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You know, delivering or playing this role.
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And my goal always with any film or project I worked on was what's that sort of movie?
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Right. What would this character do? And how can I make this as good as possible?
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So whatever they threw at me or whatever they gave me, I would,
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you know, do my best to, you know, I was lucky to get to come in on some of the Cassidy. Right.
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A couple of these films.
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Actually, Don the Dragon Wilson was in for Billy Blank's part. Okay.
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Gerald Okamura was in for Billy Blank's part. Really?
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And when Billy came in, there was just no question in my mind,
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you know, who should be playing Don. Right.
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And then, you know, Don was considered to play
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Prang awards you know because it's all
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about name value it's all about you know part of
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it it's show business right so the business is a
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show right but i would never get anything other than
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what they were ready to shoot or what
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they wanted okay so that is that day by day or is that is that is that day by
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day is that sorry is that was that day by day or it could be day by day because
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you know The thing is, just like on any production,
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you know, maybe raining today or maybe you may not be able to do the exteriors
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or maybe you may have to do this. We have to change that.
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So-and-so is not available. This doesn't work. That doesn't happen.
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So, you know, whatever it is, you've got to be ready in any situation,
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you've got to be ready for it.
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So, yeah, it would change day by day. But when we were in a particular area,
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for example, when the end fight scene with Khan, you know, and myself with Billy and myself. Yeah.
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You know, I've been punching out. So we knew we were there to do that. Right.
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And what we were going to do day to day, minute to minute.
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I just I, you know, I would never really know until we were getting into it. Okay.
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In the early part of the film, you're doing all your undercover stuff,
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your undercover police work there.
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Now, was that portion of it filmed with the States?
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No, no. I actually had to take issue about that because, and that's one of the
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reasons why I wore the scarf.
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Anytime you're doubling an actor in a film, you want to put a hat on or do something.
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And I had said, look, I can't go to New York.
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I'm a SAG member. They didn't have rule one back then, which is any production
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anywhere in the world must be a SAG signatory if you're a SAG Actors Guild, right?
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So I said, no, I can't go to New York and do it.
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So all you see of me really in New York is really Keith Strandberg's butt. Okay.
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Walking towards the door. Right. The man, the this, the that,
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all of that was shot in Hong Kong. And when you see that sliding door open,
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we're actually on the docks in Hong Kong Harbor Bay. Right.
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And we're going to do this scene in this warehouse on the docks. Yeah.
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And that was actually one of the last scenes we shot in the film. Yeah.
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So, yeah, I remember watching it and thinking some of those,
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looking at the streets, and I thought that looks very Hong Kong.
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And they went to New York and shot an exterior with Keith Strandberg and his behind. Right.
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Carrying a briefcase with a scarf on and whatever the wardrobe,
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the jacket that I had chosen, all that stuff that I had worn.
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Right. But then you see me, which had been shot before. Right, in the warehouse.
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That's the first time you really see my face. And then, you know,
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all the stuff with Richard Jake, all that, that's all on the soundstage in Tsutsui
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or in the New Territories. Right.
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Wow. Yeah, because I imagined that the bulk of it was shot over there and they
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would have just had some second unit stuff to pick up, like you said,
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some exterior shots and that too, to blend the illusion.
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Exactly. And, you know, that's how a lot of things are done.
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So, you know, especially these days, I mean, you can literally throw a green
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screen out, but you can be anywhere. Yeah.
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So you got to work with Richard Jekyll, very, very experienced actor.
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What was that like for yourself?
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Well, first of all, Dick Jekyll was one of my heroes from the Dirty Dungeon
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and from watching all the films that he had been in.
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And one of the, you know, as my mom used to say, rest her soul,
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you know, only the truly great are humble.
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And he was, he had a bum leg.
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So that's why you don't see him, you know, walking up or running up as he's
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driving up and he's sitting in the Jeep. Yes.
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He was there for quite some time, came with us to Hong Kong as well.
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And working with him was just a joy.
