Of all the fighters who've ever taken part in Mortal Kombat, perhaps none are as dangerously relatable as Kano. An Earthrealm criminal who drinks hard, parties harder, and won't hesitate to rip someone's heart from their chest, Kano is a creature of impulse, a lizard-brained savage who takes sadistic glee in the basic pleasures of bloodshed and hedonism.
In the new cinematic reboot of Mortal Kombat, the role of Kano is played by Josh Lawson, best known to American audiences for his role in Showtime's House of Lies, as well as comedies like The Campaign and Anchorman 2. In his native Australia, Lawson has developed quite a reputation as a writing/directing/acting triple threat with movies like 2014's provocative sex comedy, The Little Death and the recently-released high-concept time-travel rom-com, Long Story Short.
While promoting the release of Mortal Kombat, Lawson spoke to Screen Rant about his work on the film, from spending weeks on fight scenes to dialing his innate "Australian-ness" up to eleven in order to properly capture the soul of Kano. He discusses his fandom towards the video game, and admits to being overwhelmed by the sheer density of Mortal Kombat's fantastical mythology. He talks about the gore factor and how important it is for a Mortal Kombat to deliver in terms of blood and guts, even if that importance may be difficult to explain to non-fans who don't understand how integral the bloodletting is to the whole vibe of the franchise. Finally, he explores his own relationship to classic Australian stereotypes and preconceptions... And no, he's never wrestled a crocodile or boxed a kangaroo.
Mortal Kombat is out now in theaters and on HBO Max.
Right off the bat, I'm a huge fan of The Little Death. I saw it at a press screening many years ago, and it's really stuck with me until now.
Oh, really?
It's such a sweet and romantic movie, but also sassy and dark and hilarious. From the first scene, you just know it's something wild and completely unpredictable and it never lets up.
Oh man, I'm so happy! That movie definitely doesn't start like a normal rom-com.
So, before we jump into Mortal Kombat, and we're going to dive in, tell me about the difference, for you, in writing and directing and starring in your own movies, versus when they call you in to act a huge Hollywood production. I imagine it's really different. Like, you probably get a bigger trailer.
My trailer for Mortal Kombat was not as huge as you might think! (Laughs) But you're hardly in it. You're on set all the time! I'd say the difference is that, compared to writing and directing, any acting job I've ever had feels like a holiday. Writing and directing is just so much more work. Don't get me wrong, being in Mortal Kombat or any film as an actor is hard work, but it's not a scratch on the kind of work you do as a writer/director. You've gotta remember, actors are the last ones on set and the first to leave. In the process of pre-production, production, and post-production, actors come in last, they do all of production, and then they leave. But there's a massive chunk of pre-and-post production that actors really aren't part of. So, you know, the work is so much bigger as a writer/director.
Lots of ground to cover.
I had just wrapped production on my new film, Long Story Short, as a director, and I wrote it... And we did a little bit of overlap, doing post while I was in production on Mortal Kombat, but we essentially delayed post-production until after Mortal Kombat. But, to go from production on my film to this enormous studio film, it felt like a vacation! I was really so relieved to get out of the director's chair for a second and let somebody else take that job, Simon McQuoid in this case. I was, like, "Simon, if there's any way I can help make your job any easier, I will, because I've just done it and I know how hard it is." I was happy to help in any way that I could, because yeah, it's hard to know the pain until you've done it, for sure.
It must be nice to be able to ask someone, "What's my motivation?" As opposed to everyone coming up to you and asking you.
It's true! I think Ricky Gervais said something really interesting about directing. He said, "When you're a director, you have to have an answer for everything. But the good news is, whatever your answer is, it's the right answer!" Because you're the director! It can be whatever you want. So you're right, it was great, not to have to have the answers on Mortal Kombat. I really only had the questions! Somebody else had to answer those questions for me. It was a nice change.
What was your awareness of Mortal Kombat? Were you familiar with the other movie, Trevor Goddard's performance?
Yeah! I used to play Mortal Kombat, for sure. Not in a while, but I know the franchise, and I know it well. Or at least, I thought I did, until I opened Pandora's Box and learned the decades of mythology and character development and story arcs I had no idea about. I had seen the original film, of course. But I really stayed away from re-watching it before doing this one. I just wanted to completely, as much as I could, be fresh and have a clean slate. So I didn't watch it prior to shooting the film... And in fact, I still haven't, since I was a kid. But I really want to rewatch it! I'm so keen to see it again! But anyway, it wasn't until I took the job on and we really started getting into it, only then did I realize how complicated the lore was. The backstory, the history of these characters.
