Fall TV Premiere Week: The Winners and Losers

This piece appears in the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Clickhereto see the cover.our editor recommendsMelissa McCarthy Working on Comedy with 'The Help' Director; How 'SNL' Made Her CryWhy Fox is Counting on Zooey Deschanel'Pan Am' Among Season's Priciest Pilots'Dancing With the Stars' Cast: Who Is J.R. Martinez?Related Topics•Fall Television Preview And they're off! Which TV horses look strongest out of the gate and which might need to be put down. THE WINNERS Comedy As the U.S. teeters on the precipice of a double-dip recession, laughter truly might be the best medicine. Ashton Kutcher's Sept. 19 debut on CBS' Two and a Half Men generated a football-sized 29 million viewers, and the second week's 20.5 million still topped last season's average with Charlie Sheen. How I Met Your Mother debuted up double digits, and 2 Broke Girls, which benefited from a monster Men lead-in, pulled in an astounding 7.1 rating in the 18-to-49 demo. On Fox, the Sept. 20 premiere of New Girl bested its Glee lead-in and gave the network its highest-rated fall sitcom debut since The Bernie Mac Show in November 2001. The third-season premiere of Modern Family on Sept. 21 delivered ABC's top-rated season debut in six years, and lead-in The Middle hit a series high. Even Whitney, eviscerated by critics, improved on Community's 2010 premiere in the slot, though NBC's other Thursday comedies -- including a Steve Carell-free The Office -- were down. PHOTOS: Fall TV's 12 Most Anticipated Shows Friday The networks were up 16 percent in aggregate compared with the first Friday a year ago. Caveat alert: Last year, Fox was DOA on the night with a Human Target rerun and failed drama The Good Guys. So gains this year for Kitchen Nightmares and Fringe offset slight declines elsewhere. CBS continued to win with an all-original lineup of A Gifted Man, CSI: NY and Blue Bloods. Meanwhile, NBC's Dateline is consistently beating ABC's 20/20 at 10 p.m.; it was up 25 percent year-over-year for its Sept. 23 season opener. And beginning Oct. 21, ABC and NBC will program original content on the long-neglected night. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will lead off for ABC; Chuck and Grimm will do the same for NBC. PHOTOS: Fall TV Preview 2011: 10 Fresh Faces to Know Fox For the first time, Fox won premiere week in the 18-to-49 demo, despite a nearly 30 percent drop for the Sept. 20 premiere of Glee and a somewhat soft 12.5 million viewers for The X Factor -- especially in light of that show's stratospheric ad rates (as much as $400,000 for a 30-second spot). But with New Girl off to a rousing start and X Factor nonetheless juicing Wednesday and Thursday, Fox was up 26 percent compared with week one of 2010-11 -- though Terra Nova's middling debut Sept. 26 is a disappointment. PHOTOS: Fox's New Season TV Shows: 'Terra Nova,' 'The X Factor' and More THE LOSERS Reality Franchises Nearly every returning competition show bowed to lows: The Sept. 19 Dancing With the Stars on ABC notched its lowest-rated premiere, tumbling 24 percent compared with last fall's opener. NBC's The Sing-Off was down 30 percent-plus compared with its previous bow in December. CBS' Survivor notched its lowest-rated fall premiere. The Sept. 20 bow of NBC's The Biggest Loser was down 20 percent. And X Factor was beaten by Modern Family, prompting Family co-creator Steve Levitan to tweet, "It's extremely gratifying that a scripted comedy finally beat an overhyped karaoke contest." PHOTOS: 'Dancing With the Stars' Season 13: Rehearsals 10 p.m. Dramas While CBS' Hawaii Five-0 remains the time-slot leader on Monday, its Sept. 19 premiere was down 13 percent year-over-year and off 50 percent from its 2 Broke Girls lead-in. NBC's hyped The Playboy Club was off 30 percent compared with the bow of the canceled Chase. In fact, Playboy tied the 2008 drama Crusoe as NBC's lowest-rated fall premiere in the slot. Similarly, the Sept. 20 debut of ABC's Body of Proof was down 26 percent compared with its series premiere in March. And the 10 p.m. Wednesday slot did CSI no favors as the relocated CBS drama's Sept. 21 premiere fell 9 percent year-over-year despite the debut of Ted Danson. CBS' The Mentalist was off 18 percent, and NBC's Prime Suspect, starring Maria Bello, marked NBC's lowest-rated Thursday fall series debut ever. Two exceptions at ABC: Castle grew double digits, and Revenge got a lift from Family to more than double the premiere of last season's The Whole Truth. PHOTOS: Fall TV Death Pool: Will 'Charlie's Angels,' 'Whitney' or 'How to Be a Gentleman' Be Axed First? NBC The No. 4 network ended the first week down 10 percent in the 18-to-49 demo compared with last year -- before the shake-up of its entertainment division. Yes, NBC can blame the competition -- Kutcher on Men and double doses of Family, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother -- and a lot of its schedule was in development before Bob Greenblatt took over. But if the first ratings are an indication, NBC's turnaround is very much a work in progress. Related Topics Ashton Kutcher Maria Bello Ted Danson Zooey Deschanel Dancing with the Stars CBS Kitchen Nightmares Two and a Half Men Fox Broadcasting Corporation How I Met Your Mother New Girl CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Fringe Fall TV Preview

