An Interview with Extreme Force Stunts’ Mark Anthony Baca

[00:00:00] It's a Jack-top review show.

[00:00:07] It's a Jack-top review show.

[00:00:14] Jack-top review show.

[00:00:20] It's a Jack-top review show. first role right out of high school on kickboxer four. And been doing film on and off for 30 years, being between teaching martial arts fighting. And, you know, I just wanted to come back to Austin eventually and during the pandemic, I felt it was a good time. I got tired of the politics and the bureaucracy with the film.

[00:01:43] I just wanted to work.

[00:01:44] I didn't care about anybody's politics

[00:01:46] or their views, I just wanted to work.

[00:02:45] you know, downstairs falls versus horse riding versus.

[00:02:47] Oh yeah. Yeah, most people I tell them to find

[00:02:49] where they're comfortable at first,

[00:02:51] like where they're comfortable at, make that really good.

[00:02:55] Get really good at that one thing

[00:02:57] and then start to venture out to other parts of stunts

[00:03:01] that are more complicated.

[00:03:03] That way you can broaden your wingspan

[00:03:05] and offer more to production. some of their more recent action movies. And it's just interesting because sometimes it's bothersome and other times you're like, Hey, it's good, but still there's one annoying edit I would change. You know, um, Oh, who were some of your icons growing up? Just, um, the Clint Eastwood.

[00:04:23] Yeah.

[00:04:23] I didn't have like, I was, I never been really star struck.

[00:05:21] where, oh, we only teach Asians, we don't teach white-eyes, you know what I mean?

[00:05:24] Aren't you glad his legacy is being honored

[00:05:26] with new shows like Warrior, finally?

[00:05:28] Right, right.

[00:05:31] And there's been all kinds of other explosive action movies

[00:05:34] that kind of shape the genre, everything from Matrix,

[00:05:37] Born Identity, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Rambo,

[00:05:40] but which one stuck out to you

[00:05:43] as I want to make that kind of movie one of these days,

[00:05:46] get on a film set like that? right now and I go to Western. So I've done Westerns but haven't done a lot of them and I think Westerns are coming back so I'm kind of like pushing Westerns now with my stunt classes because there's opportunities for my people and myself to easy. You know, Walker took the stranger. Oh, I didn't see that on your resume. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to get the credit on there. I'm like, there's, I have like 30 or 40 credits that aren't on my bank. The page. And I can't figure out how to get them to put me on there.

[00:08:20] Like even some of the ones that say, um, um, I can't remember.

[00:08:25] I find with persistence, if you just keep complaining to IMDb Pro and just say, Hey, I'm a member here, I expect better otherwise why my pay all this money. So how yeah, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. Right. Right. Exactly. And you know, I'm not saying that I'm against, you know, sometimes, you know, you stick up yourself, sometimes you have to defend yourself or you have to defend, you know, other people, you know, and sometimes violence is, you know,

[00:11:02] causing peace, you know, but I don't just chasing my own dreams, but my dreams changed. You know, now it's like, I want to leave her more than just a monetary or, or some land or whatever. I want her to leave her some, some skillset that maybe she can walk through the next journey

[00:12:21] by herself when I'm gone.

[00:12:23] Absolutely.

[00:12:24] Yeah. going backwards I'm gonna have to yeah practice with people yeah definitely definitely we'd like to do out of acting oh yeah I don't want to let them down yeah I've been doing a lot of acting lately the past five years um I got a new movie just came out it's on netflix not like it's on several platforms but uh amazon it's called uh six wheels from hell and I played the lead in that one

[00:13:44] so that one just came out and I got two more movies coming out this year Yeah, she's badass. It's pretty cool. Yeah, she's she's just tough. I mean, she's You know, she's not like a fire, but she's tough though. She's a tough woman She's she had a she had lines are strong her acting was strong. It's on For those who want to see free dead or alive Yeah, so she was she was pretty she's pretty awesome to work with and watch her work, you know watch her do her thing

[00:15:01] She was pretty cool

[00:15:03] lovely

[00:15:04] Yeah

[00:15:07] Uh same thing over again. I hope man. Yeah. I saw Danny Trejo and Lorenzo Lamas had done a revenge movie from recent years and it looked awful just from the trailer. Like just not believable and you're like, come on man. Lorenzo Lamas and Danny Trejo, one of the producers

[00:16:22] for my TV show, I got my own TV show we well. I can see that their backstory is like this. And the average Joe is gonna have a dream come true

[00:17:42] to be an action star, to be in three movies

[00:17:45] and get paid on it. So here I am. Nice. And but was there something just particular about the location other than just being more affordable that just really stood out to you?

[00:19:01] Well, Bastog County is growing. There's movie studios coming out

[00:19:04] there in Bastog County. And when he told me that I was like, cool, you know, I won't listen to all the,

[00:20:20] the, you know, those guys that are hating on me because I'm doing good.

