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In kickboxing circles the name Stan “The Man” Longinidis is enough to make someone quiver in their boots. An Australian boy from the wrong side of town, Longinidis has got a record eight world heavyweight titles under his belt that he wracked up over 100 fights and 20 years on the international kickboxing circuit. This type of steely determination and toughness has made Stan The Man the success that he is; the same kind of formidable resolve that’s needed to make it in the cutthroat world of film and television. If anyone’s got it, then it’s Stan The Man, and he’s got his sights on becoming the next Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone of the Australian film scene. He’s started the ball rolling with a starring role in the independent Aussie production “Trojan Warrior”. While Stan The Man has been doing the rounds in Hollywood, making the big names look good on the silver screen with his fighting prowess, and appearing in cameos in Roger Corman movies, “Trojan Warrior” is his first leading role. With a $5 million budget, this is still very much an underground movie and is very Australian in its references (including cameos from local personalities that would be lost on an international audience) and more specifically very Melbourne, the city in which it is set. Longinidis’ character is Ajax, a motorcycle riding, special forces guy who self assigns himself to save his more irresponsible cousin’s skin in what is essentially a crime comedy caper. He admits that he liked this role because “he wasn’t your typical Hollywood hero with romantic interests. This guy laughs, he jokes, he cries and you walk away thinking, I kinda like that guy, because he wasn’t always thinking about his dick like the other guy was”. Unlike the real Stan The Man, Ajax is a man of few words. He is cool, brooding and, guess what, he can kick the asses of a room full of guys with one hand tied behind his back. In our meeting, Stan The Man talks with the bravado of a champion boxer; the old Ali “dances like a butterfly, stings like a bee” kind of rhetoric that makes you want to punch the air with excitement afterwards. He talks of dreams and achievement, of overcoming the odds, of providing inspiration in others, of slamming his own critics. He also talks with the speed of a machine gun, which leaves little opportunity to fire questions at him. It’s not a necessarily a natural progression to move from kickboxing to movies… How did this come about for you? Years ago when I was in America for my sport, I was exposed to movies through my trainer who was choreographing fight scenes. He was involved with a lot of celebrities, training them; he’s really well known, his name is Benny “The Jet” Urquidez. I was one of his main fighting students. He had talent from all over the world. We were called The Jet Team and I was the heavyweight representative. We used to come out to the Elton John song “Benny and the Jets”. So in between fights I got the opportunity to do cameos in low budget films; Roger Corman films. I did about six or seven cameos in his films. Corman one time saw the rushes of some of the stuff that I’d done and he said, "You know, Stan, if you decide to finish this kickboxing crap then I think the industry might have something for you". So that for me back then was the hardest obstacle to overcome when I wanted to focus on winning the World Heavyweight Title. I felt like I could do the roles better than the actual lead but it wasn’t my time, I thought I just have to focus on what I was doing. I have this theory with young people when I talk to them to motivate them which is if you can dream it, you can achieve it. I felt I could do it, I could see myself doing it. But I had to put it behind me. So one thing lead to another and sometimes you think… well so much for that opportunity. I could have done a lot of things, I shook a lot of peoples’ hands but I was pretty much naïve to everything else. All I wanted to do was win Australia’s first ever heavyweight championship in kickboxing. And some three years ago, these guys here (Salik Silverstein and the producers of “Trojan Warrior”) got a hold of me and said, "Look, we’re working on a script, we’ve got you in mind, could you do a screen test", that type of thing. So we did all that and apparently they were happy with what I did and now we’ve been involved with this project for the last two and a half years. Why do you think you’ve been so successful? I’ve been involved in the sport for 20 years now. I’ve always invested in myself, I’ve worked hard, and I’ve got this formula of principles to succeed and I teach it to young people now. In the last four months I’ve spoken to about 27,000 students, free of charge because it’s very rewarding if I can inspire in some young person that dreams do come true. And hopefully I’m developing an army of fans too who will see my films sometime down the track. I’d like to think that after 20 years in a potentially dangerous sport having had 100 fights and won eight world titles which people say is a pretty illustrious career, I’m very lucky now to have the opportunity to be starring in a film. I don’t carry the kind of persona people expect from a heavyweight champion. Back in America when I was living there – I lived there for a total of almost four years – I met a lady there; her name was Mildred and she was about 88 years old. She used to be a former teacher, and she used to teach me and help me with elocution lessons. I said, one day I’m