When people talk about this idea of being a Welsh guy from the Valleys who travelled off to Indonesia to make martial arts action movies, on paper, it sounds really bizarre. But because everything happens in real time for me, it's just been a smooth process, it hasn't been weird.Gareth Evans
Copy
There's nothing more frustrating then when you have someone who's a little bit stiff and you have to ease them into the shoot. When you're dealing with large groups of people, like if you have a fight with 18-20 people and like 5 of those are a little bit stiff, that process of trying to ease them in and be patient and encourage them is hard.Gareth Evans
Copy
There's this thing of, before I started making 'The Raid' films I was just obsessed with all different genres and just loved cinema. Then when 'The Raid' came along, 'The Raid 2' came along, it was an opportunity for me to have a chance to get into the industry.Gareth Evans
Copy
For me, 'The Raid' was survival horror. It had thriller elements, tension elements, gunfire, martial arts, and action - throw all of those things together and see if they can fit well. All of those things played a part.Gareth Evans
Copy
I loved, like really, really loved, the humor in Jason Eisener's 'Alien Slumber Party.'Gareth Evans
Copy
My wife is Indonesian-Japanese... and what happened is, she found me doing a documentary on pencak silat. And through the process of doing that documentary I had fallen in love with silat and learnt enough about the culture that I could comfortably live and work in Indonesia.Gareth Evans
Copy
I get really involved with my choreography team and my stunt guys so I know what the process is for what they're doing, so when I am setting up shots I know how to show the complexity of it and I can show it in a way where the camera becomes the eyes of the audience.Gareth Evans
Copy
I know 'The Godfather II' there are elements that you can get away with watching without watching the first one, but you wouldn't get the full experience of it. There would be a lot of stuff that would be completely confusing to you.Gareth Evans
Copy
I'm a parent, I raise two kids, you get afraid of what the world has got in store for people, you know what I mean?Gareth Evans
Copy
The one thing I've always loved about Jackie Chan in his films - and that I related to a lot - was the fact that they make his heroes vulnerable.Gareth Evans
Copy
If you watch 'Armour of God' and 'Police Story' there's a clarity in the editing and shooting that showcases moments of the choreography.Gareth Evans
Copy
All of my consumption of films when I was a child was on VHS. I saw films in the wrong aspect ratio, with mono sound, on a tiny, square television, with a terrible side speaker, and I was still totally immersed in films like 'Evil Dead 2' and 'The Godfather.'Gareth Evans
Copy
Growing up either from classes or watching movies I knew, of course, about kung fu, karate, aikido, Muay Thai... But the first time I saw Silat was when I was working on that documentary - the first time I properly saw it. I was just struck by the fact that it looks so different from other martial arts.Gareth Evans
Copy
I used to use Twitter and I had to get off it because every morning it was like I'd wake up, and the first thing I'd do is reach for my phone, click on it and check the timeline.Gareth Evans
Copy
I really like the 'Bourne' films but the editing style during the action scenes has been overdone.Gareth Evans
Copy
I didn't want to be, like 'the action guy.' Not that that's a bad thing, it was just I knew that I wanted to try my hand in different things.Gareth Evans
Copy
The problem is I have this thing when I do a film, I really want to give all of myself to it. Commit 100 percent to the vision on it. I can't do that in a studio environment.Gareth Evans
Copy
The Raid 2' was always the project I really wanted to make, and it had been in my head for three years at that point. If I'd gone off to pursue something elsewhere I would have had to cast it aside, and I would have regretted that forever.Gareth Evans
Copy
In a typical martial arts film, you have a hero shot: a close-up tight angle of the hero looking past the camera, right before he defeats the opponent. That's cool, but it's not my thing. I don't like posturing.Gareth Evans
Copy
I was supposed to make another action film after 'The Raid 2.' It was going to be my first U.S. film. And then that kind fell by the wayside.Gareth Evans
Copy
A lot of actors in Indonesia, they end up taking a lot of television work because film work isn't really the main thing here, it's mostly TV, and TV here kind of sucks.Gareth Evans
Copy
There were a lot of Indonesian films made in the Seventies and Eighties that had silat and karate built into them, but most had these mystical elements. People jumping into trees and turning into jaguars, that kind of thing. They were fun movies but not great movies.Gareth Evans
Copy
I'm not a massive fan of POV shots usually. I find them to be quite distracting; they remove you from the story you're telling.Gareth Evans
Copy
Assault On Precinct 13' was amazing - a big influence. 'Escape From New York' as well.Gareth Evans
Copy
It's not fun when you're dipping yourself into water. No matter how much you try to heat it, it's always going to feel a little bit cold.Gareth Evans
Copy
The film 'After Life' by Hirokazu Koreeda. I remember when I first saw it, just being totally blown away by every single frame of it. The honesty of it, the fact that it celebrated life, the fact that it was so unbelievably profound and spoke volumes about living life to the fullest and cherishing every moment.Gareth Evans
Copy
When I was a kid the first Bruce Lee film I ever saw was 'Enter The Dragon,' and after that I was hooked. I really wanted to see more, but I was only five or six years old. I was way too young, and my mum really didn't want me watching them.Gareth Evans
Copy
Basically, when it came to 'Apostle' there were a number of factors that led me to make it.Gareth Evans
Copy
In Indonesia we have quite a strict censorship law, so there's certain things we're just not allowed to do, and there's certain things we have to restrain ourselves from doing.Gareth Evans
Copy
What we did with 'The Raid 2' - I felt that we kind of closed that off nicely in 'The Raid 2.'Gareth Evans
Copy
My dad's weekend treat to me as a kid would be to get me the latest Jackie Chan or some old Bruce Lee classic from the video rental van when it came up our street - I couldn't get enough.Gareth Evans
Copy
I would never have watched 'Back to the Future II' without seeing the first one because you can't follow it.Gareth Evans
Copy
The Raid' is a violent movie, without a doubt. I'm not going to say it isn't. But I feel there's a difference between showing something violent and then cutting away from it and showing something violent and then lingering on it.Gareth Evans
Copy
On an analytical level, what's so special about the Asian approach to action is that there is a time signature to the fighting. Punch, punch, kick, block, block, block, punch, punch, block. It's like percussion. It's got rhythm.Gareth Evans
Copy
Martial arts tend to share the same style and movements. Its just the packaging that's different.Gareth Evans
Copy
I'll always end up coming back to Jakarta because I got given my career by being here. I want to be able to come back and keep making movies here.Gareth Evans
Copy
Pulse had the rights to the 'Gangs of London' game and they wanted it to be a film franchise. One of the things about London is you hear between 10 and 15 different languages, and we wanted to explore the diversity of the city.Gareth Evans
Copy
Sometimes the best television for me is when you see a character do something that you morally disagree with, but you love them so much that you wish you could climb into the TV and stop them from doing it.Gareth Evans
Copy