Canada.com: MMA Crossfire Friday file - Trish Stratus Bounty Hunters DVD premiere edition
By Kenai Andrews
It was a grand day attending the DVD premiere of Trish Stratus and her DVD release movie of her movie Bounty Hunters.
Being able to catch up with old friends like Jaime Dauncey - who made the trek from Florida to attend – is always worthwhile.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The combat sports community have some of the most down-to-earth personalities in the business, from top to bottom.
There are probably many reasons for that, but I digress.
Welcome back to The Crossfire.
The day consisted of the viewing of the film and Q&A autograph session afterwards.
Oh, and a one-on-one with the 7-time WWE champion herself about the film earlier in the day.
MMA Crossfire: So what was it like working with your co-stars?
Trish Stratus: Boomer Phillips was just hilarious – comedy gold every minute of the day. We were shooting night scenes. Have you seen the movie?
MMA Crossfire: I haven't.
Trish Stratus: Well, you'll see it tonight, yay!
MMA Crossfire: (laughs).
Trish Stratus: So it takes place mostly in the evening and it's dark and so we were shooting at night. We get tired and it's a long night and stuff but Boomer Phillips was awesome. We just had that chemistry where we would just riff and go off and [director] Patrick McBrearty would go "Ok, you two settle down." (laughs). Thankfully, some of this comedy that you'll see in the film made the cut. Initially Patrick set out to just make an action flick between Boomer and I. He said the comedy we gave him, turned the film into an action comedy. He got to sort of decide he was going to go that way with the film. And my other co-star Frank (Frank J. Zupancic)was great. He's kind of a veteran actor, so for me to come into this new environment, it was great to have someone like him to kind of guide me along and give me the heads up. Someone who you can go, "So was that right?" It's a new environment, so getting the etiquette and things like that. So Frank was great like that.
My fighting soul sister was Andrea James Lui. I really feel we created something special in our scenes. We took the time to – like we do in WWE – create a moment between us and I think we did –create several moments in the film.
MMA Crossfire: Talk about the fight scene with Andrea in the ambulance.
Trish Stratus: Initially, I decided to come on board in a producing role because I wanted to take the opportunity to preserve the integrity of these fight scenes. Obviously coming from my background I know how important it is. Yes, I'm a control freak (laughs), but it was a good opportunity to showcase what we do in the wrestling world. So I met with Andrea and initially we approached it like traditional moviemaking. And coming from the WWE background I was like, "So what do you know about ‘contact'?" (laughs). She was really cool because number one she's a stuntperson and number two she's a martial artist. So Patrick said to us and he kind of told everybody with a script, he said "Use creative freedom, whatever you feel just go with it," on the script side of things. So with the fight scenes he said the same thing. So we approached these scenes not as stuntpeople but as fighters. So she knows what it feels like to be punched in the face and I know what it feels like and I know kick someone in the head and so does she so I guess that's what kind of let us bring that realism to the scene. We got together a couple of months before the actual shooting happened and trained together and developed that trust factor and that chemistry which I think is so important which I've seen in the WWE. When you have that chemistry with someone, you're unstoppable. We decided "no boundaries" and we went all-in, 110% and I do believe we created something special.
MMA Crossfire: You mentioned you were a control freak…
Trish Stratus: (laughs)
MMA Crossfire: You had your producer and choreographer's hat for the film. What was that like?
Trish Stratus: Initially the fight-coordinator who was on set gave each of the characters their own fight style which was kind of neat. He really wanted to preserve the integrity of everyone's style. It's just like the WWE where Jazz does this and I do this so when the two styles clash it makes this unique thing. I think we did the same thing with the fight scenes that he had in the movie. Coming on board, I'm definitely aware of my audience and I thought, ‘Well, there's got to be a little Trish Stratus in here.' As much as Jules Taylor trained in Krav Maga, there's a little Trish in there as well as a shoutout to my fans. And I know for sure at Actionfest when it was viewed there, actually it's about a year ago, last April, the fans were appreciative of that moment It was a little shoutout (laughs). You know when The Rock does a kip-up in one of his movies. As a fan, you appreciate that, so that was cool.
