*Interview* Scott Adkins Talks Max Cloud & What’s Next

AR: Hey Scott, how are you?

SA: I’m all right, Jeff. How are you?

AR: Not So bad, thanks Scott! It’s good to have you back.

SA: Yes mate glad to be back with you at Action Reloaded.

AR: Last time I had you on we were talking Legacy of Lies. And then in between now, and then you had Seized which came out in the states, which was a fun movie, before I go on I just want to ask, how was it reuniting with Isaac for Seized?

SA: Let’s talk about Max Cloud.

AR: Yeah, no worries. What initially drew you to the script of Max Cloud?

SA: It was something different. I wanted to do something a bit more comedy based and the opportunity came up, and I was happy to jump on board and have some fun with it, and it was fun. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed working with all the people involved and it was a good experience.

AR: What was your favorite scene? As Max Cloud as features numerous comedic and action scenes?

SA: I really did enjoy working with Elliot, Elliot Langridge. He’s a really talented actor. Well, they’re all talented all of them Sally and Everyone but I especially enjoyed working with Elliot.

AR: The game of ‘Max Cloud’ is basically like Jumanji as in you are transported into the game would there be any way that you would like to return as Max Cloud as they can update the console thus updating the game. Would you be down for a return?

SA: I think what was fun about it was that it was this 16-bit side-scrolling game from ’89/ ’90. Sega Genesis sort of thing that was part of the charm. You know if you did it like a computer game today they’re so life-like almost, and it wouldn’t have the same effect. So I think part of what makes it cool is that it is a throwback to those retro times in the music and those graphics and that’s part of what made it fun.

AR: The game itself that we are watching Cowboy play looks fun. Was that actually a sort of half game made for the movie?

SA: No, we don’t see any of that until the film was done in that’s all post-production.

AR: It would be really cool to have an actual Max cloud game.

SA: Back in ’89. Yeah,

AR: I would still play to this day. You can’t beat the classics.

SA: Yeah, bring back Frogger any day.

AR: The character of Max isn’t like the typical character you play he starts off with a huge ego, and he’s chanting I’m Max Cloud! Then towards the end, he sort of becomes more level should we say? Is that what also attracted you to character? You’re playing like this big brash human version of Buzz Lightyear to a degree.

SA: Yeah, those are the most fun parts to play to be honest where you’re just completely full of yourself. Well what the director wanted was an action guy that wasn’t afraid to make fun of his own image, you know, I never see myself as Max Cloud, they will anyway, but you know the sort of action hero one-liners, I’m ‘ard all the rest of it, which I don’t have a problem with I’ve always had a good sense of humor, and I’m happy to do things that make fun of myself and have done in the past. Some of those big brash lines or big brash moments are the most fun to play for me. So those are the best, I prefer to be honest, the more human he gets which is necessary for the story wasn’t as fun as it allowed compared to brash out there Max Cloud.

AR: Was it hard having to fight in a side-scrolling stance. For instance, it was just on the spot move after move. It looked really sore on the legs.

SA: It was okay *laughs*. It was alright. I did enough pattern work in my Taekwondo days to for my legs to be okay In an L stance for more than a few minutes. It was fun though to try and get that computer game feel. I mean attractions seen it saw has a different style yet. They all sort of look like they could exist in a computer game. So that was fun and Andy Long the fight coordinator did a great job. He’s a very talented guy himself as a performer and behind the camera he’s want to watch out for sure.

AR: You really did seem to have a blast playing Max Cloud you had Everything to a tee, but if you were to put Max Cloud into like the list of characters you play would he be the most fun that you played?

SA: You know what, the villains are fun. Playing a villain is fun. I mean, at least I enjoy it you know, a good actor loves a good death scene and I love a good death scene as well. Yeah, I mean it was a lot of fun on this, so it was a light set. It was kept very light it had to be because you want to try different things and try and be funny, and it’s not always going to work, and you know, you don’t want somebody shouting your shit! Your rubbish. There was always a positive vibe on set, so that was obviously very enjoyable. It was a very enjoyable film to make it’s one of the most enjoyable films that I have made. I would say that yeah!

AR: In regards to fights again. Was it hard to move in that suit because that suit was pretty tight.

