Karl Urban declares Mortal Kombat II as “the most challenging project physically that [he’s] ever embarked on”.
The 53-year-old actor was pushed to his limits in intense training for four months in preparation to play the video game’s character, Johnny Cage, for the sequel to the 2021 action-fantasy film.
Urban explained to People: “Hands down, it was the most challenging project physically that I’ve ever embarked on.
“I spent three to four months training, going right back to basics — movement, agility, speed drills. That was before I even started learning the specifics of the martial arts.
“The real reward comes when you’re shooting a sequence with 20 or 25 moves in a row, captured in a single tracking shot, and you’re able to remember and execute it. That’s a good day at the office.”
Mortal Kombat (2021) saw Mixed Martial Arts fighter Cole Young (Lewis Tan) defeat Shang Tsung (Chin Han) before Cole travelled to Hollywood to recruit movie star, Johnny Cage.
Mortal Kombat II sees Johnny and other fighters battle to defeat Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford).
And Urban had “so much fun” shooting a scene that placed his alter ego in one of Johnny’s own movies.
He said: “For the longest time, I’ve wanted to shoot a movie within a movie. [Quentin] Tarantino did it so well with [Leonardo] DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. This was a blast.”
Urban added: “As a story point, it’s easy to see why Johnny Cage’s career is in the tank, judging by his work in the movie-within-the-movie. It was meant to be a fun, reverential piss-take of ’90s action films.”
The star is game for a threequel to Mortal Kombat — of which the second instalment hits the big screen on Friday (May 8) in the US and on May 15 in the UK.
Urban said: “I’d definitely be interested in reprising the role of Johnny Cage and working with that cast again. One of the strengths of Mortal Kombat II is that it’s an ensemble.”
Mortal Kombat II was not the only film that proved tough for Urban; he needed a “double tequila” at the end of every day while he was filming The Bluff.
Appearing on a March episode of The Discourse podcast, he said: “At the end of every single day, I would go and get all the stuff taken off, and I would have a double tequila ready to go and ready for that car ride home.”
Urban’s co-star Priyanka Chopra, 43, joined him on the podcast and admitted she also needed a boozy beverage at the end of every day of filming the Amazon Prime Video action-adventure movie.
She joked: “I definitely needed a tetanus shot, and margarita, and a bottle of wine.”
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