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And there's something that I'd like to point out, which is the conversation
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that he has with me when I do that horrible, overactive scream that I was forced to do.
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Oh, the one where you're sitting in your apartment watching the videotape?
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Right, where I see my brother, my brother's killed. That's right, yeah.
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On the videotape and after I told my captain not going.
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But that was shot completely separate and we never knew I can't remember the order in which it was.
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That was I think in an apartment you can remember at the moment in Hong Kong.
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Not in New York and Dick Janko Richard
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Janko and I had never heard him you
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know speaking his lines because i think we actually shot i can't remember
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what order it was 25 years ago so that's a problem a
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little uh levy i hope a little room
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in that but anyway but it was uh we never heard what each other said or how
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it was toned or phrased or whatever right and it showed it shows honestly but
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that's just part of the whole hong kong thing there were so used to shooting
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what's called MOS, motion off sound.
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You can dub everything later in the studio.
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Hence the old theater movies and their horrible dubbing.
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Right. Whatever voices there were. Yes. I know.
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Working with Dick was a joy. It was so cool.
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He just basically got into it, relaxed and enjoyed himself because we were doing
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the majority of the shooting, and he had to come in for a couple of shots here and there.
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I'd see him at the hotel. We'd have dinner.
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Just hang out, basically. When you're Americans or Aussies or anywhere in a
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foreign land, you always sort of gravitate through countryness.
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The thing is, Richard Janko was just a total gentleman, total professional,
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and it was great to have him as a film.
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We gave the film I'm class, honestly. Yeah.
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But I must say...
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I really love those opening exchanges with you in the warehouse,
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doing your whole undercover thing.
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What's the line, you know? You keep calling the guy Jackson.
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Hey, my name's not Jackson.
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Exactly. Yeah. And that was, you know, of course, you know, that's Keith's dialogue.
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Yeah. You know, I did the best I could to, you know, come as close to his script
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as possible with my own character and so forth.
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So I'm glad that you enjoyed that because I figured, well, you know,
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you've got nothing to lose by, you know,
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going way out on a limb with this character because what kind of nut,
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you know, goes into the situation to begin with?
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It's totally tight and cheap. It's totally meant to be kind of far-fetched and surreal.
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And so I was able to do that.
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And what a great way to set the stage for that character. Sure.
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They found some poor kid in Thailand to be me as a young man. Right.
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And Mike Pasquale Jr. to be my older brother.
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Yeah. Mike, bless his heart, is a great martial artist, but wasn't used to doing it for film.
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And the Chinese got actually quite frustrated because I know I'm going off on
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a tangent because he didn't really do the choreography so eventually you know
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in the middle because this was like one night shoot they did this overnight yeah.
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And so at the end of the day they finally just kind of let them hit each other
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which is not what you want to do,
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in an action film I mean we did make a lot of contact in the Chinese style of
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filmmaking. Yes. Even to the face.
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And you can see that. But that's not something.
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And, you know, working with Jerry Trimble, he needs a kickboxer.
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Anytime I work with real kickboxers, because I'm a techno-no stylist,
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I have tremendous control.
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Yeah. But that always hits you. Yeah.
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So, you know, but that was a lot of fun. And I made a lot of friends during that scene.
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One that I still talk to. and, you know, there's Vincent Lynn in there,
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there's Steve Tartaglia, and there's some Hong Kong stuntmen. Yeah.
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And Jerry Trimble. Yes. But the whole thing was, is that was on a dock in Hong Kong, and...
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It's one of the greatest, one of the best fight scenes I think I've ever done
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is that fight scene, along with some of the fights in Blood Brothers as well,
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and the end fight with Billy. With Billy, yeah.
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It still holds up today, even with all the CGI stuff.
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Oh, look, it's fantastic. fantastic uh as
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as i as i spoke as i
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said i did a podcast on the subject and i said it's just
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great because all of you guys are professional martial
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artists so when when we see you doing
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those things that's you doing it there's no
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there's no you know it's not like
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someone fighting and then they they do all the the cutaways
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of your face and you know it's two other guys
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doing the fighting that you actually you know kicking ass and taking names you
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know so it's um the chinese the chinese i remember when i did the first no retreat
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no certainty they actually came the stuntman actually came up to me and said
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lauren you do everything we know work.
