fun

"How did you feel on the Highlander set?
Was it like coming back home or a whole new deal?"

A little bit of both. I had been waiting to do this film for about two years
and it was almost to years to the day since I had finished filming the series.
When I got to the set, it felt like Duncan never went away, just matured.
Whether I liked it or not, Highlander had become a very large part
of my life, having spent six years on the series and the past two years
preparing for the film role.

"I understand that Christopher Lambert will co-star in this film.
How was it working with him again?"

Chris and I have always shared a good working relationship and
when we shot the series we had a blast; this was no different.
In fact, half the time, we were like two kids playing dress up.
I think when you have a chemistry with somebody it auto-
matically translates to film and hopefully that will come across
in the movie.

"Can your fans expect any more Highlander movies?"

Well, I guess that depends on how well this movie does.

""What were your favorite stunts, and what stunts will be
augmented by postproduction special effects?"

There were quite a few stunts in this movie, some
that I did and some that I was wise not to do.
A tricky one I remember was a couple of motorbikes coming through a window and having to stop dead in a room before going through the opposite wall. This is where my stuntman, John Medlun, was put in my place. He had already done the stunt a couple of times before, but for some technical reason, they had to shoot it again with a second unit. This time when he dove out of the way, one of the bikes feel short of the mark and landed on both his legs. Seeing it on video we thought he must have broken something or at least seriously injured his knee. The docotr said he was lucky he was only badly bruised.

As for myself, the stunt I had fun with was running up the wall with a sword, spinning in the air, and cutting at my opponent beneath me during one of the fight sequences in the movie. I was supposed to be harnesses so that the spin would work easier and I would not go through the wall of the set. What made it interesting were two factors. One was that I had never worn a harness before and had never attempted a stunt like this. Secondly, the only chance I had to practice it was when we filmed it. The shooting schedule was so tight that rehearsals and filming prevented me from getting on this particular set to practice the stunt. After John had suited up ready to do the stunt, I harnessed up and, after a couple dry runs, we finally went for it.
I found I kinda liked being ten feet in the air... but after a few takes, I realized how much effort it took to fight gravity. The stunt went well but since I haven't seen the movie, I don't know if it made it into the final cut.

"Are there a lot of martial arts in the movie, as in its predessors?"

Yes. In fact I think there are more martial arts scenes in this film than in the previous ones. We wanted to create a Highlander movie that could
match up to the standards of today's movies.
We rehearsed or filmed the fight sequences on average of
2-4 hours per day nearly everyday, from the beginning of Aug '99
to the end of March '00. As far as I can remember, there
are eight sword sequences, and about five other action
sequences in the film...not to mention quickenings.
Since we didn't start rehearsals until mid September and
we started shooting the third week of October, we didn't have a large amount of time to rehearse the sequences. With one of the actors falling ill, we weren't able to finish filming in Romania before Christmas and had to wait until February to resume in England. A change of sets meant different choreography for the fights. Getting to London we realized we only had eight days to choreography and rehearse 3 fights.

There were enowed martial artists in some of the bad guy roles. My teacher, Vernon Rieta, was one, and Donny Yen was another. Donny, who some of you may know, came from Hong Kong to act in his first American movie. We came up with what we hope will be a fast a fusious fight with both weapons and open hands. Donny's extensive martial arts movie background, both as an actor and as a director, was very helpful in giving this movie a blend of both American and Hong Kong style film making.

"Is the film much different from the TV series?"

All the elements that were so important in the
series: the romance, the action, the flashbacks,
have all been included in Highlander: Endgame.
But the one element that was never filmed
before and that everybody was always very
interested in seeing was the relationship between Connor and Duncan MacLeod. In this movie we worked on just that. You will get to see how they meet and how their relationship evolves from tutor and pupil to that of older and younger brother, and then finally to the closest of friends.

"Do you feel that there is a cult following for the Highlander character?"

Absolutely. If you look on the internet, you will see hundreds of websites dedicated to Highlander and to the fans who watch it. It has become a cult since the first movie, although when we were filming the series we called it the best kept secret in Hollywood.

"Are the same characters frtom the TV series coming back in the movie?"

