CraveOnline: MMA is something that I think movies are starting to come around to. It was a novelty for a bit but now we’re starting to get a few movies that take it seriously, like Warrior.
Ryan Guzman: There’s way to do and ways not to do it. A lot of people said of Warrior, if they didn’t fight the brothers at the tail end of the movie, in the third act, it could have been a little bit better.
You think?
No, because it had to work for the storyline they were telling, so they had to do it. Mine, the one I’m writing, and I’m banking on the fact that MMA becomes more commercial and the fact that I can actually write this and get [it] picked up, is showing off that these men that are put in these situations and, like these situations in the octagon, are not there to get out anger or some emotion. It’s euphoric. For them, it’s an escape.
For a lot of guys that I’ve fought with, some of them come from jail, some come from hard jobs, some come from poverty, it’s more of a way out and a way of releasing your own mind from any burden you have in your life and only focusing on the first thing that’s in front of you, which is that guy.
“I sing for the very first time in [Jem and the Holograms].”
Are you looking at that guy as a punching bag, or is that euphoria shared? Is there a camaraderie to it?
You don’t see the other person in front of you as a person. You see them as a task, and that task is to not get hit, and hit hard. So it’s not looked at as a punching bag, it’s looked at as a sport. You have to be the best at your sport to get the best paycheck, and to get that paycheck [so you can] do so many nice things for your family. A lot of these guys are the sweetest guys that you’ll ever meet because they harbor no animosity. They just do what they have to do to make it in the world they’ve grown up in.
That’s cool.
So that’s what I want to embellish on. That’s why I write, and I have so many things that I write. I do poetry, I do… A lot of people would kind of put me in the stigma as a good-looking guy, whatever, skating on his looks. But that’s why I’ve got all these tricks.
And you’ve got all your mad dancing skills as well.
Which I learned for the film.
You learned them for Step Up Revolution? Wow.
Yeah.
You’re good.
Thank you, man!
I’m also very excited for Jem and the Holograms.
Yeah, yeah… I sing for the very first time in that.
You sing for that? That’s awesome!
That’s what I love about this whole acting gig, man, just the fact that you get to broaden your horizons. You get to experience things you never thought.
I wouldn’t sing in the shower to hear my own voice, but then acting comes along and it forces me to be like, “Do you want to be a part of this movie full tilt, or do you just want to half-ass it and hope it does good?” So I want to push the limits.
