Greg O’Connor aims to do MMA justice with ‘Warrior’

Writer-director Gavin O’Connor and his brother, producer Greg O’Connor, are in Pittsburg along with the cast and crew of WARRIOR, including actor Tom Hardy (BRONSON) and fight choreographer J.J. Perry (UNDISPUTED 2), to shoot scenes for the upcoming mixed martial arts drama featuring veteran actor Nick Nolte. The local Post-Gazette stopped by to visit the set and managed to take a few behind-the-scenes production photos and talk with both Greg and Perry.

In WARRIOR, Nolte is a retired mill worker and recovering alcoholic named Paddy who raises his two sons as competitive fighters. As brothers, Tommy (Hardy) and Brendan (Joel Edgerton) find themselves on a collision course in and out of the ring in the lead up to a $5 million MMA competition called Sparta.

Greg O’Connor, who shot big-budget police drama PRIDE AND GLORY with his brother, explains that he had to convince him to take on the MMA theme even though the pair grew up playing sports together and going to boxing matches with their father.

“I think his original thought was maybe it’s too much of a genre movie, like it’s a fighting movie. ‘Is this going to feel too much like a genre, B-ish kind of movie?’ And I said, that’s exactly what I like about it,” Greg recalled. “It’s a genre, that if elevated, could be spectacular because you have elements in it that we relate to.”

WARRIOR isn’t the brothers’ first brush with MMA. They produced HBO’s THE SMASHING MACHINE, a 2002 documentary that followed fighter Mark Kerr’s rise in the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Greg figured that his brother, a former college football player, would know how to shoot a masculine sport while bringing an artistic perspective to it. Once on board with the idea, Gavin was determined to deliver authenticity to the drama and consulted with a variety of experts.

“I think one of the things we want to do with the movie is to show the sport to a wider audience as a real sport, as an incredible skill,” Greg said. The movie will demonstrate “what goes into training and how great an athlete you need to be.”

To translate MMA action into entertaining and authentic screen fighting, the O’Connors turned to veteran action director and fight coordinator J.J. Perry who has been working with some of the stunt players to prepare for the action.

“They’re eating 120 grams of chicken four to six times a day, with protein shakes, and they have to lift twice a day,” Perry states. “It’s not just putting the weight on them, it’s putting lean muscle mass on them and at the same time, teaching them how to fight.”

Perry has choreographed MMA fighting onscreen previously, notably in Isaac Florentine’s prison actioner UNDISPUTED 2 and in BEYOND THE RING.

“A lot of people misjudge it, they think it’s a bunch of brawlers …. It’s actually a very technical sport,” says Perry.

Perry has been keeping himself busy lately. He recently performed stunts for Paul Etheredge’s short film series ANGEL OF DEATH and choreographed action for Scott Mann’s THE TOURNAMENT. He’ll be joining actor Scott Adkins again soon to shoot action for UNDISPUTED 3.