A Chilean native, Marko Zaror is an anomaly. He pushed himself to become a martial artist in a country where martial arts isn't widely practiced. When he relocated to Los Angeles to pursue modeling, he was noticed by a stunt coordinator at a gym, and the next thing he knew he was being considered to double Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in THE RUNDOWN (2003). With the money he made from that gig, he completed a martial arts film he'd been shooting in Mexico called CHINANGO (2005). After that film quickly found distribution, he leveraged himself into his next project, KILTRO (2006), with his childhood friend Ernesto Diaz, a burgeoning director. It was the first Chilean martial arts film. With several vehicle films now under his belt, Zaror landed a plum role in the Robert Rodriguez film, MACHETE KILLS (2013). His career solidly launched, Zaror continues on an upward trajectory. His latest film, REDEEMER (out June 12, 2015), reunites him with Diaz, and it's a return to form for the dynamic team.
djm: You come from a part of the world where martial arts isn't really prevalent. Talk about getting into martial arts while growing up in Chile.
MZ: Yeah, and I would even say from Latin America. I'm so thankful that I was so inspired since I was a kid by Bruce Lee. I remember I saw his film, ENTER THE DRAGON on T.V. When I first saw him, it was so clear that my life or my path would have something to do with that. I started training. The only access I had to his work or his philosophy was through his movies. I started looking obsessively for a martial arts instructor to start learning. It was intense. I was dedicated. I was doing stretches in the back of the room at school. To dream to be an action or movie star was something beyond any dream. I just knew that my life would be related to martial arts. I knew it from the moment that I saw that movie. I started training on the national team of Taekwondo. I did traditional Kung Fu and Karate, and I tried to train myself in these different doctrines. Without even knowing the philosophy of Bruce Lee – because he didn't believe in the style; he wanted to find himself within the martial arts – without even knowing all that, I was following the same direction. He impacted my life through his movies. Without him telling me or without reading any book, I was trying to find myself in different styles. That's why when you see all my movies, there's always his energy hiding somewhere in there. If you're a fan, you can recognize that. It's my way of saying, "Thanks for inspiring my life."
djm: You doubled The Rock on THE RUNDOWN. That was a huge steppingstone for you. How did you get that job?
MZ: I had a little demo. I started running into some friends who were in the industry, people who were known stunt doubles like Arnold Chon who was an inspiration to me. He introduced me to Andy Cheng, who used to work with Jackie Chan. He was the action director of The Rundown. He saw me training at the gym and asked me, "Do you want to work as a stunt double?" I said, "Yeah!" I didn't even know for sure what that was. It was for doubling The Rock. It was my big break. I was working at a gym teaching martial arts, and when Andy offered me that job, I quit. I was living the dream, trying to pay the rent and going through all the struggles day by day. I remember I started as a dishwasher at a restaurant and then I moved up as a waiter. I used to wake up every morning and see the Hollywood sign. In Chile, you've got to understand: You see the map and you go, "Where is Chile?" And then I walked one hour to the bus to drive one hour to go to work as a dishwasher and then coming back to wake up with this Hollywood sign on your window. I also used to clean the gym so that I don't have to pay for membership. That was Ken's Karate Studio. I won't forget Master Ken. He let me train at his gym. So, I quit my job, but then SAG said, "No! Marko cannot do this job. He has a working visa that said modeling visa, or something totally different. Why would we give a job to this guy if we have tons of stuntmen that can do this job?" Andy said, "This is Marko! He's 6"2, he weighs 200 pounds and he can do the acrobatics and the martial arts." They obligated him to do a big casting session to cast someone else to take the job from me. That took three months. I was like, "Oh, man, it's so hard to get to this point." Then I had to deal with all this. I was getting ready to go back to Chile. It happened that no one else was able to match those conditions or had the right skin color. That's how I got that job. With that money I was able to finish CHINANGO. We sold CHINANGO to a distributor in the U.S. There were investors who said, "Let's make another movie!" We tried to make it, but we realized that with the same amount of money, we couldn't do it in the U.S. So we said, "Let's go to Chile and make it!" My friend Ernesto Diaz, who is a director from Chile, was staying with me in the U.S. He was trying to get into the industry. We said, "With this money, we can do a much better movie in Chile." That's how we did KILTRO.
djm: From then on it seems that you and Ernesto worked hand in hand to develop projects for you to star in.
