Usually cast as a bad guy or a menacing henchman who gets to square off with an action star (think of his fight with Jason Statham in Parker, 2013, for instance), Daniel Bernhardt himself has run the gamut of being an action star in his own right, having taken over the lead in the three sequels to Bloodsport, and then continued to accrue a very impressive body of work that continues strong to this day. Recent bad guy / henchman roles include John Wick (2014), Ballerina (2025), and the two Nobody (2022, 2025) movies, but he’s back in a big way with the new reboot of the old Roger Corman-produced Deathstalker films. Starring as the titular rapscallion barbarian, Bernhardt brings his own flavor to the role, as reimagined by cult filmmaker Steven Kostanski (Psycho Goreman, 2020). Filled to the brim with sword fights, demonic hellspawn, sorcery, practical effects, and gore galore Deathstalker is a loving ode to the fantastical sword and muscles genre that permeated the movie market in the 1980s.
I was so happy to hear that you were cast as Deathstalker. The announcement brought me some joy, let me tell you. I’m a big fan of the Deathstalker movies. It’s a beautifully unconventional franchise to reignite after all these years. Tell me how this happened.
Yes, it’s very beautiful, and I’m very lucky. I got a call from a producer, who goes, “Hey, Daniel. We’re making this movie called Deathstalker. Have you heard of it?” I said, “Of course I’ve heard of it. Roger Corman produced those. I love those ’80s movies.” He goes, “Well, our director Steven Kostanski would love for you to play the lead.” I go, “That’s amazing: I’m in!” I didn’t even need to see a script. I was in. He puts me on the phone with Steven, and he goes, “Hey, Daniel, I really love your work, and I really love you in Mortal Kombat: Conquest.” That’s why he cast me – he loved the character I played in Conquest. Then he started pitching me the story and starts telling me about the monsters and the action he wants to do and the gore and the blood and the practical effects and the stop motion, and I was like, “C’mon! I’m in!” He said, “Well, don’t you want to read the script?” I said, “Of course I want to read the script, but I’m in!” We just went on this journey together and we had the most amazing time.
It’s not every day that you get to be a barbarian!
I loved to be a barbarian!
I just saw Nobody 2 a few weeks ago and there’s a little sword versus machete fight between you and RZA, but you haven’t really done a sword movie since your movie G2, and that was many years ago. Talk about picking up a sword again and learning all the sword choreography for this.
That’s what you think, that I haven’t done swords! I do swords all the time. Sword fighting is something that we do. I work out at a place called 87/11, with Chad Stahelski, and we always do sword fighting. This is something that I’ve always loved. I train with swords probably once or twice a week. Just for fun. Sword fighting is something that I love and enjoy. Doing this was very easy for me.
So you keep sharp!
I keep sharp! Yes, I do! (Laughing.)
Steven Kostanski is quite a filmmaker. His movies have a distinct wackiness and sense of fun that is very unique to him. I’ve seen all his movies. Talk about working with him.
He is such a great director. I loved working with him. He created this beautiful environment. I came very prepared, and when I come to set I always know all my lines. But Steven, he was so open to ideas. If I said, “Hey, what do you think about this?” He goes, “Oh, that was funny. Try something else.” He would let me play around. He would throw things at me that he wanted me to do, and he was just a gem to work with. He was very open about the fight scenes with me, and, you know, he knew that’s my world, so he let me bring in two of my guys, Lee and Shane, who helped me, who were our fight choreographer, coordinator, supervisors who helped us out with all the fights, because they know how I fight. They’re incredible sword fighters, so they taught me, actually, a lot. It was amazing.
Awesome. Tell me some more about just being in that world of Abraxion. I know you guys are shooting on sets, and you’re doing things to simulate that world, but I mean, Abraxion felt very kind of apocalyptic in a way, and that was really cool to see, especially those opening scenes in the film. Tell me about working in that environment.