It's so much. The Mortal Kombat game lore is my favorite soap opera.
Oh my God, it's just so dense and evolved! Man oh man, I was in for it when I took the job. It was a lot to download.
So, Australia is a big and magnificent place from what I imagine, I've never been there.
You're right!
The people there are so different from one another, you know, just like anywhere, but... When you're Kano... There's something you have to tap into that's all "lizard brain," or "id" or something... I don't know, does Simon go, "Josh, I need you to be more, uh, Australian?" If you know what I mean?
I know exactly what you men, and you're right! It was so much fun to play. Kano soooo doesn't belong in this day and age of political correctness and civility, as much as we want to be civil and decent to each other. Kano is the absence of all that! It was so much fun to just be an unadulterated prick! (Laughs) All the time! Simon very much wanted him to be very Australian. It was something that only an Aussie could do in this iteration of Kano. There's something so Australian about it. There's idioms and phrases he uses, all sorts of things that I get to say in this film, and I doubt Americans will even understand it! But that's part of the fun. He speaks a bizarre language. Even to most Australians, it's kind of "too Australian." It was a lot of fun to be able to step into those shoes and be the bastard!
I feel like Kano knows nobody understands what he's saying, but they won't challenge him because he will respond by literally punching their heart out of their chest.
Yeah! He's a simple man, exactly. When words fail him, just a very simple heart-rip out of a ribcage will do the trick. Violence is a language he's fluent in.
Speaking of violence... Did you have any kind of martial arts training? Did you get to work with a team to make a "Kano fight style?"
For sure! In a perfect world, I would have done it for so much longer, but given the time that I had... There was an amazing martial artist named Nino, down in Adelaide, he's kind of a legend in South Australia, where we shot. He worked with all of us. It wasn't just about learning martial arts, but about learning a fight style for the character. How does Kano fight? That was really fun, to be able to fight in-character. He's dirty. He's a cheat. He's drunk most of the time! So the physicality is all based on the character, It was great to learn those new skills, and really exciting that each character fights in a different way. I think you really see that in the finished film.
I'm sure you can't tell me anything about who you're fighting in the movie... I think fans of the lore can guess and infer... We see you going toe-to-toe with a lizard guy who might be Reptile... Maybe, it's none of my business! I dunno!
(Laughs)
But can you tell me how long it took you to shoot any of your particular fights?
There were certain fights that took weeks. There are certain fights that are so complicated, and many people are involved, and you have to do main unit and second unit... If you add it all up, there are certain fights that took weeks. They're a combination of in-camera, practical fight choreography, and CG elements, and all sorts of stuff. Oh man, some of this stuff is harder than it looks! Certainly harder than it looked to me, and I had never done a film like this before. It was all a totally new experience for me. I think you get the detail, the time and the care... Our fight choreographers were so inventive. Mortal Kombat is all about the gore. You have to be able to fight, but have these spectacular Fatalities, as well. We're incorporating all that stuff into it... Dude, it was so sick.
(Laughs) It's something I can't fully articulate to, like, my girlfriend, or my mom, or anyone who's not already a Mortal Kombat fan... It's hard to articulate to them why it's so important that spines get severed and heads exploded and all that.
It's what's so unique about Mortal Kombat, as opposed to another franchise. Part of what makes it unique, part of what fans want, is gore! You can't pull back on that. I think you for sure get a taste of that in the trailer, but there's so much more in the movie.
And it's all with these characters who are all larger than life, but not quite so completely serious. Well, some of them are very serious, but some of them... Like Kano... If you want, Kano could be a Charles Manson-type, or the guy who gets kicked out of the bar every day at noon. It's fun! He's fun! And trying to explain that sense of fun to people can sometimes be challenging.
You're right! I think something Simon, the director, pulled off so well, is that even though some of these characters are other-worldly, he really tried to ground them all in an origin that had reality to it. They could be real people in a heightened universe. Even in the aesthetic, you see it. There's a green-ness, an earthiness. There's a dirty quality to it, but beauty, as well. It always felt like, for me at least, Kano was a real dude! He was real! Yeah! I was able to flex a bit of comedy chops in there because he was able to provide some levity to balance some of the more serious stuff out. But it's still always life or death. The stakes are high! It was always real for him, and for all the characters. As an actor, it was easy to play him, because he never felt ridiculous. The character of Kano that I created is, for sure, based on people that I know. There's a real reality to it... And you don't want to know the people I'm basing Kano on. They're bad guys. They're Australian. That's all you need to know. Deniability. (Laughs)
Got it! Getting back to the fights, it sounds like you were more involved than, like, "Here, eat a bunch of chicken, get ripped, and we'll have the stunt guys do the rest!" Did they have to pull you out of the scenes, like, "No, Josh, you can't do this particular stunt?"
