411mania.com Interviews: Luke Goss
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 04.30.2011
The star of Blade 2 and Hellboy 2 checks in with 411mania.com for an exclusive interview to talk about his new movie Blood Out.
Actor Luke Goss burst into theatres in 2002 in Blade 2, where he portrayed the reaper vampire Nomak to battle Wesley Snipes as Blade. Goss would later appear in the action-comedy The Man starring Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy and more recently as Frankenstein in Death Race 2 and Steve Fox in the live action movie for Tekken based on the hit videogame franchise. His new starring role is in the movie Blood Out which also stars Val Kilmer, Vinnie Jones, 50 Cent, and AnnaLynne McCord. Goss plays a small town sheriff trying to get to the bottom of his brother's death. Goss took time out of his schedule to speak with us last week about his career and the new movie:
Jeffrey Harris: What can you tell us about your role in Blood Out and the great group of talent in the movie including Val Kilmer, Vinnie Jones, 50 Cent, and Anna-Lynne McCord?
Luke Goss: Yeah it's a good bunch of people. It was one of those movies where everyone in the cast and the crew knew what we were getting into . . . it was going to be guerrilla style in the sense that we were trying to shoot not much over two weeks. I think sixteen, seventeen shoot days, something like that; pretty quick . . . It was a lot to pull off in a short amount of time. I think we pulled out a cool, little movie.
Jeffrey Harris: Originally you started off as a singer and musician, how did you transition over to acting for your career?
Luke Goss: I mean luckily I started when I was seventeen years old. I was actually a drummer. People say I was a singer; I was actually a drummer in a band. I think my agent thought it was a pretty good plan, but I just found myself not feeling comfortable with it. I just didn't feel like I was getting enough out of it. And we did pretty well; we started punching millions of hours around the world. But I did this theatre show with a director called Maria Calzone, who offered me my first lead role. I fell in love with it, four and a half years of theatre in London, two and a half years in the West End. But then I did this movie about a drug addict called Two Days, Nine Lives directed by the late director Simon Monjack and fell in love with film. I was only – I was pretty young like 25-26 years old. So I did theatre for about four and a half years and did my first feature. And it got good reviews in the London times and then I came to LA and after a lot of auditions I got cast in Zig Zag which was David Goyer's directing debut. And then Blade 2.
Jeffrey Harris: I'd really call Blade 2 your breakout role where you played the villain Nomak opposite Wesley Snipes. Was it your association with David Goyer from Zig Zag that got the interest for you in the role?
Luke Goss: Absolutely. Yeah, he called [Guillermo] del Toro from what I understand and said, "I think I may have found our Nomak." And so I got the script for Blade 2, and I sat with del Toro after feverishly reading the page. And he knew that on the page the lines I could say were very minimal, but he wanted not an audition but to sit and talk about the character and what my thoughts on Nomak were. And I made up a couple of things. I thought the father and son issues could be pretty tight and I came up with the idea of the ring. I don't know if you remember, but there was a ring of the movie that was the proof of who we were. And I said, "there is no proof, I could just be the psychotic guy," and a number of other things that we spoke about and I got offered the part about eight weeks later they offered me the role. And I just wanted to make a character that people can't see the actor, that way people could believe Nomak was as real as possible. So I isolated myself from the rest of the cast and I tried to create a role that would last. And like you said, I think that was the role that certainly got a few into what I was trying to do.
Jeffrey Harris: What was it like working with a tremendous director like Guillermo del Toro on that movie?
Luke Goss: I can be very, very intense on set, but he knows for me, he's only coming from a place where I consider what I'm doing. And I think without a doubt he's the most prepared director I've ever worked with. I think having seen the way he works, he was more human in the first film. There was a lot more humanity as far as friendship is concerned, but I do still think his attention to detail never went down. He's still that amazing director and I think just getting better and stronger. Definitely, I loved his sense of humor on the first movie. He has such a great sense of humor and a great sense of boyish enthusiasm about that genre and as the way all of us do love those kinds of movies. And he just was a joy to be assisted by – del Toro saves you from yourself. He has so much faith in what his actors are bringing because he knows why he's got each actor on set. There's no guess work with him. But what he does is he saves you from the choices that might divert the power of the role and I think he just really keeps actors on track more than dictating them. I love, love working with him.
Jeffrey Harris: Aside from all the recent controversy on Wesley Snipes, what was it like to work opposite him in the movie and have action sequences with him? How did he come off to you?
Luke Goss: Firstly, I get along really well with him. We just clicked and when we were doing the promotional tour together when the movie came out, the cast members were just him and I. We were in a private jet going around the country for about two and a half weeks promoting the film. So we came out here with a great rapport and I really enjoyed working with him. At the time we were shooting, he was at the height of his game as far as Mr. Snipes, you know what I mean? Wesley Snipes on his A game. So that comes with, you know you have bodyguards and the kind of – some of the things that come with that. But he's amazing at what he does as far as fighting. He's really a powerful guy. I think it was good for me as far as movement-wise and attitude, I try to make sure of little things like keeping my guard down with Snipes so it wasn't like I was defending myself. It was like if I hit something, I can even look away because if Nomak hits something, it's going down whether it be for a second or forever, it's going to go down. And it was a wonderful payoff because he's such a powerful adversary – it really helped in a way in a portrayal of a badass too. And he was cool to say, "I want him to kick my ass longer because the longer I get my ass kicked, when I come back and save the day, then I have a genuine victory." And I think that's really smart for any hero to say in a film. You're only as good as the person you beat.
Jeffrey Harris: Another Blade 2, another big movie you were in was The Man opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Eugene Levy. It was more of a buddy/action comedy this time. How did you like working with Samuel L. Jackson and a funnyman like Eugene Levy?
