Red carpet interviews with “Mortal Kombat II” Cast & Crew, Simon McQuoid, Karl Urban, Chin Han, Josh Lawson, Desmond Chiam, CJ Bloomfield

Full transcript of Red carpet interviews with “Mortal Kombat II” Cast & Crew, Simon McQuoid, Karl Urban, Chin Han, Josh Lawson, Desmond Chiam, CJ Bloomfield.

0:00KT: Hey friends and lovers. It's KT, the For Your Reference podcast. We're at the Mortal Kombat Sydney screening, about to do the red carpet. Simon, it's nice to see you again. I don't want to steal too much of your time, um, but I guess with all of the fanfare that's going on, what's it like being in the crowd? What sort of reactions are you hoping to get making such a banger movie?

0:26Simon: Well, it's so lovely to see so many smiling faces. Yeah. You know, life's hard enough as it is, and it's such a joy to bring smiles and fun and entertainment to people. And, uh, that's what we've all done. We've all just had a great time working our asses off to bring this crazy, big, fat, juicy film here, and yeah, it just warms my heart to see so many smiles.

0:50KT: And just quickly, I want to try and ask everyone on the carpet what they would pair as a double feature, if you want to add another one. Oh, yeah. In the Mood for Love is great as well, obviously.

0:58Simon: Yeah. Well, you asked me that today, and uh, I. What was the other. We talked about it afterwards, actually. Um, I, um, I would say, um Well, the other guys in the crew had a really good idea. Had, they had really good ideas, and then, um, I was just happy with what I chose. Um, what would be the other thing? Um, uh, maybe, um. I, I actually don't know. I, I—

1:27KT: I want to add Sinners. I should've said Sinners. Oh,

1:29Simon: Sinners. Well, Sinners is a great movie. That's incredible film.

1:32KT: Yeah, great. Bye. Well, nice to see you. Yeah. Congrats. Karl. Hello. Just when I was ready for you, when I wasn't ready for you. Hello. Welcome.

1:39Karl: Let's do this. Great to be here. Thank you very much.

1:42KT: MKII is cinematic, it's cheesy, it's fucking camp, baby. How does it feel bringing a well-beloved character in a different iteration with a whole new challenge?

1:52Karl: Uh, you know what? I, it, it, it, it's, uh, it's amazing. It's really wonderful to be able to come into this and, um, you know, work with the cast of, of, of, of, of Mortal Kombat. You know, they'd already made a film. To come in and to be welcomed, and actually finally deliver, I think, something to an audience that they've been asking for, and that is a Mortal Kombat tournament. And it's like there's. I, I don't think there's been a better iteration of Mortal Kombat put to the screen.

2:18KT: It's fucking banger. Absolutely. Um, and if I can just say, we finished off our reviews with a recommendation, so what would you pair with MKII as a double feature? Obviously, you can say MKI.

2:29Karl: I mean, obviously would be go MKI into, i- into MKII, for sure. Yeah. Yeah.

2:35KT: Well, thank you so much. It was so lovely to meet you.

2:37Karl: Thank you very much. Lovely to meet you. Thank you.

2:40KT: Chin Han, KT from FYR. Hi. Nice to meet you. Good. How does it feel playing such an iconic character? And you're a legend in and of yourself. And we love the wigs as well. How does it feel bringing it up to a whole nother level in MKII?

2:55Chin: What wigs? Uh, that's, that was my o- own hair.

2:59KT: Oh, sorry. Secrets, secrets.

3:01Chin: No, I'm kidding. Uh, leveling up on MKII was, was easy because everybody was leveling up. You know, I, I think, uh, from the writers, uh, to the, uh, stunts, to the fatalities, to the action to the co-stars, I think we, you know, I think everyone felt an obligation— Yeah uh, f- to the fans to create something that is, uh, that has never been seen before. Yeah. Next level, right? So, so I, I think that, that was. I think we all kind of were each other's cheerleaders uh, in that, in that respect. So, so it w- it, it was, you know, it was really fun. It was a really fun shoot.

3:36KT: If I had a soul, MK would definitely have it, absolutely. Um, we finish off our reviews with a recommendation, so what would you pair with MKII as a double feature? Grab your popcorn, go and watch them back to back.

3:47Chin: I would say, uh, MKI. Nice. Yeah.