After seeing Ironman and watching Scarlett Johansson do her karate thing and everyone was going nuts for that. I was thinking, "Well we do that every week in wrestling!" (laughs). So I thought that this would be a good chance to showcase that side of things and bring the Lucha style to mainstream. I think we shocked the movie peeps a bit because we showed up on set and they're like "Don't you guys need to get together?" We're like, "This is what we do." It's amazing the tools we gained as wrestlers and performers. We literally showed up, we looked around, checked out our environment. There's a bench , there's something hanging up over there, we'll use all of that. What do you do? Let's do this, and we did it in one take and they're like "Oh my gosh, you just make that up?" and we're like "Um hmm. It's what we do." So its kind of neat and I think we impressed the movie people.
MMA Crossfire: And you have another project (Doctor Doom Versus the Wrestling Women) going with Amy Dumas (Lita in the WWE).
Trish Stratus: Amy and I have been talking about this project for a while. I think we've talked about it before too. We loosely back in the day when we were wrestling kind of were like, "That would be cool, doing an actual remake." And after doing this movie, I remember calling Amy and saying, "No we really need to do this because we can." In speaking to other people, there are some interested parties now, just being in the industry I guess peaked the interest a little bit more. It made it feel like it was a project that was doable. So we've spoken about it a little more. I actually went to Nicaragua where she has a house and we did some brainstorming and thought, "Well, now that this project's done I can think about the next project." Because you know me Kenai, I can never have my plate empty (laughs). Another project's done? Bring the next one in.
MMA Crossfire: What is your take on the current WWE product?
Trish Stratus: Well, it's the same thing I've been saying for a while now: It's just lacking the character development. With all the press I've been doing for Bounty Hunters the last few weeks, the number one question I'm getting is, "Can you believe what they're doing with Nattie (Natalya Neidhart) and Eve?" I think it's great actually because just the fact that I'm speaking about them and their angles is a great thing. It means something is happening. Something is better than nothing I would say. Listen, I was doing The Worm with Too Cool at one point. You never know..
MMA Crossfire: (laughs)
Trish Stratus: Yes, it was a good moment. You don't have to pull that clip up at all. It wasn't the best worm. I really should have done better, (laughs) but I think any moment on camera is a chance to connect with the fans (looks at her phone) actually she just texted me. She goes, "Thanks so much for your support," I just said to her that it's a chance for the audience to fall in love with you, make them want to see more for you. Let the audience want to see more Nattie, and more Eve. Hopefully everything is just a little more character development. Of course, she doesn't want to be known as the farting girl. But who knows where that can go, right? I think its more exposure to the television audience, which allows them to connect more.
MMA Crossfire: Anchor Bay Entertainment is distributing the movie here in Canada. I work with Anchor Bay as they distribute a lot of the UFC product, what was it like having them on board?
Trish Stratus: They've been amazingly supportive. And it's so key, it's almost like every project I've done, I've been surrounded by a great team. Everyone from back in the day with my fitness stuff. The career that I had was because of my team. And with WWE, certainly it was Fit (Finlay) backstage, the writers, Brian (Gewirtz) with the support of Vince and Stephanie (McMahon), so it's always been a team effort and it's the same with this movie. Filming the movie, the cast, crew, amazingly supportive. I'm really excited to make this great project and it's just a little project We had a shoestring budget, so to pull it all together and see what we've done because we're all so passionate about it. And then for Anchor Bay to take us on and support this, the press, the media event for the fans. I think it's been great and it makes a huge difference.
MMA Crossfire: It seems like your projects have a calculated philanthropic effect. For example using a Canadian production company for the movie.
Trish Stratus: I like to remember what brought you to the dance, so I'm super-supportive of any Canadian projects. I love my country and I'm very proud to be from here. It's funny with the press that I've been doing, "Oh, what's it's like being back in Toronto?" I don't think people realize that I am like born here, lived here, haven't left you know, and I don't plan on leaving so anytime I can support any Kenai – Canadian project – Kenai, I just said your name – (laughs). Anytime I can support a Canadian project is a great thing.
