Meet Nic Cage’s new foe: a martial arts alien
We speak to the bad guy from Jiu Jitsu — perhaps Nicolas Cage’s most high-concept action-movie yet
EVEN FOR NICOLAS Cage, an actor hardly known for his subtlety or realism, the premise for his upcoming sci-fi actioner Jiu Jitsu is a doozy. The story goes: every six years, an alien comes to Earth, and demands that nine worthy warriors fight him. With martial arts. Your classic boy-meets-alien, boy-fights-alien-withnunchucks-to-save-mankind story.
“Don’t expect to see a Brazilian jiu jitsu origin story, because it’s certainly not that,” says Ryan Tarran, the experienced Hollywood stuntman who plays said alien, nicknamed ‘Brax’. “It’s a Hollywood version of how jiu jitsu came about,” he explains with a laugh. “And it came about through a space man.”
Cage plays Wylie, an eccentric martial-arts expert who makes his own hats and describes Brax, the alien that gifted Earth its jiu jitsu skills, as a “poet warrior in the sci-fi sense”. For Tarran (whose regular gig is Jason Momoa’s stunt double), the film was a chance to “salute the beautifully simplistic action of ’80s movies. It’s a popcorn movie with lots of colours and fighting and good violence. We’re going through the boss levels, y’know?”
Those bosses include Marvel alumni Frank Grillo, martial-arts legend Tony Jaa, stunt veteran Alain Moussi, and Cage — each bringing their own fighting style. “Tony has a Thai style of martial arts,” Tarran explains. “So we call it ‘Jaa jitsu’. Frank is obviously a boxer, so we played to his strengths.” As for Cage? “Nicolas expressed an interest in [Japanese sword] katanas,” says Tarran. “We could go quite hard on weapons. He could really hammer down hard on me. I pulled him aside and said, ‘Nic, I am a stuntman. I am giving you permission to absolutely unleash.’”
It’s an instruction you can expect Cage to follow, and Tarran says the actor sprinkled a bit of Cage magic wherever he could. “I mean, he’s an action hero, right? So he knows how to do action movies like the back of his hand.” He adds, with a smile: “His character can be a little bit fruity.” The era of Cage-itsu is upon us.
JIU JITSU IS ON DIGITAL FROM 21 DECEMBER