Daniel MacPherson Talks “Perfect Storm” Of Making Intense MMA Drama ‘Beast’

Daniel MacPherson stars in Beast as Patton James, a former MMA champion who is pulled back to face formidable opponent Xavier Grau (Bren Foster). Xavier has history with Patton’s younger brother, the impulsive MMA fighter Malon, and family bonds leads Patton back into the ring. MacPherson talked to CinemAddicts host Eric Holmes about this feature, which marks his third pairing with Russell Crowe (he plays Patton’s former trailer). Check out the full Beast interview below to find out why making this movie was an uphill climb!

Read more: Daniel MacPherson Talks “Perfect Storm” Of Making Intense MMA Drama ‘Beast’

I would ask how you got brought into this project, but the last movie I saw you in was Land of Bad also with Russell Crowe, so I imagine that has something to do with it. 

Daniel MacPherson: That’s exactly right. The writer of Land of Bad was David Frigerio and he said, “I’ve watched you guys work together the last couple of weeks on the film (and) you guys are really good together.” (He said): “I’ve got this MMA project that I think you’d be perfect for.”

That was back in 2022 and I started training straight away, because it was a great script and a great role. It was originally set in upstate New York. And then just as it evolved. It became an Australian story.

And Tyler Atkins, the director, came on and we knew a lot more about what it was like to grow up as a fighter in the working class kind of steel towns of Australia. We knew a lot more about that than we did anything about Buffalo, New York. So it ended up back in Australia and then Russell agreed to come on board and a great Australian cast was assembled.

Then we teamed up with ONE Championship to take the filming and the final fight sequences up to Bangkok and to really just elevate the production level and to give us this kind of neon southeast Asian sort of street state that is also, steeped in, in martial arts history and martial arts culture and.

And the result is what you’ve seen. We’re really proud of it. 

The fight scenes are one thing. I saw you doing the punching the pushups and all that. If I saw that in the script, I’d be like, “not for me.” I’m gonna go lay down! 

Daniel MacPherson (laughing): Yeah. No, man. I mean, I was 44, 43 when I was shooting (Beast).

This was only 12 months ago. I was training for three years. It took us three years to get this thing up and running. I got into the fight shape three times. I’ve lost 20 pounds three times, to finally the third time that the camera’s actually rolled.

But look when Russell Crowe says, “Hey man, we’re gonna do an MMA fight movie, and you’re gonna play the lead and I’m gonna play your coach and we’re gonna do it” . . . you give it absolutely everything. So, I trained as hard as I could with the best coaches.

I got myself to the lowest body fat I could possibly get to at this stage in my life. By the same token, and then I had to work opposite Bren Foster, who’s an extraordinary martial artist.

But then had to turn around and act opposite one of the greatest of all time, one of the all time heavyweights in Russell Crowe. So it tested every area of my skillset, that’s for sure. 

You must have changed during the three years it took to make Beast in at least an incremental fashion.

Daniel MacPherson: Oh totally. Life changes. You change in three years. The person you were three years ago I’m assuming is a little different to the one that turns up today.

I became a father at 40 and so fatherhood and my son growing up affected me. I did two plays during that time and they both evolved me as an actor as well. And it was also, it was my third film with Russell Crowe. So I’d evolved in my relationship with him and our onscreen kind of working relationship had evolved as well.

It was a perfect storm for me to really land at the timing that we did where I was in my personal life, the work that I put in for this role and the story and the character I was ready to create.

I was ready and so I put everything I possibly could into it because you never know when these opportunities are gonna come again. They’re so precarious and they nearly fell over again for a third time, like right before we rolled a camera.

So you give it everything you got. 

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What were some things that maybe changed from the script from like when you first read it to when you shot it to now the movie’s done?

Daniel MacPherson: The level of heart in the film really evolved as it went on.

Tyler Atkins had a vision in his mind of what this film was and thankfully it was similar to mine as well. It was always the family dynamic. The responsibility of the father and the husband and the little core nucleus of the family against the rest of the world.

That really interested me. Realistically you could tell that story against any sporting backdrop ’cause this guy’s competing for his family and his life and whatnot. But you tell it against the visceral nature of the biggest and most brutal sport in the world right now.

You take a fight movie into a whole new realm. The relationship with my brother evolved. Mojean Aria really brought a lot to that character and we found that a really rich place to mine. And so that relationship started to take up more and more complexity and space on screen.

Kelly Gale, as my wife, was extraordinary and that relationship really grew in the edit and on screen. A lot of those really special relationships really grew and it became it elevated. At the end of the film, you (understand) what those punches mean.

Now you know what’s at stake (and) what this guy’s fighting for. It’s as much for himself and for his future and his identity. His purpose is to right his past wrongs as it is for all the people that are supporting him. 

Before I let you go, I just wanted to get a film recommendation from you, either a movie that’s real personal to you, or a movie that’s this one’s really good and not enough people talk about it.

Daniel MacPherson: Oh man. That’s a great one. I’m (going to pick) one of mine. Go back and watch Infini. Shane Abbess made it. He’s an extraordinary filmmaker. He launched my film career. Luke Hemsworth did an amazing job.

Brent Foster’s in it as well. That was kind of one of our origin stories.  

Excellent. Daniel, thanks for joining me. You’ve been a pleasure and yeah, congratulations on Beast. 

Daniel MacPherson: Hey buddy. Great to chat! 

Catch Beast in theaters April 10 via Lionsgate! Share your thoughts on the movie in the comments!