MMA Crossfire: (laughs).
Trish Stratus: You just got into my subliminal mind, wow!
MMA Crossfire: Yes, fancy that. (laughs)
Trish Stratus: Kenai tell you something? (laughs)
MMA Crossfire: (laughs). Do you still keep up with the UFC?
Trish Stratus: Well, I was kind of following with Brock but now's he retired. And Georges St-Pierre is on the shelf, so my interest is kind of on the shelf, but maybe you can fill me in. Who should I be watching? Because those guys were kind of epic.Because with the (WWE) women's division, maybe I wasn't necessarily supposed to be the one, but I took advantage of perhaps a hole. Who? Can anyone.. I'll take it. (laughs) So..
MMA Crossfire: I think the women are actually the ones to watch because they are headlining the Strikeforce pay-per-view Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey for the belt. It's the talk of the MMA world right now.
Trish Stratus: See? That peaks my interest.
MMA Crossfire: It's the biggest match since Gina Carano – Cyborg who recently released her movie Haywire. I think they've been looking at you.
Trish Stratus:Who is? Who's looking at me?
MMA Crossfire: The women in MMA. I think they've been looking at you and how you did your thing and taking what's good and useful because all eyes are on them now.
Trish Stratus: Well I feel like we did a little sneak attack. We found our opening and our chance so we were like "All eyes are on us, so now we're gonna grab your attention and make you demand to see us next time." But that's great to see and that makes me interested, I'm going to tune in. And Gina Carano you mentioned; I haven't seen her film – but I'm really excited to see it. I've always felt watching female action stars, there was a bit of believability that was lacking. So now that I know that Gina Carano did her film, I know I did my film, and people are raving about our fight scenes because I do believe we know what's its like to be punched in the face. We do bring this other element. It's like Jean-Claude Van Damne's fight scenes, or Jackie Chan. There's something about being a real fighter and martial artist or something that brings something different to it. So I'm really thrilled that Gina's been well-received in her movie and performance and hopefully we're out there representing the women.
MMA Crossfire: Always a pleasure Trish.
Trish Stratus: Thanks Kenai, I appreciate it.
source: canada.com
It was a grand day attending the DVD premiere of Trish Stratus and her DVD release movie of her movie Bounty Hunters.
Being able to catch up with old friends like Jaime Dauncey - who made the trek from Florida to attend – is always worthwhile.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. The combat sports community have some of the most down-to-earth personalities in the business, from top to bottom.
There are probably many reasons for that, but I digress.
Welcome back to The Crossfire.
The day consisted of the viewing of the film and Q&A autograph session afterwards.
Oh, and a one-on-one with the 7-time WWE champion herself about the film earlier in the day.
MMA Crossfire: So what was it like working with your co-stars?
Trish Stratus: Boomer Phillips was just hilarious – comedy gold every minute of the day. We were shooting night scenes. Have you seen the movie?
MMA Crossfire: I haven't.
Trish Stratus: Well, you'll see it tonight, yay!
MMA Crossfire: (laughs).
Trish Stratus: So it takes place mostly in the evening and it's dark and so we were shooting at night. We get tired and it's a long night and stuff but Boomer Phillips was awesome. We just had that chemistry where we would just riff and go off and [director] Patrick McBrearty would go "Ok, you two settle down." (laughs). Thankfully, some of this comedy that you'll see in the film made the cut. Initially Patrick set out to just make an action flick between Boomer and I. He said the comedy we gave him, turned the film into an action comedy. He got to sort of decide he was going to go that way with the film. And my other co-star Frank (Frank J. Zupancic)was great. He's kind of a veteran actor, so for me to come into this new environment, it was great to have someone like him to kind of guide me along and give me the heads up. Someone who you can go, "So was that right?" It's a new environment, so getting the etiquette and things like that. So Frank was great like that.
My fighting soul sister was Andrea James Lui. I really feel we created something special in our scenes. We took the time to – like we do in WWE – create a moment between us and I think we did –create several moments in the film.
MMA Crossfire: Talk about the fight scene with Andrea in the ambulance.
