About.com
Fred Topel interview
DATE: 2002/01/21
URL: About.com
Brotherhood of the Wolf's Mark Dacascos
Part Two - Native American Research and The Beast
Interview with Mark Dacascos, continued:
Did you research native American mythology? Absolutely. Because I'm from Hawaii and I'm not Native American at all, Christophe and I both wanted to bring as much authenticity to the character, his spiritual beliefs and the way he would live, as possible. So, I worked with a Mohawk cultural teacher. She's actually from Canada, from the Mohawk tribe, can speak the language and believe it or not, she's actually from the Wolf tribe, which is perfect for this movie. And she would sing songs to me in the actual Mohawk language so that I could hear the rhythm and the sounds because it's a very different language. She talked to me about some of the spiritual beliefs and actually showed me the cleansing ritual with sage and tobacco. She talked to me about some of their beliefs and just life as a Mohawk in general. Learning from her one on one directly in conjunction with reading books and talking with others who were knowledgeable of the culture, and the script. The script had so much in it as well. That's how I formed my character.
What did you find out about the culture?I found that many indigenous cultures believe in similar things. For example, I have a friend of mine that is a priest of a Northeast African religion. They do cleansing rituals with sage. They cleanse their bodies, they cleanse their houses and this is in Africa. Then I'm learning from my Mohawk cultural teacher that the north American Indians used sage as well. Now, two completely different cultures on different continents using the same thing. I thought wow, there's something to it. There's something that connects these cultures that are of the earth. I just found that fascinating.
Since the beast is CG, when you were acting against essentially nothing, what did they use to substitute the beast? Nothing. Nothing was there. Christophe said, "The beast is over there. He's doing this. Okay, go." You just do it. Yeah, there was nothing there and for me, I think I only had a couple of shots with the actual beast. Samuel Le Bihan and Emilie Dequenne had a whole scene in there. I'm not sure how that shoot went. Maybe they put up a broom and paper eyes.
What was the challenge in battling something that wasn't there?Well, it became more technical than anything else because just to get your eyelines straight, I had to ask them how big is the beast and where is its eyes? Something I could play off of. At that point, they weren't quite sure. I mean, Christophe knew what he wanted but everything was in progress. So, he tried to explain to me what he wanted and from that I kind of speculated and based my response to it. So, it was very technical and very difficult, still fun though because you get to act and imagine, make pretend.
What does the beast represent? I wish [Christophe Gans] were here because he would lock you guys in here and tell you. He can go on for hours. But the movie I think, the great thing about it is it goes as deep as you want it to go. As far as religion, I don't want to get into that because that could be a while, but that he's saying there are factions of religions that abuse the power of the people. He says it loud and clear in that movie and I think for the time, for the 18th century France, I think there was a lot of that going around. I mean, I think there's always been a lot of that. I think a lot of the issues that we deal with in the movie, we deal with right now. I don't know if they've gotten any better.
Could this be a vehicle for more theatrical roles for you? I think it could be.
Are you looking for that? Sure. Absolutely. I'd love to be up on the big screen. But you just never know. I've been doing this for 18 years now and I've had a few movies on the big screen and a lot on the little screen, but I've been able to work all over the world and fight and act and have fun. So, as long as I'm having fun, that's really important because when you're working 12, 14 and 16 hour days, you'd better like what you're doing. You'd better like what you're doing a lot. Because sometimes the money isn't there. You go through long stretches of time when the money just isn't there looking for a good project. Maybe you do a project and you still don't get paid a lot. Doesn't matter. You'd better like what you do. Fortunately, so far, I do.
Any chance you'd play The Crow again? I would say there's a 99 percent chance that I won't. It just feels like as far as life and timing, it feels like it's over.
Why was the series not successful? I think we had really good numbers but I the fact is I think it was more political and business. Polygram was taken over by Universal and they wanted to do different shows, period. I think that's about the extent of it.
There wouldn't at least be a TV movie? They've talked about doing one to wrap it up. It drives you crazy, what happened to those two? And I don't know. They've talked about it. I'd possibly be interested to wrap up the story, but I haven't heard from Mr. Pressman in a long time.
There's been no talk of you in the movies? No, and to be quite honest, I don't think I'd really be right for it.
What are you memories of Double Dragon? What movie? [LAUGHS] You know, I have nothing but fond memories because Scotty Wolf and I just laughed the whole time.
And you got to beat him up. Yeah. Scott Wolf was a blast to work with and Alyssa Milano. Robert Patrick was funny. It was just fun. It was a good time. I think one of the things with that movie was they couldn't figure out if it was going to be for kids or adults and they tried to do both. In my opinion it doesn't really work all the way through because it's just too much. They should have either gone kids or adults.
Did you know the video game? No.
What's your next project? Trying to find something special. The crazy thing is right after this I had a couple offers but the characters are so similar to Mani, but they were set in Asia or set here or there, but it was like the same thing. I thought this is what happens. This is where you have to wait and try to find something different or else I'm not making my career any easier for myself. I'd be pigeonholing myself.
Would you ever look at non-action roles? Sure, absolutely I would. The thing is right now I just really love doing action. If I can do both, better yet. But sure, absolutely. If a role came around and it had no martial arts or action involved and I felt something for it, of course I'd go for it. Absolutely.