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Horrible Bosses Director Seth Gordon Signs Overall Deal With Sony Pictures TV

Horrible Bosses director Seth Gordon has signed a two-year overall deal with Sony Pictures Television. Gordon already has an existing relationship with the TV studio — he is the co-creator/executive producer of the Sony/Happy Madison-produced Fox comedy series Breaking In, which was recently renewed for a second season. Gordon directed 3 of the 7 episodes from the series’ first season, including the pilot and the season finale. Gordon, who co-created Breaking In with writer Adam F. Goldberg, will continue to serve as an executive producer on the Christian Slater-starring comedy in season 2 while also developing new projects for Sony TV. Additionally, Gordon is reuniting with Goldberg and Happy Madison. He has come on board to direct the untitled 1980s family comedy Goldberg has in development at Fox with Happy Madison and Sony TV producing. Separate from the Sony deal, Gordon has named Mary Rohlich his development executive. In TV, Gordon has directed episodes of ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s The Office, Parks & Recreation and Community. Gordon, who started off as a documentary filmmaker, directing the gaming documentary The King of Kong among others, made his feature directing debut with Four Christmases. His sophomore effort, Horrible Bosses, has grossed more than $200 million worldwide. Gordon, repped by WME and Brillstein Entertainment, is currently developing a reboot of the 1983 thriller War Games for MGM.

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Parents Television Council Wants More Advertisers to Drop Playboy Club

Amber Heard The Parents Television Council says seven companies have pulled their advertising from NBC's The Playboy Club, and wants more to follow suit. "The Playboy Club is a commercial disaster and must be removed from the airwaves. We call for the network to cancel this degrading and sexualizing program immediately," PTC President Tim Winter said. Kraft, Sprint, Lenovo, UPS Store, Subway, P.F. Chang's China Bistro and Campbell's Soup did not advertise on the show's second episode. Check out our fall preview for galleries, scoop, premiere calendars and more! The Playboy Club, a period drama starring Eddie Cibrian and Amber Heard as denizens of the first Playboy Club in Chicago in the early '60s, dropped about 20 percent in viewership in Week 2. According to TVGuide.com's Popularity Contest, 49 percent of users did not like the debut. The ratings indicate that "any further airing of the show not only pushes an anti-family agenda, but is a profoundly bad business decision," Winter said. Photo timeline: The emasculation of men on TV "PTC will be calling on its members and other concerned citizens to contact the sponsors," Winter added. "Today, we ask Capital One, Chrysler and Samsung if their corporate values are in step with those of the Playboy brand." NBC told TVGuide.com: "Conversations we have with our clients regarding their media plans for this, or any other show, are between us and them."