Luke Goss: Eugene was an amazing guy. He's as lovely as you'd hope to be and a nice person. Zero badass for sure, but an absolute sweetheart of a guy. Really lovely person. Same with Sam. I've been a fan of Sam for years. So I was doing this scene where we were doing this face-off. And like our wrists are touching, gun to gun, facing off to each other, two weapons. I'm looking down at the weapon and looking at Samuel L. Jackson. And we were on camera just getting our focus points and stuff like that – "You're Samuel L. Jackson, aren't you?" And because we knew each other beforehand and were hanging out before that. But I just saw this stare and it just tickled me. I was thinking, "**** man look at that." I just thought it was cool. He laughed. He thought it was funny.
Jeffrey Harris: So it must be nice not having to wear as much make-up for a film like Blood Out right?
Luke Goss: I think I'd do makeup now for del Toro but I can't imagine that I'd be wearing makeup for anyone else. Because with del Toro you know you are going to achieve greatness with him. But yeah I really am in the business now of not wearing the makeup because it's just too exhausting and also on a professional level . . . you find yourself in these number one movies and you don't have any face value which is inevitably what gets you the better roles. And so I just want to stick with – I've got what I've got on my face; people either love it or hate. But I want I don't be the guy put in the role rather than – I don't want to do the makeup, but I guess for del Toro I would do it again.
Jeffrey Harris: That said, I thought Prince Nuada in Hellboy 2 was a great antagonist and character. He was more than just bad guy. He had these intense scenes where he showed in some ways he is a righteous and justified character. In Nuada's own mind, he's the hero of the fairy tale and fable realm that's being destroyed by humanity.
Luke Goss: I get very excited when I hear – and it's not an ego thing at all – but I get very excited when I hear someone or a journalist discussing and telling me about him. Because it means that you give a **** and you've considered it and you are listening to what he's saying and watching his actions. I remember saying something to del Toro, I said, "When he fights or when he's doing this thing you have to remember, he's not standing up there with his nose looking down." And I guess that's the one thing I was very adamant about as an actor, was that I don't want to have him look down and look up to the individuals like metaphorically speaking. Because this character is like a prince looking down his nose, but everything he does – he's going to butt heads in the movie. People will want him dead. I said, "He's not happy about any of this. This is something he has to do. And it gives him great pain." So just the adjustment of lowering head and thinking of looking up at people with a kind of sense of constant sorrow, I think people related to him. And I think it was great that you said it was kind of a just cause. Because certainly the way that humans were portrayed in the movie, "take, take, take, take until there is nothing left." And when he [Nuada] said, "Where is the honor in this?" I think it was one of those scenes where you generally question, where is the honor? I think honor is only in the action, but there's nothing honorable about the environment. The only honor was left from my father and it was failed honor because it inevitably it would kill his people. And I think honor cannot be reached out to then where you let the demise of your people. That's not leadership. He [Nuada] understood his father's intentions but they were misplaced because they had become obsolete and if they had carried on much longer there would be none of them left.
Jeffrey Harris: I remember you were announced by Top Cow as being in a movie for The Magdalena based on the comic. And they were giving out promotional posters. Do you know if that project will ever still go off?
Luke Goss: We [Goss and Jenna Dewan] are the two people attached to the project, but I think because of the financial climate I'm guessing and because of the raising funds, I believe it's still ongoing. And I know that I'm attached to the project for sure as the male lead in the film and she is The Magdalena and would be the lead in that story. Gale Anne Hurd [the projec's producer], she is just a great, great, great producer. So I'm sure if anyone can get that thing done I think that it would be her.
Jeffrey Harris: In your action movies, you have fight scenes and stunt scenes, but in real life do you study any type of disciplines or martial arts?
Luke Goss: You know what, I haven't. When I was doing Blade, literally they got me to Prague nine weeks before to do physical training as far as the costume stuff but actually just physically learning to fight like that. And I'd done some karate as a kid at best, but I was literally 5-6 hours a day, 6 days for 9 weeks for Blade. And for Hellboy I was training for 11 weeks for that film. I don't know what belt I would be after 11 weeks or 9 weeks, but I did a movie with Michelle Yeoh, probably one of my least favorite movies I ever made, but I was in China in Shanghai taught by the Chinese for about 3 weeks. And then when I did Death Race, I was in a fight cage doing all the UFC stuff for about two and a half weeks in Africa. So I think what happens is it all kind of adds up and you learn a lot of techniques. And I try to do roles that – I'm not trying to purport to be the martial artist or that I'm just a guy trying to do fighting styles that are feasible for say you and I opposed to setting myself up as badass martial artist because I'm not a martial artist. I just work really hard with each character to try and pull off an authentic style that would be relevant to them.
Jeffrey Harris: What's a cool action scene in the Blood Out movie?
Luke Goss: I'm on a roof and I really am on the roof. It's funny because – like there's this big explosion in Death Race where some reviewer had said, "courtesy of green screen." I'm thinking, "that massive, huge fireball was about twenty feet behind me. So trust me, no green screen there." And then there's a scene in Blood Out where I'm on the roof of a car and absolutely going 60 miles an hour going down seven city blocks trying to get Vinnie [Jones] from taking my brother's fiancée. I'm on the roof of that thing and I didn't have any stunt doubles – there are no cables there. That's me doing it, making it happen, with the help of course from mainly stunt guys but I'm doing it for myself for that reason. So that we get the shot.
Jeffrey Harris: Thanks so much for your time and I'm looking forward to what you are doing next.
Luke Goss: Thanks for the support. It means a great deal.
Luke Goss will soon be going to Hong Kong for the movie Chennai Heist which he will starring in, writing, and producing. Blood Out is now available in stores on DVD and Blu-ray.