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Take a rest take a rest and i said this is my first film this is no retreat
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no surrender too But I would say to them, I'd say, guys, you can do it too,
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you know, but let me get the experience.
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Let me try because I want my character and the audience to believe it's me all
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the time, even when you have to do your thing.
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Which, you know, in King of the Kickboxers in the beginning, when I have the mask on,
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that's a lot of that is Didi, which is a Hong Kong stunt guy who,
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you know, had continued working for probably 15, 20 years after that,
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that friends of mine had worked with.
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He's a little, you know, I don't know, five foot five guy.
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And but, you know, they they were trying to get stuff that they could get and
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then bring in Billy and me because they were going to beat the crap out of us
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and we were going to beat the crap out of each other. Right.
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And just as an aside, that final fight in that caged area.
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Yes. I walked it and talked it because I always would, you know,
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check out anybody who's a pro or, you know, make sure that everything is okay
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on those platforms and all that stuff.
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And when I first walked that set in Conscienopoli with the cage and everything
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at the end of the film, they had, you there? Yep, you're up.
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They had real sharpened bamboo punji sticks sticking out of the water there,
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you know, close to the stage.
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I said, well, what if somebody falls off one of these things,
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you know, a cameraman, a crew member, me, you know, we're going to get seriously hurt.
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So I asked them to change a lot of the punji sticks or a lot of the sharp sticks
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that were close to the platforms to rubber.
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Because otherwise somebody could have died or been very seriously hurt by falling
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off the platform and it's the same thing in Hong Kong doing that first fight with Jerry Trimble.
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You just want to make sure that wherever you can, you're protecting yourself
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and protecting others while maintaining the highest integrity,
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making it as real as possible.
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You know, because you got to get, you know, and this is something I said to
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Jerry, I said, Jerry, you know, stop kicking me so hard in rehearsals.
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You know, the camera's not even rolling and I got to work tomorrow.
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You may not have to work tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow.
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Yes. So, you know, can you not ratchet it down a bit?
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Oh, you know, and he was he was really in either in character or,
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you know, not a happy camper when we first started.
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And but the Chinese sorted him out. They really did.
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They, you know, he whacked me a few times and they just whacked him.
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He was a world champion kickboxer, though. I was an actor and a stunt guy and,
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you know, had already had the crap kicked out of me by the seven-time world
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karate champion at the time, Dora Blank. Yeah.
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Let me tell you something. Getting kicked by that guy is, you know,
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like, and he can still do it today.
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And Billy, he was so terrific.
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He said, Lauren, this is your movie, you know, whatever I can do.
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And he basically, you know, and you'll notice this when you watch the film again,
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the first thing he does is with Bruce Fontaine where he,
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you know, they show him, you know, and he says, they are waiting for me or whatever. Yeah.
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Beats the crap out of Bruce Fontaine and puts him on a hook and raises him up.
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And that guy on the hook is also Dee Dee, the Chinese stunned guy.
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If you look at Billy in that scene and you look at Billy at the end of the film,
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that was when Billy first came over and he was so pumped up.
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He was so big. He had trained like an animal.
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He was 235 pounds of solid badass.
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By the time we got to fighting in the cage in Conchonopoli, he had lost probably 25 to 30 pounds.
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And that's because of the heat and the grueling schedule and having to do what we did every day.
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It was like fighting three or five tournaments every day and then getting up and doing it again.
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That's amazing to have Billy there because he made that, you know, his technique.
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And this is the thing about doing martial arts films or doing martial arts.
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It's the line of the technique.
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You know, there's such beauty in, you know, a professional, you know, a skilled and seasoned.
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That's not taking anything away from MMA or world champions who can really beat somebody's ass.
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But when you're talking about art and you're talking about, you know,
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making a fight scene, You want to have that beautiful line and those beautiful
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techniques and have it sell and be believable and beautiful. Wow.