[00:20:25] Yeah. He worked on a lot of stuff, including everybody, hey, you're not alone in the struggle. Right. And this business can be good and bad. I mean, yeah, there's a good, bad ties to everything. And when you're in this business, you start to see who your real friends are or your real supporters are.

[00:21:40] And you know, my thing is honest, you're an honest person, you've got integrity, you're

[00:21:45] doing things safely, I love the energy. I love the kids, the families, the parents. I mean, everybody that's involved, they just, I mean, there's a few people that I

[00:23:01] don't really talk to associate with because I'm not into the ego people or

[00:23:05] the ones that the Eagles are so big.

[00:23:06] I just, the ones who don't teach for the money. I teach for the experiences and the camaraderie and the connections because I don't teach people how to do what I earn, then I gotta hire people from LA. I wanna keep everybody local. So when I do it in the film,

[00:24:20] I wanna know people have my back

[00:24:21] and they're learning correctly

[00:24:22] with the way I do things and I was taught.

[00:24:25] So when I leave them to do a project, I trust them.

[00:25:24] and he doesn't talk and he shows respect and he does the stunts and he's amazing at it. He picks up things so fast and it's like, yeah, I like people like that.

[00:25:30] Right. Good stuff.

[00:25:33] Yeah. And what kind of martial arts do you mainly recommend everyone just take up as like a starter?

[00:26:41] Do you ever kind of remind everybody, hey, you're doing something in the scene,

[00:26:43] don't just be standing there.

[00:26:50] When you go on set and everybody signs it,

[00:26:52] and I tell everybody, when you go on set,

[00:26:55] it's your interview.

[00:26:57] Yeah.

[00:26:57] So every movie we go on, it's your interview.

[00:27:00] So basically don't get comfortable to where you mess up.

[00:27:03] Don't even, yeah.

[00:27:04] So basically, what happens when you go to interview,

[00:27:07] you give your best, you know, it makes us look bad. You know? Yeah. It just, it's like, why are we even bothered?

[00:28:22] Yeah.

[00:28:22] This isn't a tender date.

[00:28:23] I mean, come on, you're here to work.

[00:28:25] Yeah.

[00:28:28] I don't work with him. I'll try to get him on my TV show.

[00:29:44] Um, so people like Lorenzo Lamas, you know, people I look up to those guys, I like to work with them.

[00:29:47] So, yeah, exactly. It'll get better. I feel I feel there is going to be a better way for everybody to do some independent movies and especially after the strikes that have been happening. Yeah, I'm hoping that comes soon. I mean, you know, a that Blu-ray in the mail. But I just love how she and Don Wilson went on multiple podcasts promoting it. And she's like, and by the way, we're not going for low brow like we're typically known for. We matured since then. So we're gonna have a gritty over the top movie, but it is not

[00:32:21] going to be, you know, deliberately stupid or cheesy.

[00:32:24] I'm like, okay.

[00:33:25] I'm pretty shocked that you know as much as you know, like Jeff Wolf and people like this. I mean, I just would always be looking at the behind the scenes. For me, it was just as

[00:33:31] important as who was the cinematographer or special effects makeup or puppeteer.

[00:33:37] And you look at their credits and they've done sixties and seventies, it was easier to be a stuntman just so you could get in and be an assistant director or a actor who would be in some physical roles, like be the security guard or get shots or the hospital patient has been set on fire. So you get both your stunt to do the same. It's just like, just let's move on. Yeah. We're, we just got through with that third film. We've, we've produced three features this year and two of them are going into distribution right now. We're done with the deliverables already. Our third one is getting finalized right now, or we're starting to, we got two

[00:36:21] more films we're putting out there this year. So that's five films that we've

[00:36:25] produced that would be out in the streaming services this year.

[00:37:25] experience. Get some demo reels behind you. Practice. You know, because you practice, practice, see your see what you're doing

[00:37:28] and critique yourself and the others critique you because

[00:37:31] you're going to get better. You gotta have thick skin, thick

[00:37:33] skin though. Don't let, you know, don't let take it personal.

[00:37:37] Someone says you didn't do that good this time. If you're doing

[00:37:40] stunts, my recommendation is probably doing a short or low budget film, but if you're being a legit stunt person, then you're

[00:39:04] working on a project with five or six or 10 other people. And

[00:40:01] to take it to my landing page.

[00:40:02] Excellent.

[00:40:08] So you guys heard it and we'll be sure to try and provide the link in the episode format and thank you ever so much for giving them an hour of your time.

[00:40:12] No, I appreciate you.

[00:40:15] We like helping out everybody and we'd like just telling their stories, but more

[00:40:18] importantly, it's just, it doesn't have to be just, Oh, let's have a giant

[00:40:23] convention and, you know sink this butt to win! On Brentfist with Brent Pope, I sit down with guests from the entertainment world and we do it all over breakfast. Or should I say Brentfist? Every week on Brentfist you get, inside Hollywood info and tips, great breakfast, rex and booty debates, most of all you get the most delightful 30 minutes of your week, so dig in, it's Brentfist time! Listen at Brentfist.com, Apple Podcasts, or wherever fine podcasts are found.