Paul Mormando is a well-known in the martial arts circuit and is known by the press as ‘Mr. Karate USA’. Honoured as the youngest ever Martial Arts Grand Master at the age of 19, he has continued to develop his knowledge of the art and is an expert in Tae Kwon Do, Jujitsu, Kung Fu, a 10th degree black belt in Karate and founder of the Cha Ki Do Martial Arts System.
Paul was set for stardom had it not been for an almost fatal car crash where doctors suggested that he may never walk again. But with Paul’s perseverance and hard work he was eventually able to regain most of his strength and truly triumphed over tragedy, not only walking again, but returning back to the martial arts world.
I got an opportunity to talk to Paul about his career in martial arts, making the transition into acting and his new martial arts film Bound by Dept.
Prior to doing films you are best known for you achievements in the world of Martial Arts, how did you get involved in Martial Arts originally?
I have been doing it since I was about 12. I was getting bullied at school and I just happened to catch a Bruce lee movie and from that the rest was history. I guess that was kind of cliché.
What style did you start with originally when you started martial arts?
I started off with Tae Kwon Do when I was young at a local Do Jo in my area and I kind of branched out. But Tae Kwon Do was my basics in the beginning.
Over the years you have developed your reputation in the martial arts world studying Kung Fu, Karate and Tae Kwon Do like you said and from this you developed your own style of martial arts Cha Ki Do?
After years of trying the martial arts and being a Bruce Lee fan with the Jeet Kune Do where he made a collaboration. I followed in his footsteps, but I took it step further as I wanted to systemize it. Jeet Kune Do is very abstract, so I wanted to make it more systematic for someone who comes in with a recipe of what they should do.
You have been teaching your own style previously, do you still teach at the moment?
Yes, I teach six days a week and when I am not teaching I am filming!
Continuing with your martial arts, you have mastered several different styles of martial arts and broken several records as well, what so you think is your greatest achievement in martial arts.
That’s a good one because there have been quite a few. I would say my greatest achievement is creating my own system, leaving my legacy and spin on the martial arts world. I guess that would be my greatest martial arts accomplishment.
How did you make the transition from martial arts into acting?
I have never done a play, never acted in anything in my life because as a youngster I was always shy, but when I got into martial arts I did a lot of demonstrations and used to perform in a lot of different venues. One day to promote my new school I called up my local newspaper, I was 20 years old, I was young. When I did that I didn’t think that they would show up, but they did. I done some kind of jumping over stuff and a rollover or sorts and I guess they found it kind of amusing as it ended up on the front cover of the paper. When I did that this Hollywood dude was in town and he said, “You should be making movies”. I shrugged it off in the beginning, I had never acted in my life, but it gave me the bug so to speak and I thought maybe there is something this guy can do, and the rest is history.
You have your new film coming out Bound by Debt, can you tell me a bit about what we can expect from the film?
What I tried to do with this particular film because I am a huge martial arts fan, Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal movies, I love that era of movies. I tried to bring back that action film where the main character is not really shooting and blowing up things, there is more hand to hand combat. I also wanted to have acted in the film, I wanted to make it a different genre to your typical action movie.
As you mention there you were going for the more old-school with the film based more on the characters and the fighting itself, whereas the modern-day films use a lot more special effects to create an impact. What do you think will make Bound by Debt really stand out in the action genre?
We shot a lot of long range shots with the camera appose to the Hollywood actors who fake the action with a lot of short range shots. I am not a DP, but I am repeating what they said. With the long shots we can show real martial arts on the screen. There are a couple of guys out there, I am a fan of Scott Atkins he is the real deal martial arts. A lot of the other Hollywood actors train for a couple of months for a role and then that’s it there done. This film shows real martial arts on the screen appose to just faking it.
As you said there a lot of the films will use close ups and quick editing, where you are allowing the audience to see it.
Correct and our budget wasn’t a Hollywood budget by no means, so we really had to work a lot harder.
As well as acting and producing you were also involved in the fight coordination. Does the film showcase some of the Cha Ki Do style of fighting?
One of the things I like to do whether it is on film or during demonstrations, depending on the kind of movie we are doing I think each movie has its own system of martial arts that we put in. This is more of an underground fighting movie, so I didn’t get as much of an opportunity to do some of my reality based martial arts that I like. There was some MMA, Wing Chung and we threw in some Filipino martial arts. That is what Cha Ki Do is all about, it’s about taking the different martial arts forms.
