“Genre filmmakers are grabbing Karl because guys like that don’t grow on trees. Those are real unicorns,” The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke says. Urban, he says, gave The Boys instant legitimacy. “Then I realized how committed he is to the character. The questions he was asking. I knew it was gonna be fun to work with him.”
With The Boys ending as Mortal Kombat II hits theaters, Urban’s doing a one-man baton pass as Hollywood turns from superheroes to video games as the next big adaptational rush (see also: Super Mario Bros., Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Sonic, Minecraft). Urban shrugs off these big picture readings: “Hollywood has always pulled from as many different IPs as they can. Whether it’s a comic book, a news article, a video game. The important thing is, ‘OK, so you have an idea. But what’s the story you’re telling?'”
It’s this approach that’s helped Urban excel. He’s not a gamer, and his first real exposure to Mortal Kombat was through his two sons, who implored him not to ” f-ck it up” when he announced he’d been cast as Johnny Cage. He went to karate tournaments to watch how competitors handled victory and defeat. He unlocked pathos in a character who can come across as something of a joke in the games, portraying him as a talented competitor who must reconnect with his passion and leave his showbiz aspirations behind to save the world. Then came time to learn the moves himself. “I had an exponential crash course in martial arts,” he says, conceding that he felt his age a bit. “That’s where you get the best results, when you are slightly out of your depth. When your feet can’t touch the bottom of the pool.”
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