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The Heir Apparent

'The Heir Apparent'A Shakespeare Theater Company presentation of the play in 2 functions modified by David Ives in the comedy by Jean-Francois Regnard. Directed by Michael Kahn.Lisette - Kelly Hutchinson Crispin - Carson Elrod Eraste - Andrew Veenstra Geronte - Floyd KingWho might have thought a steady flow of shameless rhymes and groan-worthy puns might be this type of hoot? However in the pitiless hands of playwright David Ives -- whose play "Venus in Fur" opens on Broadway later this fall -- there's payback aplenty within this adaptation of "The Heir Apparent," a 300-year-old French farce by Jean-Francois Regnard. Show launches the 25th anniversary season of D.C.'s Shakespeare Theater Company. STC artistic director Michael Kahn commissioned Ives to translate and adapt the comedy through the rarely-created playwright, overshadowed ever by Moliere. A job follows Ives' well accepted adaptation for Kahn this year of Pierre Corneille's "The Liar," another 17th century French comedy which, like "Heir," was designed in verse. Both of them are items of STC's 7- year-old ReDiscovery Series that revives neglected classics. Designed in 1708, annually before Regnard died, "Heir" ("Le Legataire Universel") was the scribe's final and many effective play, recognized because of its gentle parody of French society inside an appealingly zany plot hell-bent on drawing laughs. Within this decidedly low brow exercise, potty jokes are treated as high art in apparent contrast towards the Shakespeare Theater's standard fare. The impish Ives goes a measure further by peppering the piece with modern America asides. "I am only a soccer mother in mind," concedes one character. Occur an ornately disheveled drawing room created by Alexander Dodge and lit to shadowy perfection by Philip Rosenberg, a wizened curmudgeon performed by STC regular Floyd King has introduced intends to draft his will. Avarice naturally assumes charge of peak household. Rhyming couplets spew forth, the greater tortured the greater. "I do not care what anybody states. I'm a one-guy Comedie Francaise," boasts the talking manservant Crispin (Carson Elrod) carrying out a merry romp of hide and jinx. Elrod's Crispin may be the play's prime comedy spark, ably aided in the impromptu trick by Andrew Veestra because the nephew and uncle's apparent sole heir, and Kelly Hutchinson like a devious maid and Crispin's girlfriend. Precision timing and athleticism are probably the characteristics of Kahn's fast-paced and entertaining production. Other highlights include wonderful turns by Meg Chambers Steedle because the suffering bride-to-be, Nancy Robinette as her dowager mother and Clark Middleton because the up and down challenged attorney who unwillingly can serve as everyone's foil. Just like "Liar," the clever "Heir" underscores the need for STC's enterprising ReDiscovery series like a vital source for re-imagined classics for present day audiences.Sets, Alexander Dodge costumes, Murell Horton lighting, Philip Rosenberg arrangements, Adam Wernick seem, Christoper Baine. Opened up Sept. 11, 2011. Examined Sept. 22. Runs through March. 23. Running time: 2 Hrs.With: Nancy Robinette, Meg Chambers Steedle, Clark Middleton. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Componen ramps up home media division

Vital features numerous business changes and promotions, such as the roll-from a completely new Home Media Distribution division that will oversee home theatre, digital certification and TV certification globally. Dennis Maguire remains promoted to leader in the new division -- good Vital lot -- and may account to Vice Chairman Make the most of Moore. Studio may also be centralizing global theatrical management in La, while marketing and customers functions will remain in your neighborhood based. Furthermore for the new division, Componen may also be marketing several people, including Josh Greenstein to chief marketing officer and Megan Colligan to leader of domestic marketing & distribution. Don Harris has furthermore been upped to leader of domestic theatrical distribution and may replace Jim Tharp, who'll retire next June and may assist Moore inside the transition. Hal Richardson will undertake the role of leader of home media distribution. Contact Justin Kroll at justin.kroll@variety.com

Rhianna Shows At Obama Fundraiser event

FIRST Launched: September 26, 2011 8:50 AM EDT ATHERTON, Calif. -- Pop singer Rhianna was among the site visitors inside a Plastic Valley fundraiser event for Leader Obama. The intimate gathering happened within tent inside the yard of Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg on Sunday evening. Gaga used a black, sleeveless gown and heel footwear, together with her hair stacked up she towered inside the Plastic Valley elites who've been needing to pay around $35,800 per couple to visit. Gaga attended just like a needing to pay guest. She mentioned the other day they preferred to talk to Obama to talk about her concerns about bullying, nevertheless it wasnt apparent when the two might be getting that discussion. Copyright 2011 by Connected Press. All rights reserved.These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Mike Worthington Expects Suicide in 'Man around the Ledge' Trailer