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So, you know, that's something that we were able to get with Keith Cook and with Billy and.
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Incredible athletes, Jeremy Trimble and Marshall Yeah,
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it's really it was really great, I mean, like you said it was a really great
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opening to the film you're doing that sort of, that grizzled voice,
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you know, and it's a great fight to open the picture,
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ending with the, you know burning his face with the the little heater, yeah.
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Yeah, but from out of nowhere,
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there's a little heater yeah cocaine oh yeah it's like yeah the giant warehouse
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and there's a little heater to possibly keep his feet warm while he was waiting for you there,
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yes that's in itself was shot over a couple of days but I mean it was it was a test yeah.
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Yeah so then we obviously you get,
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propositioned the job which you turned down at first and then you you go home
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and study the tapes and you find out that your brother's killer Billy Blanks is involved and you
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change your mind and you head over there to Thailand,
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and then you begin wandering the streets in that really impressive
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shirt and white pants i have to say very very
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inco yeah very incognito i thought yeah again you know what what new york top
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well maybe the shirt you know would be fought dead and white pants and you know
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a little it was very miami He's crazy around looking cool.
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All the temples while he's on his way to, you know, get his brother's killer.
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Yeah. I mean, it's a little out of place, but it worked.
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Yeah. Oh, totally. I mean, it's totally, it feels like it's totally in vogue
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with your character in that film.
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Because he seems like he's got a little bit of a devil may care attitude in the beginning.
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Until you hook up with, when you go to the kickboxing school and you meet that,
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one of the kickboxers sort of gives you a little bit of a beating and shows
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you that you need to learn and then you need to go and see Keith Cook to learn
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a little bit more and he puts you through the, you know,
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you end up in the montage where you slowly get better and he stretches your
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legs out for you and has you kicked down trees and all manner of stuff out in the boonies there.
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And it was out in the boonies and it was interesting hanging down from a tree hours and hours.
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And it was, you know, interesting. And that scene where that actually Malaysian
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actor who he found in Thailand, who then went on to be in, I guess,
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Bruce Lee story and a couple of other films.
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But he basically phonetically did that scene with me in whatever that barn was
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or whatever it was. You know, where I mock him and then make that transition
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because I'm not used to getting my ass kicked.
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You know, I'm used to being the one. So that's a great thing that you brought
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up is that transition from, you know, being the cocky guy to and the devil may
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care guy to now it's getting serious.
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Because how does a human being handle being in these situations,
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losing a brother, dealing, you know, being, you know, put in these ridiculous situations?
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He's always been a rebel, even with, you know, even in the police,
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he's doing something to, you know, he's going to do it his way because he knows the way to do it.
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Which I guess is a little bit part of me and, and, you know,
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part of a lot of us who feel strongly about, you know, what we're up to and so forth.
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But that, you know, that's one of my favorite films, parts of the film,
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excuse me, is the scene where I do that deal with the kickboxer.
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You know, he's phonetically saying these lines in English and,
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you know, why you want to show me some more moves? Yeah.
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Because I literally like, I'm not used to, you know, my character, you know, and all that.
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And then they use that in the transition to going out to praying and,
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you know, and I love that scene with Keith where,
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you know, I come to the realization that, you know, he's a drunk and,
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you know, he's not going to help me, you know, I love his delivery.
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I said, you know, something about how does life look from the bottom of the
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bowl is not too bad or whatever.
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Yeah, he does the drunk really well until he changes when those guys come to,
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you know, they come to kick his ass. Yeah.
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And then all of a sudden he converts, you know, pretty quickly.
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And you're like, you know, you could have jumped in at any time.
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And he goes, I wanted to see how good you were.
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Right. So all of this is, you know, that's, that's Keith Strandberg,
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you know, doing the writing, you know, and making it, making it a good, a good scene.
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And how do you, how do you tie all of this sort of really surreal things together
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and, and bring about this next, you know, part of this movie,
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which is really, you know, for the time,
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it was really out of the box.
