Local martial artist featured in ‘Southpaw’
Mark Shrader said he was eating “shrimp the size of my forearm” alongside other actors on the sets of the Jake Gyllenhaal boxing film “Southpaw,” but he has to settle for popcorn when he watches himself onscreen this weekend. The movie, which opens today, cast the 40-year-old Monessen native as Doc Field, Gyllenhaal’s corner man. The mixed martial artist – who owns and operates his own namesake martial arts academy on East Maiden Street in Washington – got his start in cinema opposite actor Joel Edgerton in the 2011 film “Warrior.”
“It was kind of comical when I did the first scene with Joel. I got on-set at 3 p.m. but didn’t start shooting in the ring until 3 a.m. I’m all hopped up on adrenaline, Joe and I hadn’t met each other. I get in the ring, two quick punches – Bam! Bam! – ‘Whoa, man,’ he said, ‘I’m an actor, not a fighter! Let’s rehearse this a little bit!’ Pretty funny.”
“Warrior” was shot mainly in the Pittsburgh region, using sets at The Meadows Racetrack & Casino and North Hills High School. Shrader didn’t have to travel far for “Southpaw” either, with set locations at Indiana University and the Washington County Courthouse, where scenes were shot last July. As for hanging out with A-list casts, he said he wasn’t starstruck.
“Jake is a wonderful guy. He’s a method actor, though, so he stays in character all the time. But he’s nothing but class … he had wrapped shooting around 2 a.m. one day, and I told him, ‘Hey, Jake, why don’t you just go back to your trailer?’ He said, ‘Naw, man. That ain’t me. See these hundreds of extras waiting around? The referees? When they wrap, I wrap.’ Total class act,” he said.
Shrader said he teased Rachel McAdams when she came back from a run, and got past 50 Cent’s bodyguard to hang out with the rapper and actor while he mixed music for the film. But the person he connected with most on the set was a fellow boxer-turned-actor, Victor Ortiz.
“Sarcasm is so important to my life, and so it is with him. I feel like we are brothers from another mother, messing with each other. We’ve become friends,” he said.
Shrader said he believes the movie will garner Academy Award nominations for the actors, including Forest Whitaker.
“The selling point to this movie: the struggles. Billy Hope, Jake’s character, his struggles coming up through the ranks, not necessarily a great fighter at first, but making it. But also the life experiences in it: his marriage, his daughter and the tragedy that happens that we’ve all seen in the trailer. He becomes a new man, a new fighter and father.”
Shrader knows a little bit about change himself, gravitating toward boxing as his favorite style of martial arts after he was often disqualified in youth karate and kickboxing tournaments for aggressive tactics.
“I like boxing so much because it’s a challenge. And because, honestly, I was scared. I was scared to fight, scared to lose. … And I like the punchers; I’m a fan of the the strikers, because that’s who I am. But you have to be well-rounded in (mixed martial arts) fights, because if a wrestler takes you down, your boxing skills are nullified.”
He said he hopes the film’s focus on boxing doesn’t deter those who are seeking drama from a sports film.
“People think (boxing) is a bloodbath, two gladiators fighting to the death. It’s actually two athletes in camp training for eight weeks, eating the right food. It’s a sport. It’s football without pads, putting their full force into each other. It’s human nature.”
Shrader said now that he has a few films under his belt, he’s scraping together a character actor reel of himself in hopes of scoring other movie roles.