J: Hi Mark. This movie’s really interesting and we’ve been excited about it for a while. We’re putting interviews together for Matthewsplace.com which is our youth oriented website and we try to interview entertainment professionals, corporate people, politicians, other prominent individuals that maybe have some insight or some inspiration for people about what the world is like out there in the workplace, and what you can achieve in your careers and so on. So that’s the context. What made you feel like it was an important project to take up?

M: Well I actually didn’t know much about the project when I auditioned for it or when I got the call to audition for it, and then when I did get a chance to read the script I thought it was just a really meaningful story that probably touched a lot of people’s lives. And I was a fairly new actor in the L.A. area, and this is one of my first speaking roles in a film, so, to get a part to play such a hateful person was pretty challenging, and it was frightening what this person was like that I had to play. Plus, it was an opportunity to show a different side of me, because I always get cast … in prep work and commercial work. It’s always like, the “smiling, kind-of-nice” guy.

J: So, you get to play against type a little bit with a role like this?

M: Yeah. Yeah.

J: Did you have any background experience growing up or going to school, where either were you bullied or where you exposed to bullying or aware of it in your school environment at all?

M: I was definitely aware of it. I grew up in a family that didn’t, that didn’t tolerate it. So I hung with a pretty cool crowd. In school I was an athlete and all that, but there were kids in school that did get bullied, and whenever I saw something like that happening, whether it was a peer of mine, a friend of mine or somebody I played sports with who was doing it, I would always make a point to try and stand up for the person that was getting bullied. Like, “Hey guys, don’t do that, that’s ridiculous,” or you’d walk down a hall and sometimes the kid being bullied, the kid gives, would be carrying his books and stuff and somebody would come by and just knock his books out of his hand and it was just the wrong thing to do, so I’d stop and help him pick up his books --- I remember things like that happening.

J: Yeah. What kind of response did you get from your peers when you would do something like that?

M: Most of the time they, they knew it was the right thing to do. I was fairly well respected by my peers so when I said something it usually meant it wasn’t really cool to do and it made people think twice about what they just did.

J: Do you think, as people got more aware of bullying, that more people respond that way? Do you have any sense of [whether] that has changed?

M: Well, I’m 37 years old, so I’ve been out of school for a long time now.  I would hope that it would. I have a 13 year old brother who I’m just now getting to spend more time around, and I’m kind of curious what happens in his space.  He’s a half-brother, so it would be an interesting question to ask him now that you’ve brought it up.

J: Would be interesting. We kind of get the sense, from the work we do, that bullying goes on and that kids are still reluctant to say anything. But on the other hand, they’re going to a school that’s concerned enough about the issue to have us come in and to do a seminar or something … We know the problem exists because they were good enough about facing it down that they actually got in touch with us so it’s sort of a, mixed message --- but then we see so much more positive representation in film and television and entertainment generally now. I’m 37 also and I went to a high school in a rural area in the late 1980s and, my word, there just wasn’t anything supportive out there in television or in the media, or anything. And now there’s shows like “Glee” that are hugely popular, that have this profound social message that they’re trying to get across. And I kind of have to scratch my head now and then and wonder when that changed, or how, how it changed so much without a really much broader social awareness that it’s actually changing out there.

M: Yeah. I think definitely … through the 90s violence, the amount of violence we saw --- it was covered more in the media, so I think everybody became more aware of things happening; people losing their lives. You folks know all too well about the stories of that happening. So I think definitely there is a heightened awareness of it. I think things are being done; but also still … people turn their heads sometimes still too, and some people don’t, so I think, definitely these days more people are taking a step forward to do things or to change things.

J: Yeah. So your character’s sort of channeling some aggression and then your character’s brother is really aggressive. I talked to Jonathan Camp earlier today --- and I know actors have different processes for this, but how do you put yourself in the state of mind of someone who’s just full of that much anger, and how do you set it up in your mind where it comes from, that you can authentically play a person like that who’s so different from yourself?