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Because for a Hong Kong company to use Westerners to star in films was still
27:25
a new concept relatively even though No Retreat No Surrender,
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the original one I think was done in 80...
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I think it was 87.
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84, well 87. I mean 87 is when 2 came out supposedly. We shot it in 86.
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But in any case yeah it was a phenomenal you
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know bit of you know and again
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it's entertainment so it was great to see him
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kind of get his comeuppance as well yeah um you know that my character so so
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uh it sets the stage yeah and i mean then you uh then you have to go out and
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of course keith cook is is doing his drunk act in the beginning but then he he's,
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rapid turnaround and you find that he really is, he really is the guy who's,
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who can help you in your quest.
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And then you said about his, his training methods, you know,
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the, you know, you know, no ask questions, you know, I'm going to, uh, you know.
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Yeah, I love, I love, I love all that stuff. I mean, it's just amazing.
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You know, it was great that, you know, Keith agreed to do that part and,
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uh, and came out and did it.
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And the thing that is great and was great about working with Billy and Keith
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and, you know, some great pros is, you know, we would talk about,
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you know, some of the techniques because he could do, Keith could do anything. So could Billy.
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Right. I mean, the triple kick that he does coming off the stairs,
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Keith Cook, coming off the stairs, which, by the way, upstairs from where we
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shot most of that, you know, scene in that whole part of the movie. Yeah.
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Literally was a 95 year old lady who owned that place. OK.
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And that's where we changed into our wardrobe was in her house.
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And I can remember the first time I arrived, which took a bus.
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Talk about a bus. yeah a bus ride and
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a boat ride you get to it was in the middle of nowhereville Thailand it certainly
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looks like not the five-year-old lady was you know smiling and laughing with
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two teeth you know rolling your cigarettes as I was getting changed and she
29:42
asked me if you want if I wanted to spend the night.
29:47
The monkey wasn't hers, was it?
29:51
I beg your pardon? No. That poor monkey, the way they trained that poor thing,
29:58
they used excessive force, let's just say. Oh, that's tame.
30:04
They beat that poor thing, and it hurt to watch.
30:09
That chimpanzee, honestly, could have ripped my head off, Billy's head,
30:14
anybody. But, you know, Keith, a chimpanzee is four times as strong as a human being. Yeah.
30:21
But they were able to get this monkey, and, you know, it was part of it.
30:26
But Keith and I, just to get back for a second, we would talk about stuff.
30:31
And when he does that triple kick, you know, you have to have some sort of proximity.
30:38
But finally, the tape that they kept and what worked, that last roundhouse kick,
30:43
he just smacked the guy, you know, right in the face, right in the jaw, bloodied him up.
30:51
And he had to. And with the, you know, some of the technique that he did in
30:57
the rest of that fight, like the triple spin kick, you know,
31:00
he's a spin kick's one guy.
31:02
Another guy comes in, he does the same spinny heel kick. And then he said to
31:06
me, he said, Lauren, I don't know how to get around or get in a position to
31:10
throw that last spin kick. I said, jump.
31:14
And that's exactly what he did. Yeah. And then, you know, he,
31:18
you know, we would help each other out with these things.
31:23
And, you know, when he's kicking me sometimes, I mean, he knocked the wind out
31:27
of me, Keith Cook, a couple of times, Billy, countless times.
31:30
And I can remember seeing stars with Billy doing that cage fight scene when
31:36
he just did that thing of lands on my back,
31:40
you know, supposed to be an axe kick and hit me and he hit me in some pressure
31:44
point, lung point or something.
31:46
And literally it just it almost knocked me out.
31:51
But that's the kind of power and the kind of, you know, bar that these Chinese expected.
31:58
And that's the kind of, you know, commitment that we all had to,
32:04
you know, making this really as awesome as possible.
32:08
And, you know, keep doing that triple sidekick. There's no wires.
32:12
There's no nothing holding him up.
32:15
That's him. Yeah, that's incredible. And so it's really kind of cool.
