Assault on VA-33 Mark Dacascos Interview

Automatically transcribed; may contain errors.

hi mark how are you i'm doing really well thank you for the interview no problem thanks for taking the time so we're going to talk about attack on va 33 today um very bloody movie can i just say um how did you hear about this project and then what made you want to be involved in it yes well i heard about it um christopher wray the uh the director contacted my agent and what was intriguing to me was yes uh it is uh has it has action absolutely but you know uh inside the story you we tackle you know the the topic of ptsd you know the the mental and spiritual well-being of our military personnel and you know it's you know in a world where everything is so physical right and so sometimes superficial topical um you know i like that this goes for the roots you know and i i think sean patrick did a great job because you know he's i don't know if he's you know i've only i only know him from set but when i arrived on set he was they'd already been working about a week or two and you know he seemed rough and uh like he'd been through the ringer but was still and this is on camera and off camera you know still grounded and you could see i could i could i could feel that he still had um a really good heart you know yeah so it's funny i don't know where where the line crossed from sean patrick to to jason hill but um you know whether he's method after or not he carries that through or that's just him but i thought he was perfect for the role because i felt him i felt him you know he did do a great job and i want to piggyback on what you just said because ptsd is so prevalent in this film did they talk about it at all on set where they're was there someone um kind of coaching or in a sense giving feedback about ptsd and what's involved with it you know they may have um i i only had a couple of days on the show and you know um in my scenes obviously my character has ptsd but he doesn't give a hoot because he's gone evil so you know um so perhaps sean patrick and and christopher had somebody talking about that uh i know christopher wray our director served in the military so i think this was very important for him because of course he has um a lot of empathy and for his fellow military people and he knows it from the inside out uh that's what attracted me to this show i mean sure it has action but you know to to be the opposite of you know my character jackson to be the opposite of jason hill i mean you know what i mean we're fighting and and we probably you know i'm thinking jackson probably had equivalent training and he's he's seen horrific things but whereas jason hill has been able to retain his humanity in spite of all this crazy and is trying to be better and to try to do good by his wife and his daughter jackson um is is sort of convinced that it is what it is and it's not going to get any better and so he's given up in terms of humanity and it's just out for himself you know uh and i don't think it's like he's not trying to be evil no this is the world i've seen it and this is how i'm gonna live now you know he's i think he's just kind of put his heart that's it and now it's business and and unfortunately i could you know you know in going through the script and looking at the characters looking in real life you can see how easy that is to do yeah i think you know and that's that's that's what's scary and so that's why i think it's really important um that you know that this movie is out there because it makes you think about that you know it's it's one thing when you hear it you know in a documentary or news but a lot of people um get their information from from movies and so if we can serve you know if we can give entertainment but have a message in there and and open people's hearts and minds up and kind of show them you know what other people are having to go through maybe we can give a sense of empathy you know yeah maybe i know i know i'm hoping work with me here allison i'm trying i'm trying um so one thing that i found even more interesting was the fact that they had the general come in and in the general scenes speaking about how he sent these men to their death and he knows he did that you know because nobody talks about the generals they talk about the soldiers in the field but nobody talks about the upper echelon and how they deal with ptsd if at all so i found that really interesting um i know you say that yeah exactly um i know you said that jackson isn't a quote unquote bad guy but yeah he's not a good guy no he's not gonna do that at all because he didn't have to do that you know that's that's my point is that you know with his training he could still be serving on the side of good and i think he's been you know he's been worn down and he's seen he's seen war and the world from inside out in the worst possible ways and unlike unlike jason hill um he's given up on the good side you know that's unfortunate and i think uh i would imagine that happens quite a lot if you see what happens to the you know um our people that come back and they have ptsd um you know a lot of what happens is is tragic um you know they do harm to themselves or to other people yeah um and in jackson's case you know he's very methodical about that i mean he's just he's not a good guy no but necessary for this show because you have that the contrast right that is very true and number two even not being a good guy he's still deadpan funny you are deadpan funny are you like that in real life well thank you am i like that in real life yes no [Laughter] no nowadays with uh with let me see i had well we have a 20 20 year old son we have an 18 year old son and a 14 year old daughter and you know it's interesting because you know i i'm a dad so i guess everything i do is considered dad jokes and sometimes they laugh but they don't want to so it's really they don't want to give me the benefit that i was actually maybe a little funny you know so it's i i so i never know where i am in the scale of funny and to whom yeah okay that makes sense um thank you for asking you're welcome i don't want to give away your portion of this film but how do i say this getting hurt on camera since you've done it many times um is there an art form to it or just i mean this time around the look on your face when what happens happened right honestly it was just you're you're