So many fighters you see on TV or the web are outsized personalities who are about as subtle as a double leg takedown and the resulting body slam to the mat, but when I spoke to Randy Couture on the phone recently, I was struck by his quiet confidence and thoughtful approach to his film and fighting career. He knows he can’t go on fighting professionally forever and he’s not going to wait around to get the boot. When he’s not training for his next fight, which has not been decided yet, he’s spending his time running his gym, meeting people in the film industry, reading scripts, studying acting and “adding tools to his tool belt.”

The Fighter, The Legend

30 NINJAS: What is your proudest moment as a fighter? Do you have one in particular or do you have two?

RANDY COUTURE: Well I’ve been in a unique position in my career (from the outset) where I was counted out and everyone’s doubted, because of my age and I think that in a lot of ways because of the wrestling — wrestling didn’t get a lot of kudos as a martial arts or a martial arts status until this sport came around — so I had a unique situation at least four times in my career, where no one expected me to come out victorious, and that’s made for some pretty unique situations. Obviously, the most notable was against Tim Sylvia. Not only was I coming off of a year retirement at 40+ years old, but ya know, the physical differences between Tim and me were pretty stark. Tim at 6’ 8” 285 lbs and me at 6’ 1” 220 made for a pretty interesting fight, and that crowd. At the time it was a North American record for the sport that from the opening of the fight until the end never sat down and the most amazing last ten seconds of any fight that I can remember with that countdown.

30 NINJAS: Would you say that’s your most difficult fight as well

RC: No most difficult was definitely the first time I fought Pedro Rizzo, a Brazilian guy who was signed to a new big contract. I was heavyweight champion at the time, and they wanted to set me up. It was one of the instances where they thought I was going to lose to Pedro and it was a back and forth five round brawl — I won the first, he won the second, I won the third and forth he won the fifth. It was a back and forth and we were both beat to crap by the end of that fight. Definitely the toughest fight I’ve ever been in.

An Expendables Kill Count of 26

30 NINJAS: What’s the biggest action sequence in The Expendables that your MMA fans have to look forward to? What’s your favorite moment?

RC: Ya know, I haven’t seen the movie so it’s hard for me to say if I have a favorite. I know there is some interesting stuff at the end that’s very physical that I think people are gonna like a lot. I think ultimately, when its all said and done, I’m responsible for 26 people dying in the movie and about half of those are all done hand to hand, so I get to do a lot of cool stuff and a lot of cool fight scenes. I was really happy with the big monologue that I got in the movie, again Stallone wrote it with me in mind, all of my wrestling buddies are gonna get a big kick out of it, and I hope everybody likes it. I haven’t seen it yet but I’ve heard good things about it and I’m excited about that, and it’s a chance for me to actually act, ya know. It’s not just physical [and fighting], I’m actually playing a character.

30 NINJAS: Cool. Chad said that one of the things the movie did best was not just loosening up all of these fighters, bringing humor and banter to the dialogue, but also giving guys like Jason Statham a romantic storyline. It sounds like you have real emotional things to deal with in the film as well.

RC: Yeah, exactly. It’s just like people, we all have our quirks or things that make us unique individuals and that comes out both in our fighting styles in the movie and in our personalities. It’s definitely a guy’s movie where he’s got a group of friends who sit around and play poker or do anything, maybe it’s rugby on the weekend, whatever it is that they do together, and they harass the shit out of each other. They’re constantly teasing each other, poking each other, that’s just the way guys are and this movie captures that tight group of guys.

So About Those Rumors …

30 NINJAS: IMDB lists your next film as Jax of Heart is that right?

R.C.: What is it called?

30 NINJAS: (Laughs) Jax of Heart with Hayden Christian, it says you’re shooting in China …

R.C.:No, I don’t know anything about that

30 NINJAS: I guess it’s just a rumor. Do you have a next project in mind yet?

RC: I’m looking for one. Since my last fight with Coleman I’ve been looking to take a lot of meetings, I’ve read a lot of scripts and met with a lot of interesting people who seem to hopefully be interested in putting me in something. We’re trying to make smart decisions and pick the right characters and the right projects but we haven’t found or signed that deal but it’s gonna be the next thing behind The Expendables. We’re still working on it.