On friday, Moviefone opened up the vertigo-inducing poster for 'Man around the Ledge.' Since image involves existence inside the first trailer for your Asger Leth-directed movie. Even if you not know of Leth, this movie does not have shortage of identifiable stars -- Mike Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Erection dysfunction Harris and Edward Burns among others. 'Man around the Ledge' follows steered obvious of convict Nick Cassidy (Worthington) and also the brother Joey (Jamie Bell). To have the ability to accomplish the finest gem heist ever, Nick throws all the cops inside the city to take a seat around the ledge from the tall building. Can it be just us or works this movie look similar to 'The Negotiator' starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey? See the trailer below and choose by yourself. [via Yahoo! Movies]

'The Human Centipede 2' Poster Crawls Into Public

The poster for Tom Six's A Persons Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) has indexed out into public. The horror follow up had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest last evening. Adding a meta twist towards the perverse sadism from the first film, the follow up follows Martin, a lonely security officer that has a poor sexual dependence on the film A Persons Centipede. This ultimately leads him to test his own experiments... VIDEO: 'Human Centipede 2' and Five More Must-See Films at Fantastic Fest After one see that poster, I'm in. It's an attractive, if apparent, picture of total depravity. Which's simply irresistible. It opens in theaters October 7 through IFC Night time, then is going to be available when needed October 12. A Persons Centipede 2

Jon Voight States Hes An Extremely, Happy Dad

La, Calif. -- Jon Voight was spotted in August, walking out to have an frozen treats working in london together with his grandchildren, but he was surprised the paparazzi caught it on film. I didnt know they recorded that, he told Access Hollywood around the red-colored carpet at HBOs Emmys party, mentioning towards the photos that appeared, showing him with Pax, Shiloh and Zahara Jolie-Pitt. You do not know it had been said to be he trailed off. But yeah, Ive stayed with my grandchildren. I really like my grandchildren. [Im a] very, happy dad. When requested about how exactly things were with daughter Julia Roberts, Jon stated, Whenever your youngsters are happy, so when your grand kids are pleased, youre happy. The actor, who lately starred in 2 television series Lone Star and 24 for that Emmys network last evening FOX had high praise for that host from the ceremony Glees Jane Lynch. Jane did a great job. Shes filled with fun surprises and she or he was totally in charge and that i thought her opening number was terrific, he stated. Everything was light and filled with fun. Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All privileges reserved.These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Toronto: IFC Acquires Lynn Sheltons Your Siblings Sister

BREAKING: IFC has acquired United States and Latin American distribution privileges for your Sister’s Sister, the Lynn Shelton comedy drama that opened Sunday in the Toronto Film Festival. Simultaneously, Studio Canal acquired United kingdom privileges and Madman acquired Australian and New Zealand privileges. Within the film, a bereft and confused guy still mourning the current dying of his brother finds love and direction inside a most unpredicted place. Emily Blunt, Rosemarie DeWitt, Mark Duplass and Mike Birbiglia star. The offer, produced by UTA and Submarine, is low-seven-figure minimum guarantee for that domestic and foreign deals, and also the plan's for any theatrical release in 2012. Among individuals circling were eOne, Samuel Goldwyn, Magnolia, Oscilloscope and Miramax, the second which might have guaranteed a distribution partner.