There was a bit of that. Some of the actors on set, like Lewis Tan and Joe Taslim, these are guys who are experts in martial arts. They are guys who really know their craft. They, for sure, were probably more involved in, not just the choreography, but pulling it off, than I was. But there's definitely a mix. We definitely have input with the choreography. I can go, "Look, I don't know, I feel like my character, at this point in the story, is here," and we were able to mold it a little bit. It definitely felt like we were included in the conversations. But for sure, when things came up on set, like, "Josh, I need you to fly through the air and land on your neck," then I would go, "Uh, Ben, my stunt double, this is your queue to take over, buddy. I'm gonna go take a little lie down while you go get your fu*kin' ass handed to you!" That's the magic of the movies!
You've written and directed Australian movies, and you've played in Hollywood mega-productions, where the difference is they have enough money for everything to be air conditioned. Would you be interested in writing and directing a Hollywood blockbuster? Or do you feel like you have more control in your back yard, so to speak?
My first answer is, for sure, I would love to do something like that! A big, epic story like that, to be able to play with all the expensive toys, oh my God, it would be a dream come true! But at the heart of it, no matter how big or small, you're still just telling a story. And the problems on a film set that you have to solve, they're kind of all the same. At the end of the day, you're solving the same s***. But it's just on a bigger scale. I don't see that much of a difference, really. You just get better technicians, you get more expensive toys to play with, and more studio involvement, sure. But the end result is so exciting, to be able to see something that really is magic, in a lot of ways. The worlds you're able to create, the stories you're able to tell... It would be such a shame if I never got to do that in my life. I would love to.
If I had $200 million lying around, I'd love to see what you could make with it.
We can split it. You put up $100 million, and I'll put up $100 million, and we'll go make a movie. C'mon. Zak. You've got $100 million lying around.
I'm gonna go to the bank and see if I can get a loan.
(Laughs)
You're funny, which leads to my next question. How did you get in that crew of Adam McKay and Jay Roach, that whole gang... If you don't mind my jumping around your career a bunch?
No, of course! My first way in was Jay Roach. The Campaign was my first job that I had done in that comedy world. I think that was a Gary Sanchez production, written by Chris Henchy and directed by Jay Roach. And of course, starring Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell. And then, from that, I was asked to do the table read of Anchorman 2. It was just to help out. I think Kench Allenby, at that point, was written as much older. Still Aussie, for sure, though, based on Murdoch, no question. And then we did the table read, it was a lot of fun, it got a few laughs, and then I think Adam just said, "Let's just do it. Let's just make him younger and then go for it!" That was how I got into Anchorman 2. But you could tell, the way Adam directed, I really felt like he was doing innovative stuff, far beyond what most comedy directors do. Similarly with Todd Phillips, you could see what he was doing in his early comedy stuff, it was the same with Adam McKay. It makes total sense that those guys went off and started doing different sorts of films that got more attention in the industry. Comedy is sometimes looked at as the bastard cousin on drama, but Adam was always pushing boundaries, visually. Look at The Other Guys, Anchorman... You could always tell he was so clever. I was blown away by his intellect. He was constantly offering up ad-libs, alts... His brain is a thing of beauty, really. I was so lucky to get a chance to work with him.
Yeah. Those movies, even if you stripped out all the jokes, would still be good movies.
Absolutely. That's a good way of putting it, yeah. Even if you don't find them funny, they're tense! The stakes are high, the progression of the story is good. There's no fat on the bones. It drives forward. It's got momentum. That's exactly right. They're such good storytellers. Adam knew when to let those comic geniuses go nuts, you know, Will Ferrell, and Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd, all those guys. But he also knew when to push the story forward, too. I've got to be honest, all of those people in The Campaign and Anchorman, Adam and Jay... They're just the nicest people I've had the chance to work with.
I bet you say that to all of them!
I promise! You often hear stories about celebrities being dicks or whatever, but I've not had that experience at all. They were just the nicest people to work with. The most supportive... It sounds like lip-service, but it's not. They were awesome. I love them! (Laughs)
Well, it's not lip-service if you tell me who was the dick! Spill the tea!
I wish I could, man!
No, I kid.
