Beast movie: Daniel MacPherson was in the best shape of his life for Australian MMA film

There was, for a moment, bad timing for the Australian indie movie, Beast.

It was originally titled Beast in Me, and then, five months before its release, a stumble, someone else had made a screen project called The Beast in Me.

“Claire Danes had that TV show come out and we were hoping, in the nicest possible way, that no one would watch it and that would go away very quickly, and unfortunately it was a huge hit,” actor Daniel MacPherson told The Nightly, with a laugh.

But perhaps it was a piece of good luck in disguise. The revised name, just Beast, has a directness to it.

“You can’t half-arse it with a title like that!” MacPherson said.

Half-arse he did not. For the film about a mixed martial arts fighter, directed by Tyler Atkins and written by Russell Crowe and David Frigero, MacPherson went all in.

“It’s the first job where they were covering up my real cuts and bruises for fake cuts and bruises,” he recalled.

“We wanted to make the most intense, authentic, realistic MMA action ever seen in cinema. You can’t do that swapping in and out with stunt doubles, and drinking lattes in your trailer.

“You’ve got to be in there, throwing punches, eating punches, kicking each other, covered in bruises, covered in blood, and just going for it in an environment where there is control and respect, but we’re going for it, and we’re really proud of it.”

In Beast, MacPherson plays Patton James, a former MMA fighter who now supports his family through ad hoc, poorly paid fishing jobs.

MMA was a decade behind him but he’s drawn back into world after his brother got into a scrape and a promoter (Luke Hemsworth) offers him an opportunity that’s hard to refuse: face down Xavier Grau (Bren Foster), the reigning champion of the league and win-or-lose, Patton will be paid handsomely.

Patton is the only person to have ever defeated Grau, and Grau wants to correct the record.

But returning to the cage is complicated by Patton’s past, and the falling out he had with his former trainer, Sammy (Crowe).

This is where the film’s former title comes in, because where Beast might convey a hard man with raging out during a fight, Beast in Me takes in the nuance of the character-driven nature of the film.

Patton is not some boof-head who knows only how to speak with his fists. He’s someone with a gentle side and whose purpose is grounded by his family. Audiences who come to Beast expecting non-stop action might be surprised to find Beast operates on different levels and with different speeds.

“Tyler, the director, wanted to put so much heart into this story, he’s really a heart-led filmmaker, which is beautiful,” MacPherson said, adding that was also what drove his engagement with Beast.

“It was always the family story that I loved and connected with first and foremost, and so that for me was always the spine of the story, and the most meaningful part. If you got that right, then the punches and kicks mean something else by the time we get there.

“We were looking to make The Wrestler rather than Roadhouse.”

That doesn’t mean the punches and kicks were spare. Oh no, there is plenty of action to satiate even the most bloodthirsty of fight fans.

MacPherson started training for the film in 2022, and all the way throughout the tumultuous process of getting an independent film up and going.

Financing would come in and fall through, schedules would change, MacPherson would go off and do theatre, but still, he would train.

The showcase set-piece involved him and Foster fighting in a cage during a real-life tournament of MMA competition the One Championship in Bangkok.

In between actual fights, MacPherson and Foster, and Beast’s production team, would jump into the ring and shoot their scenes in front of fans who were there for the real thing.

It had to look good. Not just for the crowd in the room that day, but for every fan at home who had access to MMA on demand through their phones. If Beast cheated, the fans would know, and the film would have no credibility.

There was some choreography that had been worked out but a lot of it was MacPherson and Foster freestyling in the moment. “Bren is a multiple world champion Taekwondo artist, he’s an ex-professional MMA fighter, jiujitsu black belt, and thankfully we have known each other for 15 years, worked together on three films now.

“So, to be able to step into a cage like that, we have some choreography we could rely on, but we also have an understanding of each other, of our skillsets, and have a working relationship, and an understanding of filmmaking and camera, and say, ‘Hey man, let’s just stand here and let’s just throw it, bang, bang, bang’.”

MacPherson picked Rage Against the Machine’s Wake Up for this walk-out song in front of 10,000 people. “I got to jump into an octagon in Thailand on a world championship fight night in the best shape of my life. That’s the closest I’ll ever get to that. That was epic,” he said.

Before he was Joel Samuels on Neighbours, an actor in City Homicide, Strike Back or Foundation, a host on Dancing with the Stars, MacPherson was triathlete from the age of 11.

He’s not new to the discipline and training demanded of a sport such as MMA, but there was so much he didn’t understand about it until he was immersed in it.

“There’s a great level of artistry, discipline, spirituality and lifelong commitment to these arts, I’ve discovered a greater appreciation for MMA as a sport, its intricacies and its technicalities.

“These martial arts have been around for thousands of years for a reason. The more that you learn, the more you realise you don’t know, and that they’re steeped in self-improvement. I found a great reverence and respect for the martial arts themselves.

“My hope with this film is that it’s going to surprise people because it is so much more than a fight film.”

Beast is in cinemas on April 23