30 NINJAS: Yeah, that’s what they always try to do, line up your next project while the hype of your current movie is going on. I suppose you don’t really want to keep fighting forever.

RC: I can’t. If it worked out, I mean, I’d love to keep fighting forever but it’s just not gonna happen. It’s not physically possible and I’ve pushed it about as far as anybody could possibly push it. I realize that, rationally I’ve got to find something else to do. Athletics opened this door about six years ago and the last two years I’ve tried to really take it seriously, ya know, getting coaches, studying and trying to develop tools and put them in the tool belt, so to speak. I want to really play characters and stay away from being a fighter in a fight movie and really find the right roles. I had a great experience carrying the ball with Scorpion King 2, and even though that was straight to DVD it was really fun to do that genre and be one of the central figures. Then working with David Mamet was a huge boost and a blast.

30 NINJAS: That must have been amazing. People who have been acting their whole lives would kill to work with David Mamet!

RC: Yeah, I mean I had no idea, all of this stuff has been way outside the box for me. I just went in on a cold read to read for a part, I was reading for a lead but it was a great experience, and then David showed up on the read to work with me specifically. He’s a fan and a practitioner himself, so I got to spend time with him and the read went really, really well. I had no idea who he was but I had heard of some of the movies he had done, but that was the extent of my knowledge about him. A whole bunch of other people fell off of their stool when I said, “Oh yeah, I got to read with David Mamet today.” Obviously spending time with him, both on the set and through the media promotion for Redbelt, was a huge eye-opening experience. He’s so dang smart. Just listening to his perspective and the way he answered questions — it was like going to school; it was like being in class. I just listened and listened and listened and tried to take it all in. It was very cool.

But About That Next Fight …

30 NINJAS:I think he’s a genius with language, I grew up going to his plays and he’s incredible. But just to switch back to fighting for a minute, you’re not finished with fighting though right? You’re going to be doing a couple more fights?

RC: I’ve got four more on the contract but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to fight four more times. I’m heavily in the process of making this transition. I think The Expendables is going to be a big boost for this part of my career. I don’t want to be that guy that everyone is whispering about behind his back, saying “uuuhhh he should retire.” I mean, I feel great, I’m having great performances and getting better as an athlete but I don’t want to stay too long. I want to go out while the gettin’s good and transition to this.

30 NINJAS: Is there any one person who you want to fight before you leave?

RC: I was never one of those guys who had a hit list, but obviously I pined away, and kinda flew in the face of the UFC, trying to make the Fedor fight happen for over a year. I had to come to terms with that and realize that it was probably never gonna happen. The best guy in the 205 weight class is Lyota Machida and no one has figured out how to beat him and those are the kind of match ups that are interesting and intriguing to me. It’s what it’s all about, ya know? Our pieces are on the board and we play the game and see how things come out. That’s the challenge; that’s the intrigue.

30 NINJAS: Have you heard any news from Gina Carano? She’s also making the transition into acting and movies, and I know she’s trained at your gym.

RC: I haven’t talked to her in a while but I know that she’s in the Soderbergh movie and it’s my understanding that it’s going fantasticly. Brett represents her as well and we share an acting coach but I haven’t spoken with her.

30 NINJAS: Do you think she’ll fight again?

RC: You know, I’d be surprised. I think that as talented as and amazing as she’s been as an athlete and a fighter, I think that this is something that treats her better. I think that this is gonna be a huge success for her.

30 NINJAS: What was the most difficult thing about working on The Expendables?

RC: I didn’t find anything difficult except the adjustment to working nights for nine weeks straight in New Orleans, but you got in the groove that’s just the way it was. If we had had to flip back and forth a couple times it would have been a real, real challenge. We were pretty much nights the whole 9 weeks I was there.

30 NINJAS: Excellent, well thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me and good luck with everything.

RC: I think in a lot of ways I’m like Dwayne Johnson and so many other athletes that have made the transition. It’s all about getting someone to take a chance on ya, give you the opportunity to prove that you can do it and overcoming the stigma that everyone just looks at you as an athlete and as a fighter.

30 NINJAS: Yeah, well it sounds like The Expendables is a great opportunity that you can take advantage of. I really look forward to seeing it.

RC: Yeah, I grew up on those kind of movies and found that I was pinching myself on the set, saying is this real? Ya know?

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