"Grab a camera and do it yourself. That's the best film school you can have".

Interview with Scott Adkins

As his latest film Day Shift with Jamie Foxx gets a Netflix release in August, action star Scott Adkins speaks to Michael Sales to talk about his successful story from Midlands boy to movie superstar, touching upon Brummie accents, studying drama and how martial arts gave him the discipline to succeed.

Mike: Hi Scott. Thanks for chatting to me today. You starred in the MCU superhero film Dr. Strange, can you tell us about your own origin story from a youngster growing up in the region to a martial arts acting hero?

Scott. Hiya. Growing up in the Stockfield area of Birmingham, I was looking at people like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and drawn to these bigger than life action actors. I made my mind up very early on that's what I wanted to do. But I didn’t know anyone in the business and had people around me saying that maybe I should reconsider this life choice because they didn't know how I would achieve it. But that was the dream and slowly but surely I managed to make it all happen, sometimes through trial and error.

After your extensive martial arts training you then headed to Sutton Coldfield College to study drama. What was that like?

Yes, I started martial arts when I was ten and that naturally came very easy to me. When something comes easy you enjoy it more and you throw yourself into it a bit harder, and you also get rewarded for that quicker. But then with the acting, for me it wasn’t so much. I was a shy kid and was very afraid to do it. So the first actual performance I did, I made sure I had the smallest part at the back where no one could see me. I then did a BTEC in performing arts and slowly but surely my confidence grew. At the time, I had a teacher there called Damien who really pushed us and we did a show called Striker that we took to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. That gave us a lot of exposure which was great. He was a great teacher.

You can definitely learn a lot from a teacher, so from your own experience, what advice would you give to other filmmakers starting their own journey whether in front or behind the camera?

I think you’ll be successful if you want it for the right reasons, if you're doing it because you're passionate about it and it's a fire that's burning within yourself. I can only speak from experience but that's the way it was for me. I was so passionate about it and it was something that I just couldn't shake and it was never anything to do with fame or money or any of that.

It was about being involved in filmmaking in whatever capacity. I know this is what I want to do in my life and even if I fail, I'm still going to do it because this is what I'm passionate about. And then I think the success, if you have that sort of mindset and that sort of fire is within you, will come as a by-product really. And that's something that manifested itself in me. I didn't have to motivate myself to work hard and to strive for it because the motivation was already there.

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With that motivation, did any of that learning come from your background in martial arts?

I believe martial arts helps in all areas of life. The discipline you get as a kid to train your body and go through pain sets the mind up to deal with things easier. It’s great for kids to learn self-control, courtesy and integrity as well. When it comes to making movies, especially action, it's very difficult and physically demanding. You've got to have an extremely strong work ethic – and especially when you get success. Even now, it might be easy to say I'm just going to phone it in and use the stunt double. For me though, I'll do as much as I possibly can, for as long as I can, because I've got a strong work ethic and part of that comes from martial arts but also from my parents.

Speaking of them, you come from a family of butchers. Did you inherit any of their knife skills?

You know what? I didn't pay attention. [laughs]. They used to get me down the shop of the weekend. I've got a picture of me doing a flying kick over my dad's head outside his butcher shop at Grace Church. It was promoting the butchering industry. It was taken outside Argos!

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Ha ha. That’s amazing. After graduating you were then cast in BBC’s Doctors which films in Birmingham. We hear a lot about Midlands actors who cut their teeth on the show so what did you learn during that period?

I learnt a lot because it was my very first professional role. I did a little stint on City Central but that was just a fight scene and although I did a martial arts film in Hong Kong, I then came back to England and got a part in Doctors. It was the very first episode that was released - Sunday prime time – and lots of people were ready to watch but it was a great early experience.

That first action movie role you just mentioned was in Extreme Challenge (1999). Did you make any local short films before that?

I did one for a guy who was trying to get into the action movie scene. But for me I did a lot of short movies on my own as a kid growing up. I was the kid with the camera that got all the friends to be in his movie. It's amazing how much you teach yourself that way. Just grab the camera and do it yourself. And sometimes that's the best film school you can have.

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