3:52KT: Nice. Great. Double the time. Absolutely. Yeah. Chin Han, it was so lovely to meet you.

3:55Chin: It's a pleasure. Thank you so much.

3:56KT: Thank you so much. Cheers. Thanks. Hi, Josh— Hi KT from For Your Reference. I saw you earlier at the junket.

4:04Josh: Yes, yes. Hello. Good to see you again.

4:06KT: You're so sweet, so lovely. Hi. And it's nice to see you.

4:08Josh: Nice to see you.

4:09KT: Yeah. We, we, we love St. Denis as well.

4:12Josh: Oh, wow. Thank you.

4:12KT: Sorry, if I could just get that in there quite quickly. I'd love that.

4:15Josh: Yeah.

4:16KT: Thank you. MKII, cinematic. Yeah. Cheesy in a good way. Yes. And camp as well. Oh, yes, yes. There's so many delicious flavors. It's fucking gory. Yeah, yeah. It's cheesy. Totally. And it's a lot of fun. Yeah. But the fact that it's a lot of fun, you, your character brings that. Oh. What is it like being the, just the fucking light of the party?

4:35Josh: I mean, I, that's high praise. Thank you so much. Yeah, look, I think Kano kind of comes into the film when you need him, you know? The, and it can get heavy, and it can get gory, and I think Kano provides a bit of levity and, uh. And also, as you say, a bit of that camp, a bit of the wink knowing, you know, uh, to the audience, sort of commenting a bit on the absurdity of it. And, uh, yeah, he's, he's a character that I would happily play until I was old and gray, so here's to another 10 more Mortal Kombat movies, and for Kano to be a part of them.

5:10KT: Um, and no pressure, but I'm trying to ask all of the cast. Yeah. Our reviews, we pair it with a recommendation, so what would you pair with MKII as a double feature?

5:18Josh: Oh, excellent question. Um, are we talking about a recent film or any, any film?

5:23KT: It's, if we want the same flavor, different flavor, cool down. Simon said In the Mood for Love.

5:28Josh: Oh, okay. Wong Kar-wai. All right. Wow. He really went, uh—

5:31KT: Violent, love, yes

5:32Josh: yeah. Fantastic. All right. Well, let me think. I'm gonna say, um, I'm going to say, this is a bit of a stretch. It's a great film. It's called The Chaser. Oh. It's a Korean action thriller serial killer thing. Yeah The chase. I absolutely love it, and I think it's the perfect pairing piece for this. And if you've not seen it, go out and try and find it somewhere, 'cause it is such a good film.

6:00KT: I love it. Thank you so much, Joshua. So lovely to meet you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. Absolutely.

6:08Desmond: Wow, I didn't know I deserved an intro, but thank you.

6:10KT: You do. Of course you do. KT, For Your Reference. Yeah, yeah. Nice to meet you, Desmond. Nice to meet you. The King. How lovely to meet you.

6:18Desmond: Lovely to meet you too.

6:19KT: Uh, MKII, cinematic classy— Yeah cheesy, very camp.

6:25Desmond: Oh, yeah.

6:26KT: But we open with a lot of emotion. There's a lot of emot- like, emotional cohesion in this film, in particularly with your character. What was it like being part of an existing franchise, but adding a very tangible layer?

6:38Desmond: Ooh, man. Well, that's an interesting two-part question, 'cause this is sort of like, this is the first time we've seen King Jerrod in motion in, across the games. Like, usually he's in a still cut scene or, like, I think there's, like, one ending where he's, like, sort of, like, sitting in an armchair. But, um, I was speaking to Ed Boon, the creator of Mortal Kombat, and he was

6:55KT: like— So cool to have him involved as well. Jeremy Slater and Simon, what a great team.

6:58Desmond: I know. It's insane that we get to work with all these, like, luminaries. And he was like, "This is the first time we'll see King Jerrod kind of originated." So you get to, you get to put your stamp on that, and that was pretty cool. And then as you said, sort of being, not a majority of the pathos in the film, I won't claim that, but we start off in that space. To be the shepherd for the emotion that has to carry the bloodbath through was, was something that we collaborated pretty closely on with Simon. We had a good steady hand on the till. Uh, Todd Garner as well. So that was a collaborative effort to, to make sure we launched into the camp with honesty.

