Daniel MacPherson didn’t expect to play an MMA fighter on the big screen, and as he suspected, it was not easy to do.
MacPherson stars in the new movie Beast, which hits theaters everywhere on April 10. MacPherson plays retired fighter Patton James who was pulled back into fighting to help his brother, competing in a matchup for ONE Championship against the promotion’s dangerous and vicious champion.
The Australian actor has become quite the fan of MMA over the years, and was asked who is must-watch fighter is.
“I think Jiri Prochazka’s fighting here in Miami, he’s here training at the moment,” MacPherson told MMA Fighting. “I’m trying to get him to see the movie, but I’ll never forget the first time I saw him fight. It was with Luke Hemsworth, and I was at Hemsey’s house, and we’re like, ‘Who’s this guy,’ the first time he came out with that big top knot bun.
“I love him. He’s the kind of guy that encapsulates, truly, that warrior spirit, and I’d like to see him back to his best.”
MacPherson shares the screen with Hemsworth, Russell Crowe — who plays the role of James’ coach — Kelly Gale, and past UFC fighter Josh Culibao.
For MacPherson, it wasn’t just about playing an MMA fighter, it was about doing everything he could — both physically and mentally — to make the role as authentic as possible.
“This was a whole different challenge,” MacPherson explained. “This was not only starting from scratch to play a believable MMA fighter, but not even that, a retired MMA fighter. So this guy had had the sport in his bones for the entirety of his life. He was a natural fighter in and out of the cage, but at a time when MMA is one of the most popular and visible sports on the planet, the challenge was then going, well it needs to be completely technically proficient, it needs to be incredibly entertaining, above the way that anybody can access the sport 24/7 in the palm of their hand, or on pay-per-view on the weekend.
“And then it had to serve the story, and I was standing there in 2022 in Australia going, how the heck am I gonna pull this off – as a skinny, pretty boy from Sydney, who’d never been locked in a cage before? But I spent three years working as hard as I could, started boxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, I went up to Thailand, trained at fight camp up there on a bunch of times, put on 20 pounds of muscle, and learned what it meant to be a warrior and be a fighter.”
With the growth of the UFC over the past decade, it was hard for MacPherson to ignore. With Australia and New Zealand becoming massive focal points for developing champions and stars for the UFC, it only made it that more intriguing for MacPherson.
Preparing for this role led MacPherson to reflect on the fighters he knew, train with fighters he admired, and even diving into the careers of Georges St-Pierre and others to get into that head space.
“I was a fan of the sport, but I was an observer of the sport,” MacPherson said. “I’ve been watching it for, let’s say the past decade – since it’s sort of been in the public sphere. So, prime Izzy, 2018 to 2022, one of my favorites and I really hope that he can get back to some level of that. To watch Volk’s journey is extraordinary to watch. Robert Whittaker was training at the Muay Thai gym when I was training out of Sydney, and then to watch this whole new wave of Jack Della [Maddalena] and Jack Jenkins out of Melbourne, Josh Culibao was in our film, some great fighters.
“But I went back and really went back into the more traditional types, of slightly more brawly types. But also, this pattern had such a really strict moral compass as well. So I went back in time to look at guys like, I mean GSP, but, some of those sort of American fighters that were real workmanlike fighters throughout their time and that was sort of more resonate with this guy.”
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