Episodes

Lauro David Chartrand-Del Valle has a remarkable film and television career spanning over 35 years. Having journeyed from an internationally recognized Stuntman, Coordinator, and Fight Coordinator on epic films like The Last Samurai and War for the Planet of the Apes, to directing, writing, and producing, Lauro is deeply involved in all facets of filmmaking. His work has been recognized with multiple Leo Awards, a UBCP/ACTRA Award, and a SAG Award for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt En...

With nearly 20 years of experience as a performer, Tara Macken has worked as a stunt performer, fight coordinator, stunt coordinator and action director. Tara is a 5 time SAG Award nominee for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture (The Batman, Avengers: Endgame, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Avengers: Infinity War and Furious 7), a 2 time nominee for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series (Westworld) and an Emmy nominee fo...

UFC standout turned Director, Keith Jardine, and Tait Fletcher (The Mandalorian) sit in on Film Fights with Friends to talk time loops, horror, and Jardine’s directorial debut, Kill Me Again. Written and directed by Jardine, Kill Me Again tells the story of Charlie (Brendan Fehr - Roswell, Final Destination), a notorious serial killer known as the Midnight Mangler, who finds himself trapped, reliving the same violent night over and over. Initially embracing his grisly urges, Charlie soon becomes...

Michelle Waterson-Gomez is an American former mixed martial artist, actress and stuntwoman who has competed across various organizations including Strikeforce and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). She is the former Invicta FC Atomweight Champion. Between 2013 and 2014, she was ranked the No. 1 women's atomweight fighter in the world. Waterson-Gomez holds a black belt in American freestyle karate and has also trained in wushu, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing and wrestli...

In this episode of Film Fights with Friends Steve and Paul share some of the crazier stories from their stunt careers including getting trolled after an appearance on a notorious Saturday Night Live sketch, improv gone wrong on The Punisher, calling out the leaker of Ray Donovan fight footage, a cautionary tale about working on friends’ passion projects and more! MENTIONS: SNL Safelite Sketch: https://vimeo.com/247846876 TAMMFF Film Freeway: https://filmfreeway.com/TAMMFF FILM FIGHTS WITH FRI...

Joining Film Fights with Friends is Dr. Paul Heinzelmann, a physician, former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and Producer/Director of Safe Sets: Dying to Work in the Film Industry - a feature length exploration of systemic issues impacting the health and wellbeing of film workers. This critically important documentary weaves together candid interviews with technicians, union representatives, public health experts, and notable performers (Jon Hamm and John Malkovich) with the stor...

Mark Stanton-Kelly is a London based fight coordinator, stunt performer and lead stunt double with all round onset experience and skills. Mark is experienced and known for his ability to shoot and edit previz for feature films and television. He has a varied background in martial arts, is experienced in actor training and teaching fight choreography. Among the numerous productions Mark has coordinated fights for are Black Mirror, The Agency, Meg 2: The Trench, Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania a...

Avaah Blackwell is a multilingual actor and versatile stunt performer. Classically trained in Europe, Blackwell began her career as a performer after graduating from Prague Film School's "Acting for Film" program at the top of her class. She has appeared in such productions as The Handmaid’s Tale, What We Do in the Shadows, 12 Monkeys and The Umbrella Academy. Avaah is most noted for her continued presence in the Star Trek universe including 28 episodes of Star Trek Discovery in such roles as Lt...

Tom Denier Jr. is a five-time IATSE Make Up and Hair Stylist Guild Award and four-time Emmy Award nominee. He has taken home two guild awards for his work on Saturday Night Live. Tom has worked on such noted productions as FX’s Pose, which garnered him a 2021 Emmy nod, Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), The Holdovers (2023), Werewolves Within (2021) and You Were Never Really Here (2017). Perhaps some of his most graphic and brutal fight scene make up appeared in season 6 of Showtime’s Ray Donovan and ...

Tim Gallin began his quest to perform in feature films and TV after attending CW Post College on Long Island, NY. His first professional job came by way of the Gong Show in August of 1978. He was a contestant on an Elvis Presley special because Chuck Barris was a fan of The King. After seeing his old high school football coach, Vic Magnotta performing in Taxi Driver, Tim picked up the phone and gave him a call. Magnotta was a stuntman, retired special forces soldier, and Vietnam veteran who beca...

Riley Stearns is an American Filmmaker based in Los Angeles. His film balance on the edge of real and surreal, often focusing upon darker characteristics of the teacher – student relationship. Riley has written and directed Faults (2014), Dual (2022) and his most noted feature The Art of Self Defense (2019) starring Jesse Eisenberg. Riley is a long-time martial artist himself who holds a Black Belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Our interview with Riley begins with a pivotal fight from The Art of Self ...

In this bonus episode, we look at set safety and whether the historically ‘cowboy’ culture of film sets truly permits a culture of safety. All through our first season, guests from various television and film departments repeatedly raised concerns about set safety. We dove into issues ranging from stunts, rigging, child performers, general safety, and firearms. One common thread that appeared again and again was the fact that one must always be willing to voice concerns over safety and in so doi...

