Ever since his debut with the WWE Mike “The Miz” Mizanin has been taking the wrestling world by storm as not only one of the superstars but has held numerous titles including WWE Championship, WWE Intercontinental Championship, WWE Tag Team Championship and more. Now he is stepping out of the ring to star in the latest entry to the marine franchise with The Marine 3: Homefront.
Bobby: How are you doing sir?
Miz: I’m fantastic how are you?
Bobby: Doing good, I’m not really sure how the process works with since the WWE got into more filmmaking. How did you get involved with the Marine franchise?
Miz: I actually auditioned for The Marine 2 and Ted DiBiase got it. When the Marine 3 came about, I guess they thought the Miz did a great job in the audition and this character plays a lot more towards him, so they gave it to me and I’ve been pretty excited about it ever since.
Bobby: So when the WWE makes these films do they just grab certain guys that they want for the films or just tell you all to come in and audition?
Miz: It’s different for everyone I would imagine, but yeah you have to try out for the part and see if you can actually play the character that they want.
Bobby: With these kinds of films people expect some great action, but a lot of the times they try to play outside of the strengths of the wrestler and just doesn’t always deliver, but you seemed to be stepping it up a bit. Did you have some training outside of just your normal wrestling training?
Miz: When I first got The Marine 3: Homefront, I told Michael Luisis, The President of WWE studios that I need a Marine guy that can teach me what it is to be a Marine. I want to observe this guy, so I got to practice with him as well as when I got up to Vancouver, the week before I learned how a Marine holds a gun properly and how a Marine goes into combat. So I worked with a couple of guys up there and it taught me a lot. I just wanted to be authentic as I possibly could so that when members of the armed forces watch this movie they have something they could be proud of.
Bobby: What about with the hand to hand fight scenes. Do you have outside training with that as well?
Miz: Absolutely and what’s funny is the guy I did the longest fight scene with, we didn’t actually talk until we did that fight scene and he told me a fight like that would normally take two days to film, but we did it in six hours. With WWE you kind of learn this sort of combat as well. I am pretty good with my feet and hands and so when they gave me the fight and what I was doing it felt comfortable. It came off great in the movie, I was so proud to watch the fight scene. That’s what makes an action movie some great interesting fight scenes that look real, gritty, and aggressive.
Bobby: Exactly and as someone who has a martial arts background I look for good quality action in not just the shooting, but the fighting as well. Most films look choreographed and while obviously you can still see a bit of it, it felt more real like two people going at it.
Miz: That’s exactly what I wanted to do. You don’t look at a Marine and go this guy is going to throw kicks and that kind of thing so I didn’t want that for Jake Carter. I feel like a Marine fights to survive, it’s not pretty, it’s gritty, and it’s raw. Its punches, kicks, elbows, choke holds and anything you can do to survive at all costs. It doesn’t need to look choreographed or jumping off walls; however we do some interesting things with guns. Because let’s face it, when there is a gun in the mix your first instinct is it go after that gun to shoot the bad guy. So we had a lot of uses for that.
Bobby: With WWE there is obviously a sense of performing and acting, but prior to getting into the wrestling was acting something you were wanting to get into?
Miz: Anytime someone says you’re going to do a movie that’s a pretty cool thing to do. I’m a person that’s open to everything. Ever since I was on the Real World and the challenges and then going into WWE, I am always open to new challenges. I’m always looking to expand my horizons, that’s why now not only am I a WWE superstar, but I have a talk show on Monday Night Raw called Miz TV, on main event I’m one of the commentators, and I have a radio show on Sirius XM called First and Awesome during the football season for fantasy football. I am the kind of person that loves new challenges and having a movie like Marine 3: Homefront is a whole new challenge and to get ready for the character Jake Carter I basically watched a lot of old school movies to see what action heroes of the past looked like. People like Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, he didn’t do much. He didn’t have a lot of verbiage, but when walked into the scene you looked at him and saw his aura and felt his stardom. That’s kind of what I wanted to bring as well as watching films like Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman where he made it look effortless, comfortable, and relaxed. Watching Bruce Willis in the original Die Hard and how does his action scenes, how he sells the things that are going on, just helped me out a lot with getting ready for the character of Jake Carter.
Bobby: You can kind of see that persona in the film. The character is quite and stoic, but delivers what is needed.
Miz: Which is quite different from The Miz on WWE and Mike on MTV. Which is kind of what I was going for as well, I didn’t want people to watch this movie and go, “Oh that’s the Miz or that’s Mike. This is a whole new character.”
Bobby: That’s a smart move as most of the guys tend to just play themselves in the films and a lot of times hurts the movies. Besides this and the WWE are you looking to the future for more films or do you already have some planned?
Miz: From this movie, Michael Luisi, the President of WWE Studios was so impressed with what I did with the Marine 3 that I got a movie about 3 months later called Christmas Bounty which I will film in April and it will come out this Christmas on ABC family. So I am really excited to get my hands dirty on this one and doing a good job as well.
Bobby: Cool, is there anything else you would like to promote besides this with WWE or any other projects?
Miz: No man, just watch this. Get it on Blu-ray and DVD because basically why not get both.
Bobby: Congrats on the film, I wish you well, and appreciate you taking the time to do this.
Miz: Thanks a lot man.
Be sure to pick up The Marine 3: Homefront when it hits DVD and Blu-ray on March 5th.
Be sure to check your local listings for the weekly airings of WWE and head over to http://www.wwe.com/
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