MZ: I'd rather develop my projects than go to auditions. To be more involved in what I want to communicate. The only way to do that is to do low budget, independent movies. After my name was out there, they called me for UNDISPUTED III. That was a big break as a martial artist. After KILTRO, I didn't go back to L.A. to keep doing stunts. I developed instead MIRAGE MAN. After that, MANDRILL. That gave me the chance to be known. They wanted me to fight Scott [Adkins] in UNDISPUTED III. That was a great experience. I'm never gonna forget that. Scott is the best. He's such a cool guy. I remember talking with Scott at the trailer and telling each other how we were watching YouTube videos of each other without even knowing each other. "Oh, wow, he can do this move! Okay!" There was tension when I arrived at that set, kind of like the challenge before a fight. Then to work together for the movie, we became such good friends. I really like Scott, man. We had a really cool time. One of the best experiences of my life. Isaac is the best. He's so passionate.
djm: What was it like for you to work for Isaac after working with Ernesto several times?
MZ: In Chile, we're always fighting with the budget. There's no time to do any action. We're trying. I'm acting and I'm coordinating the action. I'm trying to teach everyone how to fight. There were no stunt men. On KILTRO I trained a group of ten guys for four months to learn how to fight in front of a camera. That's hard. Then, you've gotta teach them how to do basic things in front of a camera. From there, going to Isaac in Bulgaria ... I just had to worry about my character. Everybody was so professional. I had to bring my abilities, but they made me look even better. I tried to observe and learn as much I could.
djm: Talk about MIRAGE MAN. It's a unique, melancholy action movie. You play a damaged character.
MZ: Ernesto and I wanted to tell a story with a handheld camera with some fighting. I didn't use any wires, but KILTRO was kind of like Japanese animation. All that took away from the martial arts. We could have done much more with that money. I told Ernesto, "What happens if someone in real life goes to the street, puts on a mask, and becomes a superhero? No powers. It's just real. What would be the real scenario?" Everything we did for that movie was based on that concept. So he came up with the story. It was psychological. He was trying to create this hero to help his brother. That story surprises. It looked really raw and low budget, but business-wise, it did the best of all the other movies we did! You never know. Then we decided to do MANDRILL. I decided to keep training because, as a martial artist, that's a part of my life.
On the set of UNDISPUTED 3
djm: How did you get a nice supporting role in Machete Kills?
MZ: I got a call from Robert Rodriguez. He saw MANDRILL. When I was with Ernesto making MIRAGE MAN, we watched EL MARIACHI. Our mentor on movie-making was Rodriguez. Ernesto said, "Imagine one day making a movie with Robert Rodriguez!" When you say that ... it's something that you know is impossible, but it became real. The moment that I arrived to the set of MACHETE KILLS to the moment I left ... it was unreal. There are no words in my vocabulary to tell you how BRAVEHEART made me feel. When I was shooting MACHETE with Mel Gibson, it was too strong, man. I've been so blessed with all the opportunities I've had.
djm: And now REDEEMER is coming out ...
MZ: It's another movie with Ernesto. After all these years, we're ready. One of the reasons why my movies didn't do good business is – I believe – that we were not in good hands with the people who made the sales and the strategy. Now we are with one of the most known and recognized sales agencies. They brought THE RAID and THE RAID 2. Our movie is low budget, but it's better than MIRAGE MAN and MANDRILL. It's one step forward. We are prepared. We are in the right hands. We have the best people now. We have to give it one more try. We worked hard on the fight choreography for four months. It's very magical, man. We tried to apply everything I've learned from Isaac and Andy Cheng to do one step further. To try to evolve. To try to do the best fights possible. I'm very involved with this one. I'm very excited. We'll see what happens.
djm: Everybody's got their own unique on-screen fighting persona and style. What's the Marko Zaror style?
MZ: Hmm. That's a hard question, man. What's my style? I don't believe that there is any one style that is my style. I don't know, man. As a human being, you're unique, and as a martial artist, you're also unique. So, I don't see myself doing any style. It's a very hard question. Maybe people come to see my honesty in my movies. I'm just doing what I love to do in front of a camera. I always see myself as a martial artist and not as an actor. If life keeps bringing me the opportunity to express myself in a project that I love, I'll do it! It's about if I really believe in what I'm doing.
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david j. moore :
david j. moore is a contributing writer for Fangoria, FilmFax, Ultra Violent, VideoScope, and many other magazines and websites around the world.
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