Some of them, yes. As I mentioned before,
Highlander Endgame will have a lot of the same elements,
including the watchers. Obviously, when you talk about the watchers
you have to include Joe Dawson, played by Jim Byrnes. The other
character who became a highlander favorite was that of Methos,
played by Peter Wingfield. He too appears in the movie, albeit briefly.
But then again, that's how Methos would have wanted it.

"What type of regimen do you follow to stay in shape?"

Before the movie, I trained about 15 hours a week on a variety of workouts:
Gymnastics, Pilatis, stretch classes, physical endurance training, and of course,
swordwork. The martial arts element meant I had to brush up on my flexibility and strength. The gymnastics came in handy to create a little more of an acrobatic side to the fights. The swordwork? Well, I have already mentioned that.
Now I have been gradually going back to training after recuperating from a shoulder injury I got during filming.

"What are your plans for the future?"

I actually want to act in projects that I can produce
and also direct ones I have written. You can stay that I would like to stay
on the creative side of the camera as well as on the business side.
That and continue to build the PEACE fund that I started last year.
PEACE stands for Protect Educate Aid Children Everywhere.

"What type of projects will you want to direct and produce?"

I have a couple of porjects right now that I am developing as a producer
and one that I might direct. I think my strength as a
director at the moment is in action. People associate my name with it.
If I prove myself in that film medium, I would then want to direct
a romantic thriller.

"KARATE INTERNATIONAL sponsors a film camp for aspiring
actors and actresses. What advice can you give for
young hopefuls trying to enter the film business?"

Don't lose the kid in you. After all, acting is all play.
Watch children and you will know what I mean.
They have no barriers.

"What final message would you like to leave with our audience,
especially to martial artists?"

Two words: PEACE and RESPECT

"Hey take it easy man, first time in the desert, which way to Vegas?" -Connor MacLeod

"I wasn't thinking, I was improvising." -Methos

"Yeah, may you live in interesting times. Well things just got real interesting!" -Joe Dawson

"First you dump her, then you turn your back on her. Talk about the blind leading the visually challenged." -Methos

"It's finally happened, you've lost your mind!"
-Methos

"Have a beer, there's a cold one in the fridge!"
"I know it's my fridge." -Methos and Duncan

"Ohhhh, you irritate me!" -Duncan MacLeod

"Maybe you should write fortune cookies."
-Duncan

"I'm Connor MacLeod, same clan, different vintage." -Connor MacLeod

"Duncan is hardheaded, but he's far from stupid." -Tessa

"My father couldn't understand what had happened."
"Who could? Man he must've freaked. I mean there you were all of a sudden, on your feet again, zombie in a kilt." -Duncan and Richie

"Well it's not a sin for your mother to take your ex-boyfriend. Bad taste, perhaps, but no sin."
-Darius

"So, what do you think of our fertility goddess?"
"I think she's wasting her time around me."
-Tessa and Duncan

"You're a thief and a womanizer!"
"Yeah, but a great thief and a great womanizer."
-Duncan and Gabriel

"No one's ever beheaded themselves before, but you might make history!" -Duncan MacLeod

"Can you imagine going in to someone and saying: Hello I'm Duncan MacLeod, and I've gotten a little neurotic over the past four hundred years and I'd like to talk to you about it." -Duncan

"I was staring right down the barrel of that goon's gun. I can't believe it Mac! Right down the barrel and I didn't even blink. Mac? Is that how it feel everytime?"
"No. Only when you're a damn fool."
-Richie and Duncan

"I begin to like you."
"Oh. Well give me your number, we'll go bowling." -Johnny and Duncan

"Twenty-Five? And how old are you?"
"Four hundred. But you know what Richie? Today I feel like a kid." -Richie and Duncan

"You really expect me to steal, don't you?"
"I expect sharks to bite too, don't take it personally." -Amanda and Duncan

"Everyone knows Maurice!"
"Does everyone find you in their bathroom?"
-Maurice and Duncan

"They claimed I stole a chicken"
"But you'd never do that?"
"Of course not, it was a duck."
-Maurice and Duncan