You know, I think that’s a lot of Steven. He had such a clear vision about this movie. He scouted this movie, we shot this in Canada, but he found, like, this location that really looked like … like, apocalyptic, like you were saying. And then, I’ve got to give a lot of credit to our DP, Andy. He smoked it. When we shot the film, he already had the filters built, and he knew how he wanted the film to look like, each scene. And so he showed it to me when we were doing it, and I got an idea what they were actually looking for. So this whole movie was from incredible teamwork between all the departments. Wardrobe was amazing. The fight guys were amazing. The director was incredible, the DP, I mean, it was just this incredible world we put together. And it was a small movie, but we … I think we knocked it out of the park, you know? And we’re getting a theatrical release, you know that, right?
Yeah! You guys just made the announcement today that you’re going to be at Beyond Fest.
Right? Yeah.
That’s fantastic. I love how the film is just so over the top, you know? Say something about shooting some of that gore, those gore sequences, and working with these incredible makeup effects, just incredible. I mean, that, to me, that’s the main selling point of the movie, is the incredible amount of gore and creature effects in the film.
Yeah, and that, again, that’s all Steven. I mean, a lot of credit to Steven, and when I signed up for this film, he told me that I was going to fight real monsters, and there was a scene where I fought a guy … I fought a guy with two heads, and we put a little martial arts in there, I put in a spinning hook kick. And, you know, I’ve got to give a lot of credit to those guys. You know, there was a guy in the suit. He had, like, a little peephole he could look through, and he had to do a whole fight scene like this. It was, I mean, I had the easy job. They had the hard job. So, you know, in a lot of other films, it’s all CGI. You fight somebody in a green suit, but I actually saw the monster I’m fighting here. So that gives you so much as an actor. I’m looking at this guy, and he’s got the weird face, and the crooked teeth, and slime running down. It’s amazing. It’s very unique.
Do you have a favorite moment, favorite memory of shooting the movie?
What was very special was actually our first day. The first shot we did is the opening of the film. When Steven said to me, “Daniel, I want to run something by you. Is it okay if I don’t show your face?” I said, “Of course, you’re the director, it’s your movie. You do whatever you want to do, but I think it’s a great idea.” He just didn’t want to show my face until we’re in the tavern. In that first fight scene, we rehearsed very, very, very hard, because we knew in that first scene, we’ve got to show everybody, the whole crew, how we want this to be. And Steven just blew it out of the park. And the stunt guys blew it out of the park. I fought the Dreadites, I had this fight scene with the three Dreadites, and it was tough for those guys. You know, they’re real guys in suits, and they’re fighting me, and I’m fast, and these guys have to move fast in those suits.
Say something about staying in shape while you’re on a film where you’re the lead versus, you know, you show up for a week or two weeks or whatever for these henchman role type of things that you’ve been doing for the last 10 years. Being the lead of the film, staying in shape at the same time, how tough is that?
So, it’s not really that hard for me, because I always keep myself at, like, a 75-80% being in shape. So when I get a film, it takes me usually a couple of weeks to train. But for this film, it was very unique, because I wanted to get bigger. So I trained really, really hard, like, bodybuilding, I did a lot of weightlifting, ate a lot of protein to gain size, I went up to 220 pounds, which was really fun to be, and then my secret was, before each scene, I had my weights on set, and I would just pump. I would just pump, I would do push-ups, I would do all my things, and then put a little tan on it, a little cream, make myself look nice, and that was it. It’s all movie magic.
Well, you’re the magic, and I knew that as soon as they announced you as the star of the film. I’ve been on your team since the very beginning, since the way back days.
Thank you.
So, Daniel, let me ask you just some incidental questions about your taste in sword and sorcery films. Give me, like, your all-time sword and sorcery movies.
I think one of my favorites is The Lord of the Rings. I love The Beastmaster, it’s really fun, and, you know, look: Conan. I mean, I grew up watching that. I’m a big Arnold fan. I love Conan, and then, of course, Deathstalker, but now, the new Deathstalker is one of my favorites. Is that terrible to say? One of my own movies?
What’s coming up? What am I missing? You’ve got something else significant coming up, right?
Yeah, I got a couple of things, but I usually don’t want to talk about the things that I have coming up. I just want to keep the focus on Deathstalker. I’m super stoked that we’ve got this movie coming out in theaters October 10th. I’ve got a film coming out called Nightingale. I have another big film coming out, but that one I don’t want to talk about yet. I’m a very lucky guy, I’m still in the game. I’ve been doing this for 30 years, but let’s go Deathstalker!