Fred Topel interview
DATE: 2002/01/21
URL: About.com
Brotherhood of the Wolf's Mark Dacascos
Part Two - Native American Research and The Beast
Interview with Mark Dacascos, continued:
Did you research native American mythology? Absolutely. Because I'm from Hawaii and I'm not Native American at all, Christophe and I both wanted to bring as much authenticity to the character, his spiritual beliefs and the way he would live, as possible. So, I worked with a Mohawk cultural teacher. She's actually from Canada, from the Mohawk tribe, can speak the language and believe it or not, she's actually from the Wolf tribe, which is perfect for this movie. And she would sing songs to me in the actual Mohawk language so that I could hear the rhythm and the sounds because it's a very different language. She talked to me about some of the spiritual beliefs and actually showed me the cleansing ritual with sage and tobacco. She talked to me about some of their beliefs and just life as a Mohawk in general. Learning from her one on one directly in conjunction with reading books and talking with others who were knowledgeable of the culture, and the script. The script had so much in it as well. That's how I formed my character.
What did you find out about the culture?I found that many indigenous cultures believe in similar things. For example, I have a friend of mine that is a priest of a Northeast African religion. They do cleansing rituals with sage. They cleanse their bodies, they cleanse their houses and this is in Africa. Then I'm learning from my Mohawk cultural teacher that the north American Indians used sage as well. Now, two completely different cultures on different continents using the same thing. I thought wow, there's something to it. There's something that connects these cultures that are of the earth. I just found that fascinating.
Since the beast is CG, when you were acting against essentially nothing, what did they use to substitute the beast? Nothing. Nothing was there. Christophe said, "The beast is over there. He's doing this. Okay, go." You just do it. Yeah, there was nothing there and for me, I think I only had a couple of shots with the actual beast. Samuel Le Bihan and Emilie Dequenne had a whole scene in there. I'm not sure how that shoot went. Maybe they put up a broom and paper eyes.
What was the challenge in battling something that wasn't there?Well, it became more technical than anything else because just to get your eyelines straight, I had to ask them how big is the beast and where is its eyes? Something I could play off of. At that point, they weren't quite sure. I mean, Christophe knew what he wanted but everything was in progress. So, he tried to explain to me what he wanted and from that I kind of speculated and based my response to it. So, it was very technical and very difficult, still fun though because you get to act and imagine, make pretend.
What does the beast represent? I wish [Christophe Gans] were here because he would lock you guys in here and tell you. He can go on for hours. But the movie I think, the great thing about it is it goes as deep as you want it to go. As far as religion, I don't want to get into that because that could be a while, but that he's saying there are factions of religions that abuse the power of the people. He says it loud and clear in that movie and I think for the time, for the 18th century France, I think there was a lot of that going around. I mean, I think there's always been a lot of that. I think a lot of the issues that we deal with in the movie, we deal with right now. I don't know if they've gotten any better.
Could this be a vehicle for more theatrical roles for you? I think it could be.
Are you looking for that? Sure. Absolutely. I'd love to be up on the big screen. But you just never know. I've been doing this for 18 years now and I've had a few movies on the big screen and a lot on the little screen, but I've been able to work all over the world and fight and act and have fun. So, as long as I'm having fun, that's really important because when you're working 12, 14 and 16 hour days, you'd better like what you're doing. You'd better like what you're doing a lot. Because sometimes the money isn't there. You go through long stretches of time when the money just isn't there looking for a good project. Maybe you do a project and you still don't get paid a lot. Doesn't matter. You'd better like what you do. Fortunately, so far, I do.
Any chance you'd play The Crow again? I would say there's a 99 percent chance that I won't. It just feels like as far as life and timing, it feels like it's over.
Why was the series not successful? I think we had really good numbers but I the fact is I think it was more political and business. Polygram was taken over by Universal and they wanted to do different shows, period. I think that's about the extent of it.
There wouldn't at least be a TV movie? They've talked about doing one to wrap it up. It drives you crazy, what happened to those two? And I don't know. They've talked about it. I'd possibly be interested to wrap up the story, but I haven't heard from Mr. Pressman in a long time.
There's been no talk of you in the movies? No, and to be quite honest, I don't think I'd really be right for it.
What are you memories of Double Dragon? What movie? [LAUGHS] You know, I have nothing but fond memories because Scotty Wolf and I just laughed the whole time.
And you got to beat him up. Yeah. Scott Wolf was a blast to work with and Alyssa Milano. Robert Patrick was funny. It was just fun. It was a good time. I think one of the things with that movie was they couldn't figure out if it was going to be for kids or adults and they tried to do both. In my opinion it doesn't really work all the way through because it's just too much. They should have either gone kids or adults.
Did you know the video game? No.
What's your next project? Trying to find something special. The crazy thing is right after this I had a couple offers but the characters are so similar to Mani, but they were set in Asia or set here or there, but it was like the same thing. I thought this is what happens. This is where you have to wait and try to find something different or else I'm not making my career any easier for myself. I'd be pigeonholing myself.
Would you ever look at non-action roles? Sure, absolutely I would. The thing is right now I just really love doing action. If I can do both, better yet. But sure, absolutely. If a role came around and it had no martial arts or action involved and I felt something for it, of course I'd go for it. Absolutely.
