Please tell us how you started practicing martial arts and what styles do you know? Have you taken part in any tournaments?
Mike Möller: It started with movies, thanks to the video stores that opened after the “wall” came down (I grew up in East Germany), we could enjoy watching any of the world famous films. Back then, I was influenced a lot by martial arts and action films. Unfortunately, there was not a single section in our area at that time, so I trained myself and learned a lot from books and films.
Later, a few years later, after getting a job, I took advantage of the opportunity and enrolled in an excellent taekwondo section. Of course, I took part in competitions, but only at the national level. I currently train with various martial arts experts, practicing judo, karate, boxing and wrestling.
On your website you state that in addition to practicing martial arts, you have diligently taken up “workout”, what does this involve? You're not interested in speed anyway, what exercises do you do? How do you combine them with martial arts?
Mike Moeller: I realized that my regular martial arts training was not enough to improve my strength and speed. So I started a rigorous full body workout routine. At first I did push-ups, pull-ups, squats at home and worked with homemade barbells/dumbbells. Later I went to the real hall.
If I'm not filming a movie, then I stick to the routine: the first day is martial arts and stunts, the second day I pump iron, the third day martial arts and cardio training, and then everything repeats. Sometimes I change the order, but, be that as it may, I study 6-7 days a week.
Let's talk about stunt work, since you call yourself not only a fighter, but also a stuntman. Why did you decide to become a stuntman? Where did you learn to do stunts? Any specific stunt schools?
Mike Moeller: I've always been an avid movie buff, and on the weekends I'd meet up with friends and we'd talk about movies and then we'd work out together. Back then I learned a lot from Eastern and Western action films. He himself learned the technique of falling and acrobatics. One day a friend came to me with his video camera, and we started filming our own techniques.
A little later they started filming their own short action films. At that time we were using a Hi8 camera and editing the footage using two VCRs. We worked with stereo sound and Super Nintendo, since one of us had a PC. We always tried to develop simple and funny plots and come up with fights with unique choreography.
Please tell us about your first stunt work in German cinema, and how that led to you getting stunt work in American films, such as Resident Evil.
Mike Moeller: I read in a magazine that Donnie Yen is in Berlin and is in charge of the fight scenes in the Puma series. Being a huge fan, I wrote a letter to the local manufacturing company. I asked if it was possible to visit the set to take a photo with my idol, and attached a videotape with our short films, hoping that they would see me as a real fan.
Three days later, I received a call from German stuntman Michael Bornhütter, who was working on this series with a team of Asians. It turns out he looked at the tape and invited me to train with Kenji Tanigaki and Michael Woods. For me it was a dream come true. Upon arrival, I was very surprised, because it turned out to be no training at all, what was happening was more like a casting call for the rest of the season. I was terribly worried, I made mistakes, but I gave it my all. It was just very important for me to meet these people and learn something from them.
After the casting, I went back home, and two days later they called me again, this time from the producer of the series. He said that Donnie Yen and his Asian stunt team liked my performance and the VHS tape. They liked my sense of humor and skills and want to give me a job on the show - which is something I never expected.
The day trained with Donnie Yen and his team and filmed for three days, fighting with the leading actor Mickey Hardt. This was my debut in the professional film business, and I owe it to Michael Bornhütter, Kenji Tanigaki and Donnie Yen. It was a great time, a lot to remember, and I'm thrilled to have met and worked with Donnie Yen, Michael Woods, John Salvitti, Kenji Tanigaki, Yuji Shimura and Ron Smoorenburg.
A year later, Resident Evil was filmed in Germany/Babelsberg. Like the films “Neither Alive nor Dead,” “Speed Racer” and “Inglourious Basterds,” for example. To make a name for yourself in this business you need to spend some time, and I am grateful to the opportunity that brought me together with people from different countries of the world who became my friends and support me in every possible way. Thanks to them, I had the chance to get into the film/stunt business... which is very rare.
Some stuntmen have a number of “stunts” that they refuse to perform for personal reasons. Do you have these?
Mike Moeller: Unfortunately, I'm not a well-rounded stuntman who can do everything. My specialty is martial arts and stunts involving falling, getting hit, etc.
You were photographed with Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine on the set of Ninja, but you don't have that title on your record... Did you work on that movie? What do you think about Florentine and Adkins developing into one of the leading stars of modern cinema?
Mike Moeller: I kept in touch with Isaac via email long before I became an actor/stuntman. He has always inspired, motivated and entertained me with his films. He is a great guy and a very good friend, an excellent karateka and has always supported me! He invited me during the filming of Ninja, and I visited the set. There I met Scott Adkins, a good, very talented guy. Adkins and Florentine form a formidable team and are responsible for some of the world's best martial arts films.
As a director, you directed your own film called “City Fighter” (Street Gangs / Targeted Explosion). What is your vision for the film? Was there anything in particular that influenced your decision to make your own martial arts film?
Mike Moeller: We're big fans of action and martial arts films, so we came up with the idea of making our own, in the tradition of B-movie action films. We wanted to show what we could do, to do the best we could with the resources we had at hand.
It's a shame that there were some creative differences during production due to us collaborating with the wrong people. I tried to save everything that I could, and so the result was “Urban Fighter.”
"Urban Fighter" seems to have been made on a fairly small budget, and when you take that into account, your film is reminiscent of most of those low-budget kickboxing action movies of the 90s starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Gary Daniels, Lorenzo Lamas , Olivier Gruner...
Mike Moeller: Yeah, "Urban Fighter" is like one of the old kickboxing movies with Don "The Dragon" Wilson, like "Ring of Fire"... [laughs] I've seen almost all of them and admire many of those stars, especially , my big influences are Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris, Brandon Lee, Gary Daniels, Philippe Rhee and Mark Dacascos. I also like some of the films with Ernie Reyes Jr., Lauren Avedon, Olivier Gruner, Jeff Speakman, Richard Norton, Billy Blanks, Michael Worth, Sho Kosugi and Jeff Wincott.
Asians include Donnie Yen, Sammo Hungg, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Alexander Low, Teng Tao Liang, Lau Kar Leung, Jackie Chan, Jackie Wu and Vincent Zhao. All of them made a huge contribution to the development of films of this genre. Some of them are still being filmed. At the moment, among the rising stars with great potential, I would mention Scott Adkins and Tony Jaa.
Do you have any new directorial project coming up in the near future?
Mike Moeller: Not as a director. As I mentioned earlier, I had no intention of directing Urban Fighter personally. But I hope that producers will hear about us, since we are preparing another film, with a larger budget, with a quality script and good actors, and we hope for support (from investors).
Everything is still at the development stage, but we are working on it. This year I also starred with Fred Williamson, Hazuki Kato and Lorenzo Lamas in the action movie Atomic Eden, which will be released in 2013.
Author: T.Teymur
Source: bzfilm.com
Translation: EvilDollaR
Thanks for the link Ilya
I saw a cool super-kick from him: the guy is sitting on the stands, Mike runs up and kicks the trumpeter with his left foot, then with his right and at the end he turns his back and kicks back and all this in a jump.
I have never seen a reception like this.
Thanks for the translation.
Not at all.