Do Not Mess With Universal: Bruno Bingo Hall Edition

Back in 2007, during the filming of Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen and his film crew stormed a California bingo hall. They asked the unsuspecting patrons to sign Standard Consent Agreements, alleged that they were filming a “documentary-style film,” and then Bruno was invited on stage to call numbers. Only instead of just calling numbers, the flamboyant Austrian character related each digit to a milestone in his relationship with a former gay partner — a showy extreme that ended in tears, a call to the paramedics, security officers forcibly removing Cohen, a “brain bleed” and a lawsuit against NBC Universal, that we learn today, the studio has won. Richelle Olson and her husband sued Cohen, NBC Universal and other production companies related to the project in 2009 alleging that Cohen’s bingo parlor stunt — which never made it into the film’s final cut — resulted in a scuffle that led to serious injuries. Shortly after the Olsons filed their lawsuit, Universal countered with their own letter stating that the altercation cited never took place, submitting 28 minutes of unedited footage to court. A footnote in the most recent appeals court decision makes the bingo scene sound very amusing. After Cohen called out the Bingo number 36, he states that “36” was the age of his former male partner. Later, when he calls out the number 3, he says that his former partner’s birthday was “May 3.” When he later calls out the number 59, he remarks that 59 was the number of his hotel room he stayed in when he met his former partner, and a few minutes later when he announces number 42, Cohen offers that “42 inches was his partner’s chest size. Finally, after Cohen announces the number 7, he comments that he met his partner on “July 7.” Some members of the audience can be heard laughing after each comment.” The Hollywood Reporter pieced together more of the events that transpired that night. As Cohen continued making comments, Olson became alarmed at the vulgarity and concerned for the other Bingo players. So she approached the stage area and told Cohen to stop. Cohen asks why he can’t continue and why she’s being so rude, and Olson responds by polling the audience whether they wanted him or Olson to continue with the number-calling. The audience chose Olson. As security officers escorted Cohen and his crew to the exit, Richelle Olson announced to the audience: “I will not have anyone make a mockery of this bingo hall.” Later, Olson left the stage to calm herself down, where, sobbing uncontrollably, she lost consciousness, hitting her head into the concrete floor. Paramedics took her away, and she says she was diagnosed with two brain bleeds and has been in a wheelchair and walker ever since. First off, a slow clap for Olson for actually saying the words, “I will not have anyone make a mockery of this bingo hall.” Any bingo hall would be lucky to have a player as staunchly protective of her board game environment as Richelle Olson. Sadly for Olson and her husband though, both a lower court and an appeals court have sided with Universal on this matter, agreeing that Cohen’s stunt was protected by the First Amendment. This decision means that in addition to the lawsuit being thrown out, Olson will have to pay money for its legal fees. They can take your hard-earned bingo winnings, Olson family, but they can never take your pride. Or your dauber. · Universal Wins ‘Bruno’ Lawsuit Over Woman Injured in Bingo Hall [THR]

UTA Signs Parks & Recs Nick Offerman

EXCLUSIVE: Parks and Recreation standout Nick Offerman has signed with UTA. Offerman last month won a TCA Award for his role on the NBC comedy series, and him not landing an Emmy nomination was considered one of the biggest upsets this year. On the feature side, Offerman’s upcoming projects include the Will Ferrell comedy Casa de mi Padre and Somebody Up There Likes Me, which Offerman also produced.

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Kurt Angle on Warrior, His Longtime Acting Ambition and Following The Rock Out of the WWE

