RON SMOORENBURG

Q&A WITH

RON SMOORENBURG

Ron Smoorenburg is a Dutch martial artist, actor and choreographer. He is both an actor and action choreographer for Borrowed Time (Denard 3). Discovered by Jackie Chan in 1998, Smoorenburg’s talent shines through on the screen.

Tell us about your background and your role in the film. In 1997 I recorded the highest kick in martial arts (11 feet). In 1998 I was discovered by Jackie Chan to do the final fight scene in his movie Who am I?. It was tough, as I was young and it was my first action movie ever. I had to fight one of the most demanding action stars ever and the pressure you get from all directions is immense. As masterful as Jackie is, he makes up choreography on the spot, so after he shows you a fight combo and a few minutes later the cameras are rolling. You have to perform the moves full speed with the right timing and precision. You can sometimes overthink the combination scenes. I’m grateful to have this pressure, as good things in life don’t come easy and I am learning from one of the best teachers I could ask for.

I essentially gave up basic life and took the risk to move to Asia. I’ve been fortunate to have worked with many action stars who are all different in their speed, power and technique. If I can give you a few examples: Scott Adkins is super controlled with very good power, Tony Jaa hits hard so you don’t need to act, Steven Seagal and Donnie Yen were great to work with, JCVD is really nice as and takes care of you on set extremely well, Gary Daniels is such a gentleman and tough at the same time. One day I’ll write a book about it all.

In Borrowed Time I play Jay Petersen, an old friend of Franck Denard. I help him on his quest when he arrives in Thailand where I live. What attracted me to this role is the fact that this character I play is unlike other villain characters I have played before. Alan Delabie knew my wish to play a good guy and he made it happen when he cast me. This role is a game changer for me. I have to say this is quite rare, as not many actors share good-guy parts in a movie. I think my full potential is really met here to be honest. It sets me up for other roles like this ,but it all started with Borrowed Time. We are really good friends in real life as well and I want to bring out something beautiful and sincere in the film.

Describe the movie from your point of view. Borrowed Time is a unique story of an antihero, not your typical hero that you see in many movies. It portrays the underdog in the character Frank Denard (Alan Delabie) and the actions he had to take. I think people can identify with this character maybe even more than with most of the heroes on screen today. The movie has that motivational aspect that is often seen in movies of the 80s. Even the music during the training sequences is in that style. Alan is really good in this style, as he has so much experience from back in the day. You can only create this feeling if you know what it really is. What is it like coordinating the fight scenes? There’s a difference between a normal fight scene and a martial arts fight scene. One of the trends now is to make fights more realistic. Some camera operators use shaky cameras, which works if people can’t fight but it’s a disaster for fans of martial arts. Martial arts is an art, so you don’t want to blur away. When you look at Jackie Chan movies there isn’t much camera movement, so the focus is on longer takes and stunts. I like a kind of video-game style, which is dynamic camera movement, interacting with the movements of the performers; with more flow you can clearly see what’s happening, feel the pain when there’s a close up or hard fall in full frame. The hard part is sometimes to get the best of both , get good visuals but still keep it realistic. I think they did a great job with this in the movie Extraction.

What was it like shooting in Thailand? Thailand has a lot of advantages as a location because you have a mix of beautiful landscapes as well as urban areas, which can be both gritty or luxurious. Chinatown has some great old temples, alleys and amazing skylines. Budget-wise you can get a lot things done with the right production team. The crew, especially the stunt teams are very fast, creative and experienced. I think Thailand has even more potential with the optimization of government support and tax benefits.

What other projects do you have coming up? I’m working on my own movie, which will be a very motivational movie with a good life story. This is a very big project for me and I want to send a very strong message to the world with martial arts as the vehicle of a deeper life story. After having made our first action movie English Dogs in Bangkok we will make part 2 at the end of 2021. We are now filming Bet Dead Casino, a gritty movie about the dark web and illegal fights.

Any last words of advice? I always say “Life is action.” If you have ambitions, try to be different from the already different--this is what makes the real difference.