Trish Stratus: Initially, I decided to come on board in a producing role because I wanted to take the opportunity to preserve the integrity of these fight scenes. Obviously coming from my background I know how important it is. Yes, I'm a control freak (laughs), but it was a good opportunity to showcase what we do in the wrestling world. So I met with Andrea and initially we approached it like traditional moviemaking. And coming from the WWE background I was like, "So what do you know about ‘contact'?" (laughs). She was really cool because number one she's a stuntperson and number two she's a martial artist. So Patrick said to us and he kind of told everybody with a script, he said "Use creative freedom, whatever you feel just go with it," on the script side of things. So with the fight scenes he said the same thing. So we approached these scenes not as stuntpeople but as fighters. So she knows what it feels like to be punched in the face and I know what it feels like and I know kick someone in the head and so does she so I guess that's what kind of let us bring that realism to the scene. We got together a couple of months before the actual shooting happened and trained together and developed that trust factor and that chemistry which I think is so important which I've seen in the WWE. When you have that chemistry with someone, you're unstoppable. We decided "no boundaries" and we went all-in, 110% and I do believe we created something special.
MMA Crossfire: You mentioned you were a control freak…
Trish Stratus: (laughs)
MMA Crossfire: You had your producer and choreographer's hat for the film. What was that like?
Trish Stratus: Initially the fight-coordinator who was on set gave each of the characters their own fight style which was kind of neat. He really wanted to preserve the integrity of everyone's style. It's just like the WWE where Jazz does this and I do this so when the two styles clash it makes this unique thing. I think we did the same thing with the fight scenes that he had in the movie. Coming on board, I'm definitely aware of my audience and I thought, ‘Well, there's got to be a little Trish Stratus in here.' As much as Jules Taylor trained in Krav Maga, there's a little Trish in there as well as a shoutout to my fans. And I know for sure at Actionfest when it was viewed there, actually it's about a year ago, last April, the fans were appreciative of that moment It was a little shoutout (laughs). You know when The Rock does a kip-up in one of his movies. As a fan, you appreciate that, so that was cool.
After seeing Ironman and watching Scarlett Johansson do her karate thing and everyone was going nuts for that. I was thinking, "Well we do that every week in wrestling!" (laughs). So I thought that this would be a good chance to showcase that side of things and bring the Lucha style to mainstream. I think we shocked the movie peeps a bit because we showed up on set and they're like "Don't you guys need to get together?" We're like, "This is what we do." It's amazing the tools we gained as wrestlers and performers. We literally showed up, we looked around, checked out our environment. There's a bench , there's something hanging up over there, we'll use all of that. What do you do? Let's do this, and we did it in one take and they're like "Oh my gosh, you just make that up?" and we're like "Um hmm. It's what we do." So its kind of neat and I think we impressed the movie people.
MMA Crossfire: And you have another project (Doctor Doom Versus the Wrestling Women) going with Amy Dumas (Lita in the WWE).
Trish Stratus: Amy and I have been talking about this project for a while. I think we've talked about it before too. We loosely back in the day when we were wrestling kind of were like, "That would be cool, doing an actual remake." And after doing this movie, I remember calling Amy and saying, "No we really need to do this because we can." In speaking to other people, there are some interested parties now, just being in the industry I guess peaked the interest a little bit more. It made it feel like it was a project that was doable. So we've spoken about it a little more. I actually went to Nicaragua where she has a house and we did some brainstorming and thought, "Well, now that this project's done I can think about the next project." Because you know me Kenai, I can never have my plate empty (laughs). Another project's done? Bring the next one in.
MMA Crossfire: What is your take on the current WWE product?
Trish Stratus: Well, it's the same thing I've been saying for a while now: It's just lacking the character development. With all the press I've been doing for Bounty Hunters the last few weeks, the number one question I'm getting is, "Can you believe what they're doing with Nattie (Natalya Neidhart) and Eve?" I think it's great actually because just the fact that I'm speaking about them and their angles is a great thing. It means something is happening. Something is better than nothing I would say. Listen, I was doing The Worm with Too Cool at one point. You never know..