comments: 0 || add yours It’s a curious version of the real pro wrestler Kurt Angle that you get from the ring persona he’s projected over the years as a star of the WWE (ne WWF) and now TNA Wrestling, where he’s currently the reigning World Heavyweight Champion. The real-life former Olympic wrestler has played off his 1996 gold medal win as wrestling’s bona fide “American Hero” since his 1998 WWF debut, juggling multiple wrestling companies and countless ring titles while a version of his own personal life, warped through the wrestling world’s faux-realist backstage lens, is broadcast every week to millions of fans. But what Angle really wants to do — what he wanted to do even before pro wrestling came calling — is act. Seriously act. That’s just one revelation the burgeoning thespian Angle shared when he rang Movieline to discuss Warrior, his latest film, one in which he has nary a line but commands the world’s attention as Koba, the fearsome Russian champ standing between dueling brothers Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton in an all-important MMA tournament. For Angle, multiple roads led to his joining the cast of Gavin O’Connor’s sports drama: His intimidating physical presence, for sure, but also the fact that he’s long wanted to stretch his acting muscles and acknowledges that he may not be quite ready to launch into bigger roles. Read on as Movieline speaks with Kurt Angle about his circuitous route from the Olympics to the WWF to acting, how the WWE may have stifled his film career in the wake of fellow wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s own career transition, how mulling a switch to UFC helped him train for Warrior, and where to find the Internet’s best real-life example of high emotions and tears that the masculine world of ring sports has ever seen. I first knew you from wrestling of course, so it’s been interesting to follow your acting career as it’s developed. What was the impetus for you wanting to make that transition into acting? Believe it or not, I kind of went into professional wrestling so I could get an avenue into acting. You’re kidding — that sounds like the most brutal way to break into this business. [Laughs] It certainly is! You know, the hard part for me was being an Olympic gold medalist and having that persona, you don’t see too many Olympic gold medalists go into acting. It’s actually even more difficult. You’re not taken very seriously and you’re looked at in a different light, so it was kind of hard for me to go straight from Olympics into acting. I tried, it just didn’t work out. Pro wrestling was there and I was good at it, thank God. I started getting a lot of offers but unfortunately at WWE I was under a tight leash. I think it had a lot to do with The Rock making the transition, and me possibly being the next guy — you know, the company didn’t want to lose another top performer. So I believe that had a lot to do with me not having the opportunity. So when I went to TNA, I started getting the opportunity to do some of those things. So while pro wrestling offered you a career, it was also limiting. Yeah. Without a doubt. How much were you acting before beginning your wrestling career with the WWE? I was taking classes and I was getting very serious about it. I was also sportscasting — I was a sportscaster in Pittsburgh for Fox, just trying to get in front of the camera a little bit. Then pro wrestling came around and I took a shot at that, and I didn’t realize I was going to become that good. I made a lot of money, thank God, and I stuck with it, but every time I had a movie where my name would come up for some reason, I wasn’t allowed to do it due to scheduling reasons in the WWE. So with TNA, they give me the opportunity to go ahead and do movies and if it conflicts with the schedule they work around it. It’s a much better situation for me. So I actually signed a new three-year deal today with TNA. I’m going to stick with TNA. It certainly sounds like a better situation for what you want to do. But what I also think is interesting about you transitioning to acting from wrestling is that your pro wrestling career borrowed so much from your personal life — it theatricalized it into a persona that was distinctly a persona yet to close to your own life. Yeah, I especially did this year. You know, with me I’m just in a better place in my life now, so when I did the whole thing this year with my ex and her new husband and all that, it wasn’t that hard. They asked me if I’d do it and I said, “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll go ahead and do it, it’s no problem as long as the kids don’t watch it, I’m fine with it.” So that’s what we did. It really wasn’t that hard. A lot of people respected me, a lot of the wrestlers were like, “I don’t know if I could do it!” But I really didn’t have a problem with it. I don’t know why, but I didn’t. Considering your attempts to break into acting before and during your wrestling career, what kinds of roles were you looking for when Warrior came along? I did three movies that are in theaters this year — Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, Warrior, and a movie called Beyond the Mat. Actually, I literally got these movies on my own. I do have an agency and they have gotten me a lot of leads, but unfortunately with what’s going on with movies today, you have the money upfront, you’re ready to do it, and all of a sudden investors pull out. So I had at least seven or eight movies do that, and unfortunately I’d be a lot further in my career, but a lot of these movies that were, you know, $4 million to $20 million-budgeted movies didn’t pan out. And they’ve been put on hold. So I was fortunate enough to get three of them this year. I actually filmed two of them two years ago and one last year. And then I did three independent movies just for practice that had worldwide distribution. It was just mainly so I could get in front of the camera and have a little more practice. You play an MMA champion in Warrior who’s sort of like the Ivan Drago to Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy’s dual Rockys. Without a doubt, you’re right. You know, the difference with my character in the movie which was pretty