What were some of your favourite moments filming Bound by Debt?
I don’t know if it would be my favourite part but doing the big fight club scene, that took us a lot of hours overnight so that was very memorable. Also, a couple of times filming on the street of New York, some people thought there were really violent attacks going on. We were kind of incognito filmmaking on our budget so there was no trailer out there, we couldn’t block off the streets like you would do with a big movie. A couple of guys thinking the action was real was kind of a compliment and a memorable experience of that night.
The film was written and directed by your wife Anna Mormand. Do you think she has incorporated some of your own personality into the character Dylan James?
Absolutely! She writes all my films, and this is our second collaboration together. She is a brilliant writer and specifically writing for me she knows my personality and the type of character I want to play. On top of it she is also a skilled martial artist which makes it easier to write it.
Whilst doing the film you bring a wealth of martial arts experience which you are used to performing in front of audiences, but how difficult did you find the acting side in the film which is something you are not used to?
Acting is my biggest challenge and probably my only limitation in this movie. I was trying to showcase a little bit more of my acting and a little less of the action which I don’t think I should have done, but my new movie which we are working on right now is more action than drama. I like doing the drama and trying to a challenge myself, especially being a martial artist first so it is kind of a challenge and draining.
You obviously want to do more action films, as you said the next film will have more action, are there any particular actors who you would like to work with going forwards?
I would like to work with Scott Atkins who I mentioned earlier, he is one of the guys who is heading to be the main guy. He is authentic, he is good at what he does and the people who work with him have said he is a really down to earth guy, he is someone I would like to work as far as martial arts go. One of my idols has always been Robert De Niro as a straight actor I would love to work with him.
Do you have any new projects which you are working on?
We are actually working on, it’s not my project but I am in it. They are working on a documentary of my life story right now and its more on my backstory. Along the way when I was doing my martial arts I was involved in a severe car accident back when I was younger, and the doctors told me I would not be able to walk let alone do martial arts. Even doing something as a formality is like doing a triathlon to me, so that is pretty cool being involved in the documentary. We are working on an action, vigilante movie and that is something which I am really looking forward too.
Do you have anyone in mind to cast as you in the documentary?
It’s not going to be a re-enactment as I don’t think it would work on that level (laughs). I was featured in a book which documented what happened to me and several others, but I was the only martial artist in the book. One of my students came to me and said that this is inspiration, you should tell your story because it might inspire other people. I was like no, because if your humble at all you do not want to make a documentary about you, but it got to the point where I thought, well maybe in order to help somebody why not? So, I said we will do it. There are a lot of different concepts in there, including bullying issues and different things.
It must have been difficult with the accident considering you were quite an active and physical person and you were looking to make a film with Mark Wahlberg back then.
I was in charge of the overall project and at the time I saw this young guy and at the time he was Mark Mark and he was a rapper. I said, “We have got to cast this guy, he looks like a fighter”. Everyone thought I was crazy, but we spoke to him, but it never came about because of the car accident.
Having made the transition yourself from martial artist to actor what advice would you give to someone who is looking to get into acting themselves?
Definitely hone your martial arts craft, but don’t underestimate the acting ability. Take acting lesson, take classes, train as much as you can, because a great martial artist does not automatically translate to being good on camera. We had a lot of people audition and we had a lot of martial artists who were phenomenal, but it was time to take a hit or showcasing a move they just couldn’t pull it off. They were great martial artists and probably could kill you, but in the movie, they just died so to speak. My very first movie was a film called The King of the Kickboxers aka American Shaolin (1991) and a long story short when I was on set I was horrible. I did a fight in the opening scene and when I got hit I was just taking the punches and they was like, “You have to sell the shot!”. It took me a while to learn that, but I am glad I learned it, but it was really bad. Going back, my advice is to go and learn to take a shot, learn to act, read scenes and learn to be an actor.
Bound by Dept is now available to rent or buy on Amazon now.
The book which Paul featured in was Running Through Road Blocks by Jerry Del Priore and is available on Amazon.
Trailer Bound by Dept
Published in various websites, Philip is a reviewer who is best known for his interviews and media coverage of independent projects including; films, books, theatre and live events. Always on the lookout for something different to cover!