7:35KT: Very pious, very regal, Jerrod.

7:36Desmond: Yeah, yeah.

7:37KT: Um, I wanna finish off with our final question. Yeah. We finish off our reviews with a recommendation, so what would you pair with MKII as a double feature? We're grabbing our popcorn and having a good time. Or if you wanna be more sad.

7:47Desmond: I, th— I'm gonna be so, like, uh, self-involved here. I have another film that just dropped on, uh, Netflix.

7:53KT: Netflix? Yeah. Yes, yes. I seen the Instagram stories.

7:55Desmond: Yeah. Don't worry. So get on, get on You, Always. Uh, it's a good palate cleanser from the violence. Yeah. It's feelgood rom-com time.

8:01KT: Yeah. Love it. Thank you so much, Desmond. Yeah. Lovely to meet you. Thank you. You too. Thank you. CJ, Baraka, what a time. What a time. Yeah. You said, "Our people," and I was like, "I think he's talking to me," because I'm Tongan as well, this is our people. Um, but congratulations— Thank you on playing Baraka. It was a very physical role. Yeah. Uh, he was also very funny as well. Thank you. But you did talk about the heart. MKII, thank you so much, Lachlan. Um, MKII had a lot of emotional cohesion across different characters in the film. What was it like bringing your embodiment into the role?

8:33CJ: You know what? Like, even just you saying that, I'm take- like, there was a very distinct decision that I made at the, at the start of my preparation Of what layer I wanted to enter Baraka with. Like, there's so many layers to him. There's his brutality, there's his savagery, there's the fact that he can fight. But I chose to go into the na— I chose to dive into the aspect of how noble of a leader he is. Every choice that he makes within the Mortal Kombat universe is for his people. His loyalty doesn't lie to anyone else. It lies to what he wants and the furtherance of his people. So, like, it wasn't, it was diffic- it would've been difficult if I didn't make that decision at the start of my preparation. But I think because of making that choice at the start of my preparation, of me just wanting to dive into how noble of a leader he was, I ended up finding his heart. Yeah. And there's so much savagery to him. He's a brutal, brutal being, right? He's a nomadic mutant. He, he is the voice of his people, and so that comes with a certain level of, that comes with a certain level of warrior aspect, right? Because he wants to save his people. And so it was just a true joy. It was a true joy to bring him to life. And my only prayer is that he's received in the manner in which I played him. You know? And that was with the love and the, the adoration that I just even have for this franchise. Yeah, yeah. You know? So, yeah.

9:55KT: But I think it's how we're perceived and what we're actually, our intentions are, right?

9:59CJ: Yeah. Well, it's, it's, um. It's a lot. It's a, I feel it's a lot, it, it has a lot to do with, um, us as Polynesians. Yeah. Um, I know, I know throughout my life as a Polynesian, I. You're often, because I'm big, I'm al— I was often looked at as someone who was scary, without even opening my mouth. And so there was a sense of innate, I guess, depth that went into the preparation of Baraka through my own experiences. But I mean, there was en- there was enough source of material from the Mortal Kombat world. It's over 30 years of fandom. Yeah. Over 30 years of playing the game. So I'm only too happy to dive into whatever the fan It's for the fans. Yeah.

10:42KT: And you've got, like, I hope you do so many more interviews, 'cause even just hearing you speak today, it's about us, and we bout it, bout it. Yeah. Yeah, we are. You know. Um, I just wanna finish off with our final question. We finish off our reviews with a recommendation. So what would you pair with MKII as a double feature? Same level, more emotional. Simon said In the Mood for Love, so I don't know h- where you wanna take it.

11:02CJ: I would go, I would, I would go, what, what, what is Mo- what would I say Mortal Kombat II is like?

11:07KT: No, like double feature. You were gonna watch two movies back to back.

11:10CJ: Okay. Ooh. Which, which other feature would I watch with Mortal Kombat?

11:13KT: Any movie.

11:15CJ: Damn, man. I'd go, I'd go, ooh, my favorite movie, Training Day.

11:23KT: King Kong ain't—

11:25CJ: Got shit on me.

11:27KT: And there's a soundbite. CJ, so lovely to meet you. Thank you very much.

11:29CJ: I appreciate you, KT.

11:30KT: Mwah. Take care. Congrats.