M: Well I think mostly that where I got that from is just seeing some people in my life growing up and seeing people that I had experience or came in contact with in my life that were really full of hate. And I’ve been around people who say things that aren’t so nice. I’ve experi enced that in situations where they didn’t know I, I wasn’t one of those sort of things, you know what I mean? And I guess to get myself in that character, I did it more out of fear. Like, I tried to find, because I said I think most of those people are fearful if anything else but themselves and what they grew up in. And I kind of try to put myself [there] --- sort of scared of everything, kind of put myself in that position to where anything that was different and other than what my character was at that point, he would be angry toward. And I think that’s where a lot of people who are prejudiced or who are hateful are, who are in that state of mind, are just fearful of, of what they don’t know. And it’s also bred into them. I mean not bred necessarily genetically but I think it’s, it’s bred through an environment that they grow up in.

J: You know one thing about this film that’s really interesting is that, I was talking to Gina Scalzi and she said “yeah I think there might be some people who are like, “This is Bruce Lee’s god-daughter and I want to see her kick some ass,” and they’re going to come out of this movie having discovered it was really actually very deep and had a lot more to say than the martial arts. One aspect of the overall message is, not only may you have to defend yourself, i.e. not only through standing up for yourself physically, but you have to actually feel like you’re worth defending before you’ll bother --- and that ultimately is more of a spiritual message of giving, giving people sort of a push in the direction of valuing themselves and having higher self-esteem. Did you confront that, the deeper message in the midst of putting this film together, or did that message touch you at all or if you feel like it will touch viewers the way that they intended to?

M: Yeah. I think it will. I think that’s one thing that Diana does such a good job of, at telling some of these stories in this movie. I think it’s --- how do you find the title that covers all that? And so I think people may go see this movie expecting, like you said, the Bruce Lee, the karate, this sort of martial arts film, “Karate Kid” kind of thing. And I think they’ll be surprised at what they get out of it. I think some people will be pleasantly surprised and I think there will be others that will be uncomfortably surprised about what they just saw. So that’s, I’m not sure how else to answer that, but I know when I first saw this title, “The Sensei,” I thought it was a karate movie. And then I read the script and after I had the opportunity to audition I got to read the full script and I was like, “Wow, this is really something different than I thought,” and it was an amazing story.

J: Any take away message you hope that maybe, some 16-, 17-year-old LGBT person somewhere in America comes out of this film [with], what do you hope that they walk away having discovered, as a part of seeing it?

M: I hope that people discover to believe in themselves, to believe in other people and to be positive in life and not spend so much, and, to be able to see a different side of life whether they’re brought up in an environment that isn’t necessarily the best place to grow up in, and that it opens up a door to see a different side of things.

J: Great. Well that would be fantastic. We’re sure excited that it’s out there and thanks for doing this and, everybody in the cast has just been wonderful and really thoughtful.

M: Yeah.

J: I’ll let you go. I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us.

M: Yeah. Thanks for having me.

J: Yeah. My pleasure.

M: Yeah I appreciate it. I’ll tell you one of the funny things about it is, or not so funny, but this movie is, it’s really amusing how it affects people. And sitting in the theatre at some of the film festivals and listening to some of the people get really upset with my character and then John Camp’s character and then having to get up and actually do a Q&A with someone who’s really not liking you after seeing the movie. It’s, I mean it’s, neat that you’re able to build that character that someone really doesn’t like but then [is] also sort of fixed them after the movie as you. And then get them to kind of like not really see you in a different light after seeing the movie. I’m not sure if I explained that correctly but it was pretty amazing.

J: Yeah. I think you explained it perfectly. I was kind of clenching my fist a little bit in the back ground too.

M: Yeah. Yeah.

J: So you did a good job at bring that character to life and, and it’s good that people get angry after seeing that. It’s infuriating and that means that they ultimately, they have some decencies and some values to draw on as viewers that they’ll indicate that they have the right values ultimately as people too

M: Yeah. Yeah. It was cool. So all right, well, thanks again and have a great day and good luck with everything.

J: Thanks. Likewise. Take care Mark.

M: Alright. Take care. Thanks. Bye.

J: Buh-bye.