SA: It was tough to get on but once it was on you have full range of motion with your arms and your legs but to get from the crotch to the shoulders. That was the tight fit. So once you’ve got your legs in through the small holes at the bottom. Which was difficult. Once you pulled it up to your crotch and then getting it over Your shoulders was difficult you needed help with that and so it was a bit of a pain every morning on a cold December morning.

AR: So there’s no going to pee in between takes it’s all I had to say.

SA: No, you would just say I’ll just have the one coffee I’m not taking this off again until lunch.

AR: The whole Space atmosphere, would that be something you like doing? because usually your movies are down like put on fighting but this is like an Intergalactic sort of Star Wars esque movie. Would you have grown up on them sort of movies?

SA: I enjoy sci-fi, but I’m not a massive sci-fi fan. I mean, of course Star Wars was huge for me as a kid and something like aliens. But I’m not a big like Trekkie fan or anything like that. I wasn’t into the sort of sci-fi serials you get on the TV. But it’s always fun to do something like that. You need money any time and money because obviously going to make these lavish sets were able to go over there on this because 89 sort of computer game, and it looks good for what I need it to look like but if you’re going to do something along the lines of Blade Runner, you better make sure you’ve got it in the budget.

AR: speaking of time and money will time. Mainly what was the budget for this movie because everything come across pretty top grade.

SA: I don’t know what the budget was. I’m always afraid to ask. Not only that, but I normally say well how many days have we got? That’s what I want to know. How many days have we got that’s important to me.

AR: How many what was it?

SA: What was it? Flipping hell maybe I shouldn’t even say *laughs* probably below 20. I can’t quite remember.

AR: But for these types of movies anyway in the way the industry is at the minute 20 days or so. You can really pull something great together, right?

SA: Well, it’s not easy. I know that’s not easy. No, it’s getting stupid. Now the amount of time that they wanted to do it in, especially if you’ve got action in their action takes longer to shoot you have to piece together the mosaic different pieces the different shots and each set up which is a shot takes time because you’ve got to light it properly now the lighting in this movie was spectacular right, the lighting in this movie was fantastic, but it takes time to make it look that way. So you want to try and shoot in the one direction for longer but to make an action scene look good. You want to get those different angles? It takes more time. So give me more time man. Don’t give anyone any ideas I want more time not less.

AR: Yeah, I was going to say I must be a struggle on yourself.

SA: I’ll tell you why it’s a struggle Jeff. It’s a struggle because you’ve got, obviously fans of the previous movies like Boyka and Ninja, and they want the same quality of action. And of course I do as well and are you know, I think the reason I’m busy and a lot of Producers want to work with me is because I’ll give you great action on a lesser time frame than anyone else can do that, and I don’t enjoy doing it. But I’ve got a real hard work ethic, but you know, it’s just it’s difficult. So if people complain about the action not being of the standard of Boyka or Ninja is because we had more time on those movies because they were done like 10 years ago as a different filmmaking climate. The budgets are shrinking the time is shrinking its, it’s not easy.

AR: I know you’ve touched upon this in the past, and you continue to still make movies, and you continue to deliver but would you say piracy is still hurting in your market?

SA: Oh yeah, but it’s got to the point now where it’s like, you know, there’s no point even talking about it. It’s too cold. It is what it is and you there’s you just got to accept it because this is the way this it is right? Like the music industry the way they need to make money the musicians to play live gigs, but well good luck doing that with a pandemic. So let’s download all their music for free that’ll help.

AR: After Max Cloud, what can we expect to see you next in? I know the pandemics got in the way of everything again.

SA: Yeah! An action movie with Dolph Lundgren called Castle Falls which has quite a bit of action in that one

AR: Oh did you finally get back to filming as last time? I was speaking with you the pandemic had you on hold.

SA: Yeah, we managed to get back out there and complete some things. Yeah.

AR: Can we expect to see any more Max cloud in the near future.

SA: I don’t know about that, if they want to do it I’m happy to talk about it.

AR: Max Cloud for anyone that’s wanting to know is a really good movie. It’s fun and has action adventure and Scott does play one badass character and Scott? It is great to see you doing action and comedy because the two go hand in hand, and you pull it off really well. It’s sort of like Accident Man it has the mix of action and comedy, you pull it off really well. So just you keep what you keep doing what you’re doing great!

SA: Thanks very much, Jeff. I really appreciate it.