32:21
That's incredible and doing the
32:24
coconut break and the splits in the Uthaya and
32:27
Thailand the ancient city I mean
32:30
it's just incredible what we got it
32:33
kind of became around that time a
32:36
staple of those films where the hero has to refine his skills so to speak and
32:43
they have the whole training montage and you know they all seem to have that
32:50
scene where they tie the guy's legs up and pull you out into the...
32:55
You're on two floating bamboo little rafts and you have to do the splits.
33:00
And then eventually, as you get better, you're able to pull them back together
33:04
and all that kind of thing.
33:06
It seems like it became a staple of a lot of those movies around that time to
33:10
have that training montage.
33:13
Absolutely. And that's part of the whole character arc for whoever is going
33:19
through whatever they go through to get what they need.
33:25
People want to see that struggle, want to see a character change and go through it.
33:34
So that's why it became sort of a stable is because part of when you watch an
33:42
incredible athletic performance is you don't really get to see all the training that came up to it.
33:48
But when you do, you know, it makes that performance all the better.
33:53
And when you see, you know, Muhammad Ali, who I can't even really mention myself
33:57
in the same sentence with because he's so great.
34:00
But, you know, when you saw him get the shit kicked out of him and then,
34:04
you know, by whoever he was fighting, you know, Frazier or Foreman or whatever,
34:11
and then he comes back and he, you know, he wins.
34:16
It's just human nature. We want to see that. And so, yeah, they capitalized
34:20
on that type of evolution and that montage.
34:24
And I didn't see the most recent Kickboxer because, frankly,
34:28
I just can't sit through it. Right.
34:31
But I think Van Damme is now, and again, I haven't seen this,
34:36
but is now the master, right?
34:39
You know, because he did that in Kickboxer, right? He had to go see that guy. Yeah.
34:44
So now he's the guy who's doing the training.
34:48
I guess. I don't know. All I've seen is some stills and how many years it took
34:53
to make that film. I don't know.
34:54
They had to go back and forth several times. I know that because isn't Darren
34:58
Shalabi in this last one? I think so, yeah.
35:03
I think so, yeah. Well, he passed away two years ago.
35:07
Wow. So, I mean. That might have had the trouble.
35:11
This is the part of making movies or doing these kinds of films is sometimes
35:20
it takes a long time to go together.
35:24
Of course, Bloodsport had come out.
35:27
Van Damme got his real start doing No Retreat, No Surrender.
35:33
That's right. Yeah, he did, didn't he? Wasn't C.S. No Fell.
35:36
Yeah. So anyway, you're out in the boonies doing your training,
35:40
but it seems like during that you've sort of forgotten,
35:43
well, you haven't forgotten, but you're sort of sidetracked from working with
35:49
Don Stroud, you know, because you're over there investigating these illegal movies with...
35:56
Know you meet up with don don strout in the you know scene you
35:59
know i've got they haven't got time for the cloak and dagger stuff anderson
36:02
you know good american
36:06
accent thank you so anyway
36:09
you're out you when you come back in like for your first fight after your after
36:14
keith cook has trained you you hook up with the the bad guys so to speak and
36:18
get get enlisted into the the ranks to perform in one of these illegal movies
36:25
where they are really killing people on screen.
36:29
Sort of like what was, you know, once you and Keith have sort of finished and
36:34
you hook up with Molly again, Sherry Rose, I think her name was.
36:39
Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, what, and you're leading up, of course,
36:44
to that, the big fight at the end, you know, the quintessential battle between good and evil.
36:50
So what was that? I mean, those, you know, that part where you're,
36:55
I mean, because you're over there as a detective.
36:58
What part, you know, those parts where you're,
37:02
you know, when you first meet Molly after she's escaped the clutches of a wonderful
37:10
night with Billy Blanks that she's not too keen on having a wonderful night with.
37:14
Which is so comical to me, you know, when you look at it, you know,
37:23
and, you know, here's this great, you know, and this is Strandberg doing his thing, I guess.