MMA Crossfire: (laughs)
Trish Stratus: Yes, it was a good moment. You don't have to pull that clip up at all. It wasn't the best worm. I really should have done better, (laughs) but I think any moment on camera is a chance to connect with the fans (looks at her phone) actually she just texted me. She goes, "Thanks so much for your support," I just said to her that it's a chance for the audience to fall in love with you, make them want to see more for you. Let the audience want to see more Nattie, and more Eve. Hopefully everything is just a little more character development. Of course, she doesn't want to be known as the farting girl. But who knows where that can go, right? I think its more exposure to the television audience, which allows them to connect more.
MMA Crossfire: Anchor Bay Entertainment is distributing the movie here in Canada. I work with Anchor Bay as they distribute a lot of the UFC product, what was it like having them on board?
Trish Stratus: They've been amazingly supportive. And it's so key, it's almost like every project I've done, I've been surrounded by a great team. Everyone from back in the day with my fitness stuff. The career that I had was because of my team. And with WWE, certainly it was Fit (Finlay) backstage, the writers, Brian (Gewirtz) with the support of Vince and Stephanie (McMahon), so it's always been a team effort and it's the same with this movie. Filming the movie, the cast, crew, amazingly supportive. I'm really excited to make this great project and it's just a little project We had a shoestring budget, so to pull it all together and see what we've done because we're all so passionate about it. And then for Anchor Bay to take us on and support this, the press, the media event for the fans. I think it's been great and it makes a huge difference.
MMA Crossfire: It seems like your projects have a calculated philanthropic effect. For example using a Canadian production company for the movie.
Trish Stratus: I like to remember what brought you to the dance, so I'm super-supportive of any Canadian projects. I love my country and I'm very proud to be from here. It's funny with the press that I've been doing, "Oh, what's it's like being back in Toronto?" I don't think people realize that I am like born here, lived here, haven't left you know, and I don't plan on leaving so anytime I can support any Kenai – Canadian project – Kenai, I just said your name – (laughs). Anytime I can support a Canadian project is a great thing.
MMA Crossfire: (laughs).
Trish Stratus: You just got into my subliminal mind, wow!
MMA Crossfire: Yes, fancy that. (laughs)
Trish Stratus: Kenai tell you something? (laughs)
MMA Crossfire: (laughs). Do you still keep up with the UFC?
Trish Stratus: Well, I was kind of following with Brock but now's he retired. And Georges St-Pierre is on the shelf, so my interest is kind of on the shelf, but maybe you can fill me in. Who should I be watching? Because those guys were kind of epic.Because with the (WWE) women's division, maybe I wasn't necessarily supposed to be the one, but I took advantage of perhaps a hole. Who? Can anyone.. I'll take it. (laughs) So..
MMA Crossfire: I think the women are actually the ones to watch because they are headlining the Strikeforce pay-per-view Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey for the belt. It's the talk of the MMA world right now.
Trish Stratus: See? That peaks my interest.
MMA Crossfire: It's the biggest match since Gina Carano – Cyborg who recently released her movie Haywire. I think they've been looking at you.
Trish Stratus:Who is? Who's looking at me?
MMA Crossfire: The women in MMA. I think they've been looking at you and how you did your thing and taking what's good and useful because all eyes are on them now.
Trish Stratus: Well I feel like we did a little sneak attack. We found our opening and our chance so we were like "All eyes are on us, so now we're gonna grab your attention and make you demand to see us next time." But that's great to see and that makes me interested, I'm going to tune in. And Gina Carano you mentioned; I haven't seen her film – but I'm really excited to see it. I've always felt watching female action stars, there was a bit of believability that was lacking. So now that I know that Gina Carano did her film, I know I did my film, and people are raving about our fight scenes because I do believe we know what's its like to be punched in the face. We do bring this other element. It's like Jean-Claude Van Damne's fight scenes, or Jackie Chan. There's something about being a real fighter and martial artist or something that brings something different to it. So I'm really thrilled that Gina's been well-received in her movie and performance and hopefully we're out there representing the women.
MMA Crossfire: Always a pleasure Trish.
Trish Stratus: Thanks Kenai, I appreciate it.
source: canada.com
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