The Chilean Dragon, a.k.a. Marko Zaror (Undisputed 3: Redemption, John Wick: Chapter 4, Diablo) is “front and center and highlighting why he’s one of the best of the best in the business of kicking some serious ass on screen” (Action-Flix) in the action-packed thriller AFFINITY, debuting on Digital September 30 from Well Go USA Entertainment. Along with his action-ready co-stars Brooke Enge (Wonder Woman, Justice League), Jane Mirro (ON I Ona), and Louis Mandylor (My Big Fat Greek Wedding franchise, 3 Day in Malay), the film follows Zaror as a former SEAL suffering from PTSD, who finds a new lease on life when he rescues a beautiful woman. When she disappears, he’ll go to any lengths to get her back. AFFINITY also hits Blu-ray™ and DVD exclusively through Amazon® on September 30.
Synopsis: Chilean martial-arts star Marko Zaror is Bruno, an ex-SEAL struggling with PTSD. He lives a life in fear of his demons until one day when he discovers a beautiful woman with no past of her own. Together they begin to build a life, but when she disappears, Bruno must return to his violent past if he’s going to save her from a shocking conspiracy in this riveting, fast-paced sci-fi action film from director Brandon Slagle.
Marko stopped by to chat with us about Affinity.
I absolutely loved Affinity. What was it that drew you to the script and the project in general?
Well, this movie started from the question of, as humans we’re playing to be God, we’re experimenting with cloning and all that, but also with robotics and AI. And soon we’re not going to know who was born in an official way, or was replicated or created, right? But the question then goes, are we going to be able to replicate Affinity? Are we going to be able to replicate the emotional connection between two human beings? And that’s what triggers this movie. I have this concept, and then I was like, oh, let’s put together a story, we could do it. And I put together a group of writers, and we start writing the script and that’s how it started. It started from that kind of wanting to talk about that and put it into an action movie, so it’s a lot of nice fun, nice, nice challenge.
Even though there is still a lot of action in the movie, what I also got from it is that it is at its core a love story.
Oh, yeah, it’s a love story, because if we’re going to talk about Affinity and the emotional connection between two human beings, that is the question, right? Like, I needed to show it in the movie, I needed to make sure the movie has that affinity between the family members. How this friendship that he develops with Louis and with Brooke, and so people can see that relationship; that’s something unique that you cannot replicate, right? And then the same thing when this girl happens and arrives, that connection, that affinity that they develop with the moments that they spend together is exactly what you cannot replicate. And that’s why, I don’t want to give spoilers, but that triggers the question of the movie, like he develops this thing that is so strong, so precious, and suddenly is taken away from him. Then you’re presented at the end of the movie with this question when we meet the villain and we understand the full story, right?
Back onto the fight scenes, and this movie has some fantastic fights, and of course you have two great fights with Brahim, who’s one of the best in the business. Can you talk about working on some of those fights and working with Brahim as well?
Yeah, well, each fight scene is treated differently in the script, and I wanted to use as much as possible the Thai team, because I’ve never worked with them. I’ve worked before in a smaller movie, but not the same as this one, but this is the first time that I have the opportunity to interact with the stunt team from Thai and co-create things together. I wanted to let them do a lot in terms of coming with the ideas and type of fighting, so then I can absorb that and then, turn it into my style and turn it into the way that I like to move by using older knowledge and older style, right? So, and what we try is to, in each fight, every fight was kind of treated differently because the character was going through different things, different stages in the movie.
So, well, by the time I arrived with Brahim, that we have two fights in the movie, and they’re both so different. If you realize, they’re treated differently, they’re shot differently because the character was going through different things, so for me, it was a luxury to work with him. He’s an amazing martial artist. He has so much experience. He’s a coordinator, fight director, he knows. And when we met, we said, “well, let’s take it to the next level. Let’s try to do this. Let’s challenge ourselves”. So, that final fight was very tough, was very intense and very ambitious to accomplish because the way it was shot makes things very complicated, to make it look good, so it was very fun to take that challenge.
Because he’s from a martial arts background, do you find it’s easier and more creative whenever you’re working with someone who comes from a martial arts background rather than trying to get someone to do a fight team who has no training whatsoever?
Oh, of course, it’s a world of difference. It makes all the difference that it makes sometimes to come up with something that is memorable and good versus, ah, this is a fight scene, another fight scene, because you can experiment, you can try new things, you can push it to the next level with camera work, with everything. When you’re not fighting a martial artist or someone that has experience, a lot of experience, you’re very limited of what you can do, because you cannot do too long takes because if you do a long take, the person is not coordinated enough or doesn’t have the knowledge to adapt or improvise, if something goes wrong in the take or there’s many things that you got to take in consideration. Then you do a long take and if one technique doesn’t work, then the whole long take is ruined. So, then you need to be safe on how much you can push your actor to do a fight scene. You need to first know his abilities, and understand, OK, this guy, it’s real training so we can go for it or no, we just take it easier and we cut it in sections and we can do shorter cuts and still can look good. But you cannot just explore different alternatives of shooting and be creative.
How was director Brandon Slagle to work with?
He was very cool, very nice, very supportive of the project. He knew the idea that I had with this movie, so he totally helped in putting this movie together and putting the team together. So, it was great to work with him.
To me, this film was like very artistic; I thought the music and the visuals, even just those opening credits were absolutely gorgeous. Did you have any say into how you wanted that to look?