37:28
And, you know, you've got to hand it to Billy, you know, here he's,
37:32
you know, it's far-fetched, but it's so entertaining.
37:37
Yes. Because you see this guy, you know, so powerful and he's waiting for this
37:42
girl to wash up and she's really escaping. Yeah. Yeah.
37:47
And, you know, and Molly or, you know, I don't know where Keith came up with that.
37:54
But, you know, Keith is from Pennsylvania. So I think the whole Cynthia Rothrock,
38:00
blonde, blue eyed gal, the Sherry Rose or the love interest or the gal.
38:06
And then Don Stroud coming in and, you know, sort of being the CIA guy,
38:12
which Don, bless his heart,
38:14
we're trying to shoot a sound film in Thailand on, you know,
38:18
right there on, I think it's the Mekong River, whatever the main river is,
38:23
goes through Bangkok. Yeah. Yeah.
38:26
Going by all night long that have no muffler on them and a V8 engine with sort
38:34
of a rod attached to it and a propeller that's about 20 feet long.
38:38
And they're just going, wow, all night long.
38:42
So we maybe get out of the whole night just a few takes.
38:49
Yeah and and the thing is
38:52
don at the time i don't know if
38:54
he what he's up to now or whether he's still
38:57
around now honestly uh i've lost touch because
39:01
i've been living in hawaii for a while i've been on my own island for a
39:03
while but every in between every intake
39:06
he had a bottle of vodka i think
39:09
it was down at his feet he'd take a swig and
39:12
put it down that's just hot as the
39:15
hinges in the middle of the night and then
39:18
Dick Jekyll you know comes out we do
39:22
our bit and we shot that all I think in one night yeah when we could in between
39:27
you know boat muffler so if you got our boats going by with V8 engine no muffler
39:35
so you know you've got to be able to.
39:40
Know kind of be in the moment you take what you get uh but
39:43
working with the two of them was just so easy
39:47
because they're bros yeah you know
39:50
and the thing is is that that whole
39:53
essence of well you're here
39:56
to do a job goes back to the original character which
39:59
is i'm going to do it my way yes that was
40:03
jake's thing is it's like you don't know what
40:06
i know and you don't know why i'm
40:09
doing what i do i'm going to get the job done just
40:12
leave me alone let me do it and you
40:15
know so he still maintained that part of
40:18
himself and he has to play all of these people and the character does in order
40:24
to get himself in front of a film that he's probably going to die in yes and
40:30
uh so you know that's that's some compelling stuff when i think of some of the
40:36
other side characters like,
40:38
David Sterling who, you know,
40:41
talks very natal. That's not how it's going to be, Jake.
40:46
See? You're the star of the film now. And then that guy who,
40:50
you know, is playing the director as the chief JVC video camera or whatever.
40:59
And a fondness for very colorful shirts, it seems like.
41:05
Every time you see him in a film, he's got a really out there shirt on and you
41:11
know that's the and and the the overweight yeah the overweight you know boss
41:15
guy yeah again with some actor i guess they found in america they could get over there,
41:22
and get them to do what they wanted you know part of the all of this is uh.
41:29
With a rather sadistic director named Lucas Lowe. Right.
41:35
Who did No Retreat, No Surrender, Three Blood Brothers, and then we did King
41:41
of the Kickboxers with one.
41:43
Lucas was absolutely, I mean, he was, I can't use any other word, but a sadist.
41:53
He just absolutely wanted flesh, pounds of flesh, not a pound.
41:59
Not a little. He wanted everything. And he would.
42:02
That's why I have to recuse myself a little bit on some of these,
42:06
you know, takes that I did. Right.
42:10
Because I think that's not you know that I'm overdoing it. I'm I'm really I'm
42:14
acting. I'm not supposed to be acting.
42:16
I'm supposed to be living this character. but you're having me do make all these
42:20
grimacey faces and do all this stuff.
42:22
And he would not let me move from that spot or move on until he got this overdone
42:30
sort of Chinese interpretation of, you know, some of the earlier Hong Kong movies.