cool was that all of the movie is about these brothers and their father, who is Nick Nolte, but the tournament in the movie was really built around one fighter named Koba from Russia. He was undefeated, no one’s ever beat him, no one’s ever gotten along with him, and so even though my character isn’t seen a lot in the movie — maybe in ten, fifteen scenes — the character’s very strong in terms of promoting the tournament around this one man. Koba has never left Russia, is an Olympic gold medalist — which believe it or not, I am — and it was pretty cool because you’re right, it was a lot like Ivan Drago. But thing about the movie is that [Koba] is a fan favorite; everybody paid to see Koba, that was the whole point, to see this guy from Russia that no one’s ever seen before. The day we were filming my entrance they brought in more extras than for anybody else because they wanted the Koba entrance to be the best, the biggest, the most exciting. What I like about that is that it means there’s not necessarily an evil villain in Warrior. No! No, the Cold War is over, now it’s about, “I want to see the best fighters in the world fight,” and I think that’s very real in MMA today. You’ve got a guy like Fedor Emelianenko, who’s considered the best heavyweight fighter and everybody wants to see him fight. I believe that this character, Koba, was built around him. Why do you think MMA is having its turn in the spotlight now? I believe it’s been marketed right by Dana White at UFC, thank God. There are so many intriguing things about it because now you have all these disciplines that come together and it’s like, what is the best discipline? It used to be you had to have one discipline and you went in and you fought somebody from another discipline. In other words, I’m a wrestler and I would fight a boxer, and a karate guy would fight a jujitsu guy. Now, everybody’s so well versed they can do it all, so now it’s a lot more competitive than it was back when it started. But when it first started it was about, which is the best discipline? It was either wrestling or jujitsu. Did you have to train a lot more than usual and in different ways to play Koba? I actually was training before the fight because I was talking with Dana White about going to UFC. So I trained for quite a bit. I was ready to go by the time I went to the casting call; I had the right look. I had what they were looking for. They told me they went through about 50 different fighters and I was the one that stuck out the most. I was really taken back. Considering your more serious acting pursuits, did you ever think, ‘Maybe I should play an office worker,’ or something like that — characters who aren’t action-oriented, who are unrelated to this realm of fighting? Yes, without a doubt. I really have been trying to get in movies with smaller parts, just to get myself in there and get more practice, and not have to take the big lead. In Dylan Dog I was one of the co-stars, and I had a pretty good part in that movie. But I’m looking for smaller parts in bigger movies. I think that’s the best way to get in there and show people what you can do. But me right now, taking on a lead role in a huge budgeted movie — I don’t think I’m really ready for that right now. What I think I need to do is take the smaller parts and make my craft a little bit better. I really respect that. Speaking of craft, in Warrior you acted opposite two great up-and-coming dramatic actors, Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy. Joel and Tom — tremendous. Were you able to give them advice on the physicality of their performances? Well, I could tell you this: I was really taken aback by their acting, but even moreso, I couldn’t believe that they got knocked on — they really did the real fighting. I really respect the fact that they trained with us, three months of training at MMA training camp. They did everything they were told to do. They got their weight to where they had to go. They had to build up muscle, they had to gain weight. I had to lose 30 lbs. So I was really blown away that they performed as well as they did in the octagon, for being actors. They weren’t fighters, and they were tremendous. For me, I’m in there every day whether it’s a wrestling ring or an octagon. I’ve gone and I’ve been there, I know what it’s like — these guys, they were hopping around, they’d never done it before. They really stepped up. Do you feel like you learned anything from them, acting-wise? Yeah, I really thought that Tom and Joel did — because Tom played a Marine who went AWOL, and Joel played a schoolteacher — I really bought into what they did. And having to change their accents to the American accent… I’m good friends with them and it’s so funny because now they’re talking to me with their Australian and British accents and I’m like, “Where in the hell did that come from?” They worked hard at it. They showed how well-versed they were. In the film, Joel and Tom’s characters go through intensely personal stuff while in the ring, which we see only because we’re the audience of the film. Have you seen similarly emotional moments happen yourself in the ring with other fighters dealing with such intense emotional things? You know what? You need to go on YouTube and watch my Olympic gold medal match and you’ll see exactly what it feels like. You want to see somebody break down and cry? Look up “Kurt Angle Olympic finals” and you’ll know exactly what it’s like in real life. [Laughs] But you know what, they did — they showed a lot of real emotion, and that’s what made the movie so good. You can put all the fighting in the world in that movie, but if they didn’t play their roles right and do exactly what they did… They carry their own personalities in their own way into this film — Gavin O’Connor obviously directed it but these guys brought their own flavor to it. Even Nick Nolte, gosh. Even the character. I’ll tell you what, on the set he cracked me up. He’s out of his frickin’ mind, but he’s such a great actor. [Watch Kurt Angle get overcome with emotion after his 1996 Olympic gold medal win] Warrior is in theaters Friday. Tagged: gavin o'connor, joel edgerton, koba, kurt angle, mma, nick nolte, tna, tom hardy, warrior, wrestling, wwe, wwf