An Interview With International Martial Arts Star Daniel O’Neill
Daniel O’Neill is a name you may be familiar with. He is a stunt actor and an action star. His roles include ‘The Twins Effect’ and ‘Bangkok Adrenaline’ along with numerous credits for stunt work on a number of big name martial arts and action movies. We were very lucky to get the chance to sit down and chat to Daniel before the launch of his latest project, a short film called ‘Fixer’, due to premiere 16th July at the The Fighting Spirit Film Festival.
Hi Daniel, it’s great to finally get the chance to sit down and chat to you.
What inspired you to get into martial arts?
As a kid I was always throwing kicks for fun, I was definitely a natural Martial Artist if there is such a thing. This is what lead me into watching martial art movies and I would watch Kung Fu movies everyday after school. It was Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yen Biou and Jet Li that inspired me mainly and I just loved what they were doing so I practiced it daily. I started Tae Kwon Do when I was 14 and was inspired by my instructor Chris Williams. I trained with him for 4 years and it was the longest I have ever had an instructor. Since then I’ve been self taught and picked up things from certain people in various different martial arts styles and boxing.
That is amazing that you have been able to teach and learn yourself, picking up techniques from various styles. You must be very talented.
When did you decide you wanted to get into stunts and acting?
I’ve known since I was a teenager that I wanted to be a stunt fighter and be in martial art movies. With age and experience my acting naturally improved and it soon became a passion of mine to improve myself in this area too.
How long have you been working on movies professionally?
My first movie was when I was 19 and it was ‘Extreme Challenge’ which was shot in China. I was hired as stunt actor and there I got to experience what it was like working on a Chinese/Hong Kong martial arts movie. This was where I first met Scott Adkins as he was one of the main fighters on this. I was only 19 and so green to the industry and I was very shy on set. It was all amazing to me and I just soaked up everything I saw, I was especially impressed with the Chinese stunt team.
It sounds as if you jumped straight into the deep end, sometimes that is the best way to decide whether you can sink or swim in the industry.
We know you went over to Hong Kong when you were 19, how did you find life over there?
I have a love hate relationship with Hong Kong. When I first arrived there I was loving the buzz of the city, but it wasn’t what I expected. Being naive I was expecting there to be more martial arts schools and amazing places to train Wushu etc, but I quickly realised that it was all business orientated and martial arts was pretty much a thing of the past. All there was, was just some old folks practicing Kung Fu/Tai Chi in the parks. I joined a Kung Fu school but the standard wasn’t very high, so I dropped out a month later and just ended up training myself in the parks. I won’t go into too much detail but life in Hong Kong was pretty brutal for a while and there were many ups and downs.
It sounds like you had a pretty hard time to begin with trying to establish yourself.
Did you find it hard breaking into the industry?
Yes at first, I had the skills to be a great martial arts stunt actor. But the only roles going were the classic ‘white henchman’ which I just didn’t look like. I looked so young for my age and looked way too ‘nice’ to play a bad guy, so I would never get the parts, it was very frustrating. I was approached by a modelling agency and signed with them which was cool as I was booking TVC’s and print ads, but not really what I wanted to do. I started to push myself to the limit with my training and in a few months I was looking ripped. This gave me an extra edge when I went to movie castings which meant I started to get more roles. Then I had the chance to do a live audition in front of Donnie Yen. I wasn’t nervous at all but I was excited to rock the hell out of that audition. It was a moment I’ll never forget, Donnie was looking for white stunt actors and specifically one guy to fight Jackie Chan! He was instantly impressed and wanted me on board to fight Jackie, in the movie ‘Twins Effect’. I was on cloud 9 that all the training had finally payed off. So I would say yes it was extremely hard to break into it but with hard work and dedication I got there in the end.
Wow, that must have been an amazing feeling working in front of, and impressing, Donnie Yen. Even better, getting the opportunity to work a fight scene with Jackie Chan. We have seen ‘The Twins Effect’ and we thought you did an excellent job.
How do you prepare for your roles?