going to make it in this sport. She said there are many good fighters but only few are remembered, and I asked how am I going to be special? What else can I do? Winning is my main priority but winning in style, winning in class, winning with charisma… I’d throw koalas into the audience because I’d sell myself as the Thunder From Down Under… “Crocodile Dundee” was out at the time so I was flavor of the month. I said to Mildred, "One day I’m gonna make it". I wanted to come across as different to all the other fighters and I think it’s now paid off long term, if you know what I mean. Certain people in the Australian press have been overly critical of Trojan Warrior? Why do you think this is so? I knew there were going to be critics out there. But for all of us, this film is a dream come true. My disappointment is, and I’ve learnt this even with my sport being a Greek background and all this… If my surname was "Smith", kickboxing could have been something different in Australia with all the accolades that I’ve got. If I tell you some of the things that I’ve achieved, you’ll be surprised that you’ve never heard of them. In Thailand, in front of 82,000 people I was the first foreigner to win this title and I was crowned by the King of Thailand… Why isn’t that newsworthy? Sometimes it gets frustrating. Why is some other crappy sport like bowls more high profile than mine? At the end of the day, you go to see the wrestling, which everyone knows is fake – it’s entertainment though, don’t get me wrong – and I’m into being entertaining too. That’s what my director identified with, he said, "You look like an actor out there in the ring". He saw that I had something special to offer. I’m very proud of what we’ve done. I really am. What disappoints me is I’ve travelled the world and experienced so many different cultures and been greeted with open arms, but I’ve never seen a country that suffers from tall poppy syndrome so bad as Australia does. And it really hurts me. They bagged my film. That’s fine. I expected them to anyway. One reviewer bagged my film but he bags a lot of films… and films that make money… and I look at him and my theory is, I look at that man and I see him as a frustrated film-wanna-be-maker. You know, he couldn’t find anything nice to say about our film. It’s a struggling industry. We need to pay money back in deferments to people who believed in us on the crew and everything. We want to make money and we want to do everything we can to pay people back. But how are we going to get an industry going like this… Here I am embarking on a new industry… I want to be a positive role model. I always look at myself as when I took on the sport. Because I was a computer programmer, you know. I didn’t need all that… punching my way to making a living was not what it was about for me. I stressed my family when I decided to go from a company car with suits and briefcase to getting up at five in the morning, wearing dirty old torn tracksuits… I would have mates coming back from nightclubs driving past me jogging saying, "Stan, what are you doing? The girls are asking about you at the club." And I’m a sensitive, emotional guy… I’d break down and cry sometimes and think maybe I’m missing out on something. The end of that story is, I tell the kids when I’m talking to them, I took that world title belt and wore it in bed… There’s no girl that can make me feel better in bed than that belt. So, what was it like working on the film? People say to me when I go on programs, radio and everything, they say "Stan, what was your favorite scene?". You know I don’t want to tell them a certain scene. If I have to tell them a certain scene, I want to tell them it’s my favorite because we did it in one take. Often we didn’t have enough film. You know that means a lot to me. I watch it and I enjoy different scenes for different reasons. You know I look at a scene and think ‘I did that in one take’ and Salik’s (film director) always saying “Stan, we’ve got to get out of here in two hours, you’ve got time for three takes"… There was a lot of pressure on me. That’s why people like Sal really believed that I’ve got something to offer down the track… with bigger things, bigger budgets. But my problem was that any critic that wanted to bag the film, they couldn’t find one positive thing about the film. It’s a Melbourne film! I’ve learnt one thing from this whole journey… anyone who makes a film should be commended and given some respect. It’s not an easy thing to do to complete a film. People are always struggling to make films. Did you have much control over the fight scenes? I had a little bit of control over the fight scenes in the movie but I didn’t want to take anything away from the person who was doing it and knew the industry. I’m known for my leg kicks and swinging backwards and all that so I tried to incorporate that but I’m not going to take the credit for it because it was somebody else. Stuntmen make you or break you in action films. I know that because I’ve been there. I’ve made other stars, other action people, look good – Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Chuck Norris… I’m good friends with Chuck Norris and I had a lot of opportunities to do things with him in films and even the series on TV. A lot of people overseas are really happy for me now. Roland Dantes, when we first met, was hugging me saying "Stan, I’m so proud to do this (“Trojan Warrior”) with you because I know you gonna do great things". And they’ve offered me now three or four films in the Philippines. |