They say there's always one dick on set... So it must have been me! Because I looked around and there was no one, so I guess it was me!
No, I don't believe that for a second! Okay, maybe it's me, because I don't know if you get asked a ton about being Australian... I got to interview Travis Fimmel, and he was a darling. I live in New York City, the closest we have to nature is, like, Far Rockaway beach and Central Park. We have an image of Australian people as born riding giant, man-eating spiders, and wrestling snakes for breakfast every morning. Where did you grow up? Did you have a relationship with the outdoors? Did you grow up with any of those classic stereotypes, or is everything I just said horribly insensitive?
I've always felt like such a bad Australian. I never fit into that stereotype! I grew up in the city. I was the son of a doctor. I went to a private school. For sure, we would go to the beach, though. It's an island, so there's a beach in every direction. And the beaches are amazing. Sand everywhere. For sure, we had that cliche, the sunscreen on our noses, yeah, definitely. But I was like a music and arts and drama kid! I was the dorky guy who loved movies and would go down to Blockbuster and get ten videos for ten bucks. I was just a little film nerd. In that way, instead of going outside, I would just study movies. One of my shi**y jobs while I was trying to get acting work was, I was a projectionist. Like, cinema paradiso style.
Oh, that's a great gig.
And this was before the projectors were all digital. So I was romantically threading film through a projector! I really was a cinephile, and I remain one... But let me tell you... When you come out here, and I insist that you do, you'll see that – yeah – those Aussies do exist! The crocodile-wrestling, kangaroo-boxing Aussies, they're out there. I promise you! In the outback, they're there. But most of us order oat milk lattes in the city. We're doing our best to cook with quinoa. It's all pretty much the same in any city. We're all the same, just trying to love and be loved, being healthy. It's not much different from New York.
Well, I did wrestle a rat for a slice of pizza this morning, but that's a whole other story...
There you go! You're practically an Aussie already!
I'll take it! You clearly had a passion for the movies... Did you know you were going to be a movie star?
Oh, hell no. It was always the hope. For sure, I used to look at the TV and the movies and go, "That's gonna be me one day!" You definitely have that dream in your heart. As a kid, it was definitely... I can tell you right now, it was never to be behind the camera. It was always to be in front of the camera. But then, the older I got and the more acting I did, the more I just wanted to tell my own stories. I think I had worked with enough people to go, "Hey, I can do this! I've got something to say!" And it became a natural progression. With the type of director I am, I'm really grateful for my acting background. I'm good at talking to actors. I know how to tell a story. I know how to write dialogue that actors can say, because I've had to say some of the worst dialogue ever. That's good training! But yeah, the older I got, the more experience I started to amass, the more I just wanted to tell my own stories.
A crazy amount of Australian actors were on that show, The Neighbors, and I don't know if any Americans have ever seen that show, but it's apparently super popular.
The other one is Home and Away. So it's that and Neighbors. They're like The Young and the Restless and Days of Our Lives that you guys have. They're daytime soaps, sort of. Afternoon soap operas. I was on Home and Away.
But your brother was on Neighbors!
Yes, Ben, my brother, was on Neighbors, I was on Home and Away. So we covered both bases, yes.
Did you both come up together, do you have a friendly competition, or do you not talk to each other, are you bitter enemies and am I in trouble for even bringing him up?
(Laughs) No, not at all! For sure, we came up together. There's always friendly competition, not just with your brother, but with your friends. You're generally the same age, so you go for the same things. There are jobs that I missed out on to him and vice-versa, but most of the time, we both don't get the same job. Most of the time, we both miss out on the job. But yeah, I think we do different things. Especially the older we get, we're branching further and further apart in terms of what we're drawn to. His show, Firefly Lane, on Netflix, is kicking ass right now! Ben's killing it right now!
Have you acted together?
Yeah, we did Bombshell together, the Jay Roach film! We played brothers in that, the Murdoch brothers.
Oh, yeah, okay! I interviewed Jay for that. Of course!
And he was also briefly in The Little Death.
I'm just imagining you sitting in a room together, and you pull out a sheet of paper, and you go, "Wow, look at my résumé," and he goes, "that's not a résumé..."
"THIS is a résumé."
Thank you, thank you! That's my time!
(Laughs) You've got it, buddy!
Thanks so much for indulging me, it's been a delight to get to talk to you, I've been a fan for a really long time.
It means a lot to me that you saw The Little Death when it first came out. I love hearing that.
Great movie!
And I hope you like Mortal Kombat, I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