almost in shock do you know what i mean yes well um is there an art form i think yes sure absolutely uh because we are you know physicalizing um we're physicalizing the the dialogue and and you know the emotions not just in the eyes but sometimes in the body and i suppose you know the good thing with um having been a martial artist from most of my life and and still staying active is that i've had a lot of at least i can put this to use i've had a lot of accidents and injuries so you know the one thing good about that is i can relate to the characters a lot of times that i play you know when they get hurt or whatever um i know what pain is like you know all too well so um you know the sense memory comes up although you know some of the things my characters go through obviously i'm still alive so i i don't quite know but you know with pain and just you know being around for uh a while now i can i can use my imagination and uh sort of connect the dots yeah let's talk about the martial arts training i was watching uh an instagram video uh where you were just i mean it's amazing at what you can do at any age you know so how how regimented is your workout um how difficult is it for you at this point how do you change it up at times i i love that question um first thank you and you know the thing is i i have to in terms of my self-discipline for for training uh so i shall confess admit it is not easy it's really easy to not to not train it's super easy and i've done it for short periods of time and i've always paid the price because so much of my work is physical so um you know i try not to do that but i have to say that i've had the advantage the great advantage of having not just a father but a mother as as martial arts teachers i mean parents and martial arts teachers and so i grew up with them and you know my my father taught my mom and they both taught me and my mom was sort of a built-in um drill sergeant um she was like boot camp but every day of life i mean allison if you go on my instagram these there's some spots i don't know where you've uh if you've seen it but she's uh she's hardcore she was ranked as one of them as the number one fighter and former competitor in the usa for four or five years first woman on the cover of black belt and so her um imagine you know she her attitude was that if you take second place and she didn't mean to put down anybody else but if you take second place you're still a loser so so that's what i grew up with right and and mom could back it up i mean look i was 15 i was 15 and 16 years old and we i grew up in germany and went to germany and she would have me run in the forest to buy our house before school five days a week right wow i'm 15 years old 16 i'm pretty fit it's um a little humiliating but also very inspiring to have your mom run past you [Laughter] she was faster and in better condition than me it was crazy so who do i talk to about that i mean i'm picturing i'm picturing in my head you know people are like oh my italian mother with the spoon and she came at you with the spoon and then i'm thinking what was it like for mark growing up if that was his mom i take off before her and i'm trying to do my best because it's just like how much how much can my ego take i'm like you know only the footprints of of rabbits in the snow you know the big the the big uh evergreen trees and it was beautiful and then i hear this coming up behind me and i'm trying to do my best and then mom just zooms by me and i'm like you know bad words in my mind ha but anyway she was incredibly inspiring and to this day at uh let me see she's 78 or 79 it's really nice it's really strange because um my mom still has a six-pack so i don't know it's the weirdest thing because i've never seen that on you know a grandma before you know so that anyway so that was that that's my role model that's who brought me up is she still beating you i don't even want to try you know after that after that time you know i went off and i lived my life and i don't even want to try because probably she could which would be really cool video but like come on mom let me win [Laughter] um okay so um one of the things that was interesting when i posted our last a picture of our last interview together for one night in bangkok yeah yes thank you um is that people kept saying the chairman oh my god i love the chairman how often do you get that ah well you know it varies i guess it kind of goes in waves while we were in the middle of our run it would be interesting because i would get like um these young hip surfer dudes that uh you know um i remember uh i was getting some new shoes and this very young cool surfer dude was helping me and he said hey the chairman you know so that was like okay that demographic and then um these these big big tough guys that um you know the gas station you know filling up and i think they were gonna like you know beat my ass or something and then go hey we love that secret ingredient last night i'm like what and of course you don't know which episode aired last night so you don't know what the secret is whatever it was great you're right 100 great ingredient but you know so the great thing about iron chef is that uh we have this huge demographic of of kids liking you know liking food and the colors and the antics um and then and then adults in middle age and older people so it you know it's it was really fun because you know i found that a lot of people um like the show so how often you know um it varies you know when i when i forget about it then it pops back up you know so it's fun it was a it was a great a great show to be a part of and boy did i eat well i mean imagine i was getting paid to sit there and eat some fantastic cuisine all these incredible dishes and i didn't have to judge so after you know whether you know whether an iron chef won or every now and then a challenger chef everybody was okay with me but the judges they took the heat [Laughter] well i don't want to take up any more of your time but thank you for talking with me and attack on va 33 where and when can they see it yes uh let me see i have it right here oh let's see i didn't mean to put it on the spot april 2nd uh uh is in theaters and vod april 6.

fantastic coming up thanks again alison thank you so much it was a blast yes bye bye hit like smash subscribe and get notified for whenever reviews interviews and news go live you