"I bathe once a month!"
"You smell like it!" -Duncan and Maja

"Wash outside tub, soak inside tub. It is Japanese custom."
"Well this is a Scottish body and it can wash itself." -Maja and Duncan

"What have you been doing all this year? Knitting?" -Duncan MacLeod

"So the student had to teach the teacher a lesson."
"And what was that?"
"That a man's strongest asset is also his greatest liability" (she knees him in the you-know-where)
"I had to ask!" -Mei-Ling and Duncan

"I'd kiss you but people might talk."
"They might!" -Richie and Duncan

"Oh it's never too late Richie, after all I didn't learn to read until...."
"Until you reached fifty, I know. You probably had to walk a mile in the snow too...."
"Uphill..."
"Both ways." -Duncan and Richie

"Stall her!"
"By killing her?"
"Preferably." -Duncan and Richie

"I mean, Mac, at this point it's gonna be very difficult to keep these two apart. Especially now that they both own a horse together."
"Thank you master of the bloody obvious!"
-Richie and Duncan

"Duncan's here! Melissa, this is Duncan MacLeod."
"Hi! He's awesome!"
"You look terrible."
"She said I looked awesome."
-Amanda, Melissa, and Duncan.

"What if she turns me into a toad?"
"Who'd know the difference?"
-Young Robert and Young Duncan

"I bet I married Debra Campbell!"
"I wish you had."
-Past Duncan and Present Duncan

"She called me a cheap whore and a thief! I was never cheap!" -Amanda

"That immortal just robbed that armoured car!"
"So? He saw it first!" -Duncan and Amanda

"After being blown up don't even touch me!"
"Oh come on, Macky Boy!"
"And don't call me Mackey Boy!"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, no problem. Hey no hard feelings all right?"
"Oh no, why let a little thing like being blown up come between us, huh?" -Connor and Cory

"Turning the other cheek only gets you slapped harder!" -Duncan MacLeod

"I didn't steal it, I borrowed it, and I had every intention of bringing it back until I was drugged and kidnapped." -Richie

"Hans Kerzner. He thinks I slept with his wife!"
"Did you?"
"Of course!" -Byron and Claire

"Illusions and chaos are his weapons, Joe. the more I can focus, the better I can fight him."
"If you say so, but I still vote for the sword."
-Duncan and Joe

"Every life I touch ends brutily, it is a curse that has followed me for centuries. I can't outrun it, and I can't outlive it." -Connor MacLeod

"I spent years loosing my conscience, only for him to find it again." -Methos

"One word."
"Okay."
"Animal...four legs...carries heavy weights."
"Donkey"
"Nononono...try three letters."
"Three letters....that would be..."
-Duncan and Methos

"Fitz, what did you do? and who did you do it to?" -Duncan

"Are you gonna shoot me with the 45 or are you gonna turn off the tape?" -Connor MacLeod

"I hate you!"
"Good. That's a perfect way to start."
-Connor and Juan Ramirez

"If you die, Amanda will be free to date."
-Methos

"We are the oldest gentlemen's tailor in Scotland."
"Well then, I've come to the right place, since I am, without a doubt, the oldest gentleman in Scotland." -Tailor and Ramirez

"Why don't you believe me MacLeod?"
"Experience!" -Amanda and Duncan

"Nuns. No sense of humor!" -Kurgan

"Why'd you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Run into that burning building?"
"(sarcastically) Because that's where the fire was!"
-Linda and Duncan

"Do the words Obsessive-Compulsive mean anything to you?" -Methos

"You haven't let me thank you properly for saving my life!"
"Send me a card!" -Amanda and Duncan

"I'm not Spanish, I'm Egyptian!"
"You said you were from Spain. You're a liar"
"You have the manners of a goat. And you smell like a dung-heap. And you have no knowledge of your potential. Now get-out!"
-Ramirez and Connor

"I'll only be gone for a few days, you'll be fine without me."
"Yeah well, I aready have my little black book out."
"I've seen it. It's 300 years out of date!"
-Tessa and Duncan