42:36
If you look at them, you know, you see the guy and he's just making all of these
42:40
facial expressions when he's delivering dialogue. Right.
42:44
And I hated that. I hated it.
42:48
I was about to ask you about all those whether that was by choice it was painful
42:53
to me to do that right I mean it was okay to overdo some of the stuff when I
42:59
was doing the Jackson thing and you know I'm in that whole kind of mode yeah but,
43:07
Pulling the hairs, screaming, and, you know, making funny faces as he pushes in on me. Yeah.
43:14
He literally would say to me, Lauren, Lauren, more, bigger, more, more, more.
43:20
And I was like, what do you want? It's in my eyes. It's in my, you know, my demeanor.
43:25
It's in the scene. Yes.
43:28
But he would not let it go.
43:30
You're on. And so they literally pressured me. And NG would say.
43:36
You know, Lauren, you told me you would be a good star.
43:38
And I'm like, what are you talking about being a good star? You won't even pay for pop for the crew.
43:44
I'm paying for it. We're out in the middle of nowhere. So that people get a
43:47
little sugar and salt back into them and maybe some ice.
43:51
Yeah. You know, I mean, they literally were, we were expendable in the truest sense.
43:59
And the only reason why I survived was making sure that, and I tried to keep some integrity,
44:07
was to fight for quality or to try to be as truthful as I could while playing a surreal guy. Yes.
44:15
But there were times that I just bit the bullet and I gave them what they wanted
44:21
or enough of what they wanted that they would then move on.
44:25
Right. Because he would not let me go with just, you know, a thousand yard stare or whatever.
44:33
And, you know, I got to show, you know, some of these, I mean,
44:40
reactions or whatever are necessary in the fight.
44:45
But right before all that grimacing, you know, looking like I haven't taken a crack for a week.
44:53
That's not me wanting to you know that's not
44:56
that's not jake that's lucas saying
44:59
yeah more more bigger more no good
45:02
no good you know what you'd no good right you
45:05
know you you more bigger more in your face oh
45:09
my gosh hey you
45:12
want it you got it yeah i i have
45:15
to say some of those moments are some of my favorites so i'm
45:18
sorry to hear that they were so uncomfortable you know what that's
45:21
okay you know that's why you have a director and that's
45:24
why you know any good director will do multiple
45:27
takes even when he's got it unless you're plenty unless you're you
45:31
know some certain directors and they know they've
45:33
got it unless there's a problem with camera i mean like i said during that trip
45:38
where we we watched the film you know it was almost like a 24-hour channel with
45:43
king of the kickboxes on it when we used to go around when we finally dig off
45:48
the bus you know quoting lines to one another.
45:51
One of my friends would always say, like whenever he saw someone like standing
45:54
next to a girl, he would jump in front of me and go, let the girl go.
45:59
Oh my God.
46:06
Totally not appropriate forced to do it did it the way they wanted extend what
46:14
you're saying like you talk through a tunnel you know,
46:18
okay and then what's really scary Kent is when they dug Sherry Rose pulled up the.
46:30
Rope cage whatever she's in and she says no jack right she doesn't say jake
46:38
and i'm like you guys didn't catch that really no jack yeah,
46:45
but at least they at least they got they got they wanted in in other areas though,
46:51
i guess so i mean they had to break that they had to bring me back you can see
46:55
the stuff with the montage part that they didn't get was the logs coming in
47:00
and me doing the blocks and that
47:01
sort of trifecta technique that takes out Billy. Right, yeah.
47:07
God. So they flew me back for that. Okay.
47:10
Okay. Right. Yes, Lauren Avedon, stay tuned. That was part one.
47:15
Coming part two, stay tuned. More Lauren Avedon.
47:19
Check the links in the description. And as always, my little Eugenites,
47:24
thank you for listening to us on Spotify or wherever you choose to listen to
47:30
your favorite podcasts.
47:30
I'm Kent Hill, and until next time, you've been listening to Cinema Zero Games.
47:38
Music.