In the season one finale of Film Fights with Friends, Steve and Paul sit down to review the best moments from their first 25 shows. The plan suddenly changes when episode 2 guest Joshua Todd James (screenwriter - Take Cover, Pound of Flesh) returns to crash the party and turn the spotlight on our hosts. Joshua assumes the host chair and probes our co-hosts with a revealing interview you won’t want to miss! FILM FIGHTS WITH FRIENDS Do you listen to our show as an audio podcast? Give video a try....

Military historian and weapons and armor expert Scott Boyett joins Film Fights with Friends for a comparative analysis of three films, depicting different time periods, from historic, tactical, technical, and theatrical perspectives. On the dissecting table are LAST OF THE MOHICANS (1992), WAY OF THE GUN (2000), and MOSUL (2019). Scott is a consultant for the film, television, and gaming industries. He grew up in a family of antique arms and armor dealers and mentored under one of the world’s p...

As a stunt double for Taryn Manning in the slasher horror film BLOODLINE KILLER (2024), Kristen Murphy joined an incredible stunt team to brought some complicated fights to the screen. Kristen is a professional dancer turned stunt performer. She began working in TV and film at a young age, since being signed for commercial dance at 18 years old. A native New Yorker, born and raised in Long Island, Kristen was fortunate enough to be trained by some amazingly talented professionals at "Fivestar Sp...

Actor turned Comedian turned Stuntman turned Circus Rigger turned Stunt Rigger. Born in Ortonville, Michigan, in 1971. A former school wrestling champion, Brett has since trained in swordplay, film fighting, knife throwing, bullwhip, and as an escape artist. Throughout his career, Brett has earned a plastic bone that holds his left eye in place and has fractured his femur, the largest bone in the body, completely in half. In college, Brett was a dramatic actor, performing in over a dozen Shakesp...

Rocco Nisivoccia Jr. is a Director, Producer, and Production Manager who, after film school, landed his first Production Assistant gig on Spider-Man 2 (2004) with one of the most creative pitches we have ever heard. Working his way up in the industry working through Locations (Emergence, The Sopranos, Daredevil, Jessica Jones) and Production Management (Wu-Tang: An American Saga), he directed and produced his first feature, Aliens vs. Zombies, in 2017. A rabid football fan, Rocco landed a dream ...

Larry Rosenthal is a SAG/AFTRA award winner and four-time nominated stunt coordinator/performer. He won for Best Stunt Ensemble on the television show 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland. He has been stunt performing for over 25 years and coordinating for 15. Among his coordinating credits are Austin & Ally (Disney), Pretty Freaking Scary (Disney), and Warped (Nickelodeon). Stunt coordinating young performers can be a challenging undertaking, which Larry breaks down in great detail in this interview....

Critics universally panned Wayne Kramer’s box office flop Running Scared (2006). Top critics on Rotton Tomatoes rate the film at bleak 27% while fans give the film a superior 79% rating. On IMDB, it is Kramer’s highest-rated film, with a respectable 7.3 stars. With standout performances by Paul Walker (The Fast and the Furious), Vera Farmiga (Up In the Air, The Departed), then unknown Cameron Bright (the Twilight Saga), and Chazz Palminteri (A Bronx Tale), Kramer’s gritty screenplay is brought t...

Singaporean actor, director, martial artist, stuntman and fight choreographer Sunny Pang has appeared is such films as The Night Comes for Us (2018), Buffalo Boys (2018), Diamond Dogs (2017), The Collector (2012), Exiled: The Chosen Ones (2024), and the upcoming Havoc; written and directed by Gareth Evans and starring Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant and Forest Whitaker. Sunny’s career in action film spans over 20 years. He is the founder of the Ronin Action Team. In this interview we break down the...

Preston Thomas is a lifelong martial artist and cinephile. Film Jitsu is his second feature film as a director and his first documentary. It is about the crossover between the worlds of martial arts, grappling, filmmaking, and stunts. The project’s journey has taken Preston from 87 North in Los Angeles to Breakfall Studios in New York City. He’s interviewed and trained with martial artists and stunt performers at every stage of their careers, from ambitious young hustlers making action short fil...

Paul and Steve dive into the listener mailbag to answer the question, “What is your favorite movie with terrible action and a terrible movie with great action?” On the dissection table are classic action films Ong Bak: Thai Warrior (2003); Star Wars Episode 1: Phantom Menace (1999); and two Burt Reynolds films - Heat (1986) and Shamus (1973). Which film was which? In a surprising twist, Steve and Paul also go head-to-head over the iconic Big Trouble in Little China (1986). MENTIONS Shamus IMDB:...

Happy Anderson is an actor with an extensive body of work in television and film. On the feature film side, Happy co-starred opposite Will Smith and Edgar Ramirez in David Ayer's Bright (Netflix), opposite Robert DeNiro in Taylor Hackford's The Comedian (Sony Pictures), opposite Sandra Bullock in Suzanne Bier's Birdbox (Netflix), opposite Julia Roberts and Clive Owen in Tony Gilroy's Duplicity (Universal) and again opposite Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys For Life (Sony Pictures). Hap...

Cliff Moylan was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, to an Irish father from County Clare and an Irish-American mother from County Detroit. He is best known for his portrayal of real-life hero Sergeant John MacLellan in the Peter Berg directed film Patriots Day (2017). Longtime friends Steve and Paul sit with Cliff to break down his experience playing Sergeant MacLellan, the epic Watertown shoot-out scene, and his experience working on the film. Cliff has also worked with acclaimed dir...