It’s all about repetition for me so I rehearse to the point where I’m comfortable with my lines and then I get into character and work on my voice to portray the version I think best suits him. I have to understand who he is, where he came from, what’s just happened and why he is in the scene. I need to be at the point where if asked random questions about his life I could answer them like I am him. Which means creating background stories for him, this all helps me. Then I’ll work closely with the director and see we can see what works best.
You were one of the stars on Bangkok Adrenaline, which was praised for it’s fight scenes, how was your experience working on this?
It was very stressful and was a lot of hard work. I wanted so much more but I was limited by the script and lack of experience from many of the people involved. The stuntmen were good though, so I finally had a chance to show what I’m capable of with the freedom I was looking for. We were always very limited with time so shooting the action was very intense. There were constant problems on and off set and it took almost 2 years to complete. I ended up editing most of the movie which took months and was exhausting. Eventually it had a theatrical release in Thailand which was an amazing experience, there were billboards and huge posters all over Thailand so people would recognise me all the time which was strange but nice. It still plays on Thai TV every couple of months too, which is pretty cool. Also it was released world wide on DVD and was actually in the top ten in HMV here in UK, with trailers for it on TV too. So when I look back at it even though it was hard work, I feel I learned so much from the whole experience and I’m pretty proud of it.
It seems like a very stressful experience, especially taking two years to shoot. That was a long slog, but hopefully it was worth it once the film was completed and the DVD received worldwide distribution.
What input did you have on the Action/Choreography?
I choreographed all of my fight scenes with the help of Ron Smoorenburg (Action Director) and the stuntmen. It’s an area which I’m very confident in and I love it because it pushes me to be creative. There were quite a few talented stuntmen on Bangkok Adrenaline and it was a pleasure to work with them all, especially Tim Man who has some serious kicking skills. It’s all about working as a team to create the best possible fight scenes.
It sounds like it helped having such a strong team around you.
Do you have any actors/martial artists you would like to work with?
I’m lucky to have worked with most of the martial arts action stars already like Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Tony Jaa, Scott Adkins etc. I’d love to work with Scott and Tony again but this time have an all out fight scene with them. I think we can create something pretty amazing together. As far as actors go of course I’d love to work with Hollywood’s best.
What was the inspiration and motivation behind Fixer?
Myself and the Director, Matt Routledge planned to shoot a short martial arts movie together before we knew about the festival, we kind of inspired each other and fed off of each others enthusiasm, as it’s a real passion of ours to create the best martial art movies of the present time. The closest thing I have as an inspiration is the ‘Transporter’ and ‘James Bond’ type character. I thought it was time to create a similar character but with better martial arts skills because I believe people want to see the real deal… No stunt doubles, no wires, a truly inspirational character that martial artists around the globe can look up to.
So Matt and I sat down together one afternoon and brainstormed, thus Fixer was created. Then film festival came up so the timing was perfect to knuckle down and start shooting. It’s the beginning of something that we really believe in and is currently in the works of becoming a feature length movie.
We can’t wait to see the feature for this. The movie industry is definitely crying out for a new action star. It is something the industry has been lacking for quite some time, a legitimate martial artist that can lead a movie.
How did you find working on the short?
It was fun to be back on set and to be doing it in the UK. This is my home and it’s the first time I’ve worked on a movie here and it felt great. Of course when you’re lacking budget, it means you’re restricted by many factors but overall the shooting was very smooth and I learned a lot.
What does the future hold for you? Have you got any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
Right now, I believe I’m in my prime for being an action actor, regarding my look and martial arts ability, so I’m really going to put myself and get out there. We are going to make ‘Fixer’ a feature length movie so I’m going to be developing this for the next few months with Matt. We really want to develop the character story and create a fresh looking martial arts movie.
Well good luck with the premiere of ‘Fixer’, I am sure it will do well. The trailer looks great! I think the idea has a lot of potential as a feature and you definitely seem to have all the tools to make it happen. Hopefully we see the release of ‘Fixer’ in cinema’s somewhere down the line.
The Fixer premiere’s on July 16th exclusively at the Fighting Spirit Film Festival at the Cineworld cinemas at the 02 Arena, North Greenwich in London, UK but you can watch the trailer HERE.