Yeah, actually, that’s all like I wrote the script with a very clear vision of how I wanted to shoot the movie. I was very specific on well, who helps me there was Ernesto Diaz. He’s my director from all my movies, Fist of the Condor, Diablo. Well, back in the day from Kiltro and Mirage Man. So, I’ve learned everything that I’ve learned in movies from him and the influences and the movies we used to like when we watch movies like David Lynch or Takashi Miike and all the influences. So, I wanted to make this movie with that kind of vibe where you’re watching the film, but there’s always a feeling of maybe there’s something else happening that I don’t know that there’s over there, but I’m not too sure when the girl shows up, oh, she’s good, she’s bad. That ambiguity, that thing that is created by the music, by the atmospheres, by the lighting, so I wanted to use those elements. That was very specific on how I wanted to shoot every scene. The camera needed to be from the perspective of Bruno. So, all the time where you see Bruno is arriving somewhere or you are arriving with him, you’re all the time that the audience is understanding the story and the journey through his point of view. And that was very specific so, that if you put the right sounds, the right music, you start creating a ride that is different. Like you’re there with the character. You’re not ahead of him, right? You’re not discovering things that he doesn’t know yet. So, you’re living the experience from his point of view. So, that was a big challenge for this movie. I wanted to explore that.
Bruno’s going through a lot in this movie, mentally and physically How do you prepare mentally to step into the character’s shoes?
Yeah, for me I do some research about these different traumas and the physical feelings. I always enter from physical to psychological. So, because of my martial arts, I guess I learn how to walk, how he walks. I try to discover the physical movements that makes him the character. And then I start getting into more of the emotional state where I use a lot of music to open the emotions and to be vulnerable. And then I just try to connect with the story and be in the present and let the feelings flow and connect with what’s going on.
What did you personally take away from working on the film? Did you learn anything from working on it?
Yeah, well, for me, it was a learning experience because it was the first time that I had the opportunity to be such in control and have a lot of input on decisions that from the pre-production to the post-production. It’s very cool to experience that and learn all the processes on the music and the editing and then the right sound, the sound mix; all that for me was a very great learning experience to be able to have a vision in your head and then put it in the movie. But what I’ve learned now that I ask this question, your question, sometimes you let you need to understand that the movie has his own life. I have this project, I have the script, but the project from the moment it was in the script to the final product, it has a lot of mutations. I’ve learned sometimes that if you learn to listen to those things, the product can become much better and much more attractive if you stay connected of what you want, but you also let the possibility to things adapt or move. So, I realized that the movie experiment, a lot of changes through the process of making the movie. Like for, to give you an example, the movie was thought to be shot in an island at the beach. So, my character is supposed to be living in a beach shack, right, at the beach. And he was to be a fisherman instead of in a restaurant and instead of living next to the river. When that option came, I thought about it and then I went to see the locations and actually it was even better. Like the look was more, the atmosphere of the river was different vibe than if I’m in the beach, like with the sun, it would be a different movie just because of that change of location. I’m glad that happened, so things like that, you learn that sometimes you cannot be so stuck on one idea. You also need to learn how to maybe absorb, see, be aware. And then suddenly you start picking up things that you’d even never thought before, but you adapt, like the master said, flow like water (laughs).
I feel like the next step is for you to fully direct a movie. Are you interested in directing something soon?
Well, to be honest, not for now. I like to work with my team. I like to play roles and direct fights. I like the action directing, but yeah, like in the future. This was a beautiful experience, in this movie to be part of co-directing and making all these decisions. I like that, but I also like to be directed, by a good director, enjoy the product, the making of it. But I do like to be part of the decisions and bring my vision into a movie, you know?
Before you go, is that your energy drink you’re drinking there? Scott Adkins was talking about it last time I spoke to him,
Yeah. Yeah. This is Ki-Way.
I’ve got to pick that up. I’m in Canada, so I don’t know if we can get it here.
You can get it through Amazon in the United States. I don’t know if they deliver over there. They might do.
Try, see if you can get it because we’re trying to grow and expand to different places. So, hopefully soon, but I know it’s in Amazon in the U S. This is good to train and it doesn’t give you the chills. It’s all natural. I created from a fruit here in Chile in Patagonia, the maki berry and I mix it with a guarana seed. So, something that keeps me going, gives me energy, but doesn’t take me away of like the focus, you know?
Yeah, I’ll try to pick so up for sure. Last question. What would you like audiences to take away from Affinity?
I just want them to enjoy the ride and I did this movie with a lot of love. It means so much to me this movie and hopefully they have a good time watching the movie and at least they can get emotional. For me, this is more a story of seeing fighting. Of course, there’s a lot of fighting, but at the same time, there’s a lot of humanity in the movie and that was the idea. And hopefully that triggers questions to the people watching the movie. If not, they just can have a good, fun ride watching some fight scenes, but, yeah, the story was a bit more complex. I’m happy and thankful for the support and that the people are reacting very good to the movie, you know? So that’s very cool.
Well, that’s two great action pictures from you this year. You’ve got this one and Diablo, both two of my favorites of the year.
Awesome. Oh, wow. Thank you, man. Really appreciate it. They’re so different though, right?
They are.
They’re like worlds apart. I’m the villain, this no hearted guy in Diablo and the other one is so different. It was fun to explore these two extremes.
Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today and all the best with the film. We’ll chat with you again soon, hopefully.
Thanks for the support, man.
My pleasure. Take care.