Camera IconDaniel MacPherson in Beast. Credit: Supplied
Beast opens with a completely jacked Daniel MacPherson about to step into the octagon for an MMA fight, screaming into the face of his equally animated trainer, Sammy, played by Oscar winner Russell Crowe. It is visceral, real, and there is a well-timed expletive to shock any remaining complacency out of the audience. Neighbours it certainly is not.
MacPherson laughs at the comparison over a Zoom call with PLAY, looking very sophisticated in a sweater and fashionably thick-framed glasses. The 45-year-old could not look more different to Patton James, the veteran MMA champion he plays in Beast, who falls on hard times after a prison stint and must fight his way back to the top.
Actors carry a little of every character with them after the cameras stop rolling, but Patton lingered on a little too long for MacPherson. “I did not realise how deep down the rabbit hole I was until, sitting in the last couple of screenings of the film, I was like, ‘Wow, I do not recognise that guy anymore’,” he admits. “And it took me a while to shake it off. Probably took me six months, and it took six to 12 months to put my body back together, and I am still kind of injured.”
Turns out that opening scene not only sets the tone for the audience, it set the tone for the production, too. “That opening scene was the brainchild of director Tyler Atkins, and he pitched this whole one-shot sequence,” MacPherson explains.
Camera IconDan MacPherson in Beast. Credit: Supplied
“With all the pressures of indie filmmaking, we had to shoot Russell out at the beginning, so that was Russell’s last day on the production but our first scene of the movie. But the joy of it is you know exactly what this movie is in the first four minutes, you know exactly what it can make you feel. Some of the toughest boxing and MMA coaches that I trained with, I got to show them that sequence, and they all get tears in their eyes or goosebumps, so that was ultimately the calling card of the film and we pretty much sold the film around the world on that first four minutes before we shot anything else.”
It is not the first time MacPherson has worked with the Gladiator star — the two have previously collaborated on 2022’s Poker Face, which was also directed by Crowe, and 2024’s Land Of Bad. Having seen Crowe up close now on multiple occasions, Macpherson thinks the 62-year-old has plenty left in the tank. “I do not think he is anywhere near finished,” MacPherson says. “He turned up on set in the three times we have worked together full of imagination, full of ideas, full of ways to elevate every scene and every set that he steps on — the guy is a powerhouse. He has been a wonderful mentor and support to me over the last 10 years, and I know that he has done the same in so many other areas and so many other careers, be that football, music and cinema; business, politics, wherever. So, I think his legacy in Australia is going to be extraordinary, but most of the things he has done will go unspoken, because he is influential in a lot of people’s lives.”
Crowe was instrumental in the casting of beloved Aussie musician Amy Shark, who makes her acting debut in the film as Sammy’s daughter and fellow MMA trainer, Rose. On the topic of training, MacPherson laughs when informed we have arrived at the Men’s Health section of the interview. “Will never forget the first time I got properly choked out by a professional MMA fighter,” he quips. “Yeah, man, look, I do not do things by halves. I am obsessive by nature and when you get your first and possibly only chance to go and play the lead in a fight film opposite Russell Crowe, a potentially career-defining genre for many actors before you, I dived in straightaway.”
The diving in happened immediately after the actor first received the script in 2022.
Camera IconRussell Crowe and Daniel MacPherson in Beast. Credit: Supplied
“First thing I did was call a buddy of mine, Paul Gallen, who played NRL for the Cronulla Sharks and was a professional boxer, and I said, ‘Gal, I need a boxing coach’,” MacPherson says. “Basically, I pulled MMA apart and learned all the building blocks independently, so I started boxing, I started jiujitsu, I started Muay Thai, I started in the gym. The vagaries of getting any film into production meant MacPherson’s initial timeline to prepare for the role blew out to three years, which afforded him the opportunity to go even deeper into his prep. “I took myself up to Thailand on three occasions to a fight camp with my best mate, Warren Brown, who just happens to be a two-time world champion Muay Thai fighter,” the actor says. “It tested every area of my skill set, particularly starting that at 42 and rolling cameras at age 44.”
Fun fact: MacPherson does ironman triathlons in his spare time, but, unsurprisingly there is not much crossover with MMA. “I had trained my hips for 25 years to go forwards and on a linear plane, only for triathlon, for running and cycling, not to be high-kicking and kneeing and elbowing people,” he laughs. “So, yeah, it was weights, it was diet, it was relentless martial arts training, because I had to act opposite Russell Crowe, I had to fight like (Aussie UFC champ) Alexander Volkanovski, and I had to look something like Chris Hemsworth with my shirt off.
Camera IconDaniel MacPherson in Beast. Credit: Supplied
“And on an indie film budget, and try and pull it all off as best we could.” While the fight scenes are brutal, as you would expect (and many people coming to this film would demand), the emotional blows land just as heavy. We watch as Patton’s past mistakes come back to haunt him, even if, at all times, he is a man of considerable moral virtue. The comeback to the octagon, motivated by a desire to save his brother and support his young family, is also a metaphor for a man at this stage of life trying to find his place in a changing world.
“The first time I read the script, the immediate connection was to the husband and wife story, the family story, and I often felt that you could tell this story against any backdrop, it could be tiddlywinks, it could be 10-pin bowling or it could be MMA,” MacPherson says. “And MMA obviously has that physical, visceral nature, but, for me, the heart of the story was always going to be a man in his early 40s, struggling with a loss of identity, with a loss of purpose, with the feeling of failure on his shoulders, of personal failure on his shoulders, while trying to provide for his wife and his daughter, and all those kind of pressures that I think are universally relatable around the world.”
It is these themes the actor has seen audiences react to at early screenings of the film, because it rings true. As for the fighting, itself, well, one might think all that training had MacPherson of the mind he could step into the octagon for real. “I am quite happy to pretend,” he laughs. “I am quite happy to have it scripted that I cannot lose.” Beast is in cinemas now.
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