Kickin’ ass, frighting fish, writing scripts
When giant piranhas are on the loose and you need someone to eradicate them, Barry Williams and Tiffany will only get you so far. That is where Paul Logan comes in. The actor with martial arts training (and a degree in bio-chemistry) stars as the hero in Syfy’s latest creature feature, Mega Piranha, airing on Saturday, April 10 at 9 PM EST.
Mr. Logan, who has also starred in MegaFault and The Terminators, spoke with Shock Till You Drop about the challenges of acting opposite non-existent entities, swimming with sharks, his acting background and more.
Shock Till You Drop: Have you always been a fan of genre movies or is it just the way your career trajectory has taken you?
Paul Logan: I love doing action. Also, I’ve been doing martial arts since I was 13 years-old, and whether you’re fighting off bad guys or big giant monsters, it’s something that’s helpful. And I love being the hero so it’s something that I sort of gravitate towards.
Shock: Do you feel like you have found a good niche for yourself with the films you’ve been doing lately?
Logan: Syfy has liked me lately, so I’ve been honored to do a couple things with them. The Syfy guys have been great to me and I enjoy working with them. It’s a lot of great exposure.
Shock: Since there is a lot of CGI in these movies, is acting in them harder than it might appear on the surface?
Logan: Oh Definitely. It is definitely its own animal because you’re acting and reacting and sometimes interacting with nothing. Or maybe just a tennis ball on a stick for focus purposes. This stuff [the CGI] is put in a month or two afterwards sometimes. You have to have a really good imagination and a good idea of the space, which includes what you’re reacting to, where it actually is, and then keeping it constant. A lot of times people will react to something, turn away for a second, then react to it again in a different spot, and it doesn’t work. You always have to know where this thing “is,” and just react to. It’s also different because sometimes you don’t even know what this thing is going to look like. Maybe they haven’t even come up with a concept of the creature or of whatever it is until afterwards. You have to make sure you and the director are on the same page.
Shock: The press release for Mega Piranha describes you and your co-stars forming an “unusual alliance.â Why do you think they chose to phrase it that way?
Logan: Well here’s the thing. My character is a Navy Seal who goes to investigate a disappearance. The movie starts off with an American ambassador and a Venezuelan ambassador on a yacht. They venture into an area of a river where giant piranhas have escaped to. Literally all of the people on the boat and the boat get eaten. There’s nothing left. We’re not sure if it’s terrorists or if the boat exploded or if they’ve been kidnapped. My boss at the State Department, played by Barry Williams, sends me down to find out what’s going on before an international incident happens. He’s the Trautman to my Rambo. So you have that relationship. Then I team up with the scientists who created these things to help destroy them. You have a scientist, a Secretary of Defense, and a Navy Seal working together to try and stop giant piranhas from growing and eating everything in sight.
Shock: The poster shows an enormous piranha devouring an aircraft carrier. Do they actually get that big?
Logan: When I first confront some of them in a river, they are about two-feet long. They start growing exponentially and by the end of the film they are the size of whales. They’re huge. There’s a scene where they take out a submarine. And I actually got to choreograph some of my fight scenes with them, and I did my own stunts.
Shock: How was filming in Belize? Did you not get to enjoy it because you were always working?
Logan: I enjoyed Belize and it was great being down there. The funny thing about this whole movie is my only phobia is sharks. I got the script, read it and knew that I was going to have to scuba dive. I’d never done it before. So we shot most of it here [in Los Angeles] and then went to Belize, and the scuba experience was really interesting. I got a four-day crash course in scuba diving in two days. Normally you learn how to use the regulator and all that in a pool. Here not so much. This was in fifteen feet of ocean. So I’m out there in the middle of the ocean and the Jaws music is playing in the back of my head. On the second day we were out by a reef, and I see this tail sticking out. I knew it was not an eel. Out swims a five-and-a-half foot nurse shark. Nurse sharks don’t really have big teeth or attack you, but seeing that shape underwater when you have a shark phobia is daunting. It swam around us for a little while and then swam away. The next day I came across a six-and-a-half footer. I swam up next to it and had the dive master take a picture with an underwater camera. My friends would never believe me otherwise.
Shock: Now that you have done it would you be at all apprehensive about filming in water again?
Logan: It will always be a big deal because I will have that phobia, at least a little bit. Honestly though by the third day down there we did seven dives. We were diving all day long. They were calling me “Underwater Rambo” by the end of the day. It was great. I’m pretty athletic and a good swimmer; I just don’t like things that can eat me.
Shock: What’s in the future for you? Do you have anything lined up?
Logan: I’ve got a couple things coming out. There’s a film I did last year called Ballistica that’s coming out. It’s a best-of-the-best of the CIA and we’re trying to stop terrorists from bringing a bomb into LA. I think that’s going to be released in June. I also wrote a film called Blackgate that’s a cross between Die Hard and Shutter Island. It’s like Die Hard in an asylum.
Shock: How did writing work out for you?
Logan: I enjoy writing. I’ve written four scripts, all vehicles for me. I really don’t want to write for anybody else. [laughs] I like creating different action scenarios. I get ideas for scripts and then play around with them. I had this idea [Blackgate] for a while. These movies with psychotic killers like Friday the 13th and Halloween, they always end up fighting stupid teenagers. So I wondered what would happen if they went up against someone with training, like an ex-Special Forces guy. Basically I took this guy and he’s locked up in an asylum with all these people during a giant escape attempt. I have to fight my way through all these people with no guns. It’s a “what if” scenario and should be a fun ride. We’re in pre-production right now.
You can visit PaulLogan.net for more information about the actor and his work. For a preview of Mega Piranha follow this link!
Source: Paul Doro