(On Tessa's parking tickets) "Yeah, some people collect stamps...." -Duncan

"Well, we do have a dead woman down at the morgue."
"Aren't they usually dead -- or do you sometimes make mistakes?"
-Cominski and Tessa

"A dead woman walks out of a morgue and starts hacking people's heads off. Yeah, I would definitly say bizarre is a good word." -Richie

"Go for your gun, and I'll make you eat it!" -Duncan

"You ever had it bad for an older woman?"
"Well, the situation hasn't come up recently." -Richie and Duncan

(About Amanda) "Friend of yours?"
"Just a bad habit!" -Tessa and Duncan

"Tell me, how do you handle knowing that one day he's gonna watch you grow old, wrinkle, and then die, and eventually move on to someone else?"
"Were you born sensitive? or did you have to study?" -Gregor and Tessa

"Someone's following me."
"Someone's always following you. What did you steal this time?"
-Amanda and Duncan

"I am not a guest! You kidnapped me. Twice!"
"Yes, but in a civilized way!"
-Richie and Marina

"He doesn't give up. Not when he thinks he's right!"
"No. Whcih can be bloody annoying as we both know." -Amanda and Methos

"When did you get so friendly with the cops?"
"Since I didn't make a career out of being a criminal." -Willie and Duncan

"No Mac! We have got to come up with a plan to get my money back."
"After I've had my dinner."
"What about me?"
"You're dead. Dead men don't eat."
-Fitz and Duncan

"I bought it!"
"With what? A library card?"
-Amanda and Duncan

"Put your eyes back in your head, Romeo. That's Anna, her mother. So behave yourself." -Duncan

"You asked her to play!" -Duncan

"Oh Boo-Hoo" -Amanda

"I didn't mean to tell her Mac. She started talking and doing things... I didn't stand a chance."
"You're not the first one."
-Richie and Duncan

"Tess, I'm telling you, it's some cruel law of nature. If a girl really digs me, her mom really hates me."
"But not all of them."
"Oh, no, no, sometimes it's the fathers."
-Richie and Tessa

"You're a dead man!"
"She strike you as the sincere type?"
-Annie Devlin and Richie Ryan

"I'll take that!"
"That's disgusting!"
"After everything you've stolen.."
"No it's the gun, no class at all!"
-Thief, Amanda, and Duncan

"Drop your sword and I'll spare her life!"
"Don't do it MacLeod!"
"Wasn't about to."
"You weren't?"
-Luther, Amanda, and Duncan

"Mac, I am freezing!"
"No immortal ever dies of a chill!"
-Richie and Duncan

"Ok Richie, I'd say you're dying."
"Not again....Stick around, I'll be right back..." -Joe and Richie

"For 300 years you've been telling me to go legit. Now that I'm straight you want me to steal!" -Amanda

"So, you've got a date?"
"None of your business!"
"That's a yes. So who is she? Do I know her? Where are you gonna take her?"
"Was it the 'none' part or the 'your business' part you didn't understand?"
-Richie and Duncan

"Oh, look at this. There's an exhibition of greek antiquities."
"Oh, yeah, can't wait. A 2500 year old garage sale."
"Listen, some of this stuff could be mine."
-Methos and Duncan

"Amanda's got a big mouth!" -Duncan

(Watching Amanda hit a robber over the head with a frying pan)
"That's the first time I've seen you use a frying pan!" -Duncan

"It wasn't easy getting across town without any clothes." -Richie

"You know what they say...the bigger the dog, the smaller the...dog." -Kennel Owner

"So, what are you gonna do? Just sit here?"
"No, I thought I'd go out and let him shoot me." -Joe and Duncan

"Everytime it's a girl, you always assume.."
"I wonder why?" -Richie and Duncan

"Now it has that dies-in look!" -Amanda

"I think we would be even happier in my hotel room." -Amanda

"Any ideas?"
"Yeah one, let them kill eachother."
-Duncan and Richie

"Ladies first."
"Just do it."
"No ladies here I guess!" -Kit and Amanda

"Maybe I was wrong."
"Did she say something MacLeod?"
"Sorry I didn't quite hear that!?"
"Ok I guess I was wrong...."
-Amanda, Kit, and Duncan