Karl Urban. Who? You know, that guy from that film.

Sometimes, appearing in a huge franchise can make you become a household name across the world and the rest of your career becomes easy, but for some actors (and quite often better ones) are forced to play from the sidelines; consistently being a supporting actor and never the main role, this is the case for Karl Urban. Urban is an actor from New Zealand who, despite having gained critical acclaim for films in his homeland he has never been thought of as a leading man for Hollywood, yet unless you have been living on Mars you will have seen him in quite a few of his films, ones that you could even count among your favourites, but you just might now know.

As I mentioned Urban started out working in his home country of New Zealand and here he started out working in the theatre and appearing on television adverts. Karl Urban then got a break after being seen internationally by appearing on the television series’ Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess in the recurring roles of Cupid and Julius Caesar. After fulfilling his work on television he appeared in an offbeat romance film entitled The Price of Milk for which he received a nomination at the New Zealand Qantas Film and Television Awards; he later appeared in Out of the Blue (2007), a dramatisation of New Zealand’s Aramoana massacre and gained positive reaction and the Qantas Film and Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.

So now lets move on to what I know him for: being a supporting actor in a number of franchises. The first of them, and arguably the biggest of all of his films is Lord of the Rings. Now, Lord of the Rings has a huge cast and story that spreads itself over three films so there’s no doubt that you’re not going to be able to name all of the actors an actresses who were a part of the project, but Karl Urban had a pretty decent role in The Two Towers and Return of the King. Karl Urban played Éomer. Éomer has quite a significant role in the books which is diminished in Peter Jackson’s trilogy but he still plays a part. In the films Éomer is made an outcast but is present at the Battle of Helm’s Deep as he remains loyal to the King of Rohan, he is also responsible for the death of the leader of the Haradrim. After this part in one of the most successful trilogies of all time you could have forgiven Karl Urban for thinking he was going to have a pretty tasty career.

The final chapter of The Lord of the Rings trilogy was released in 2003 and in 2004 Urban appeared in two more franchises significantly differing in quality. First was The Chronicles of Riddick where Urban plays the villain to Vin Diesel’s hero and as such Urban’s character dies in the climatic battle scene. This was a first taste of Hollywood films really and an encouraging start although the film itself didn’t go down well with critics. Despite this, Urban’s next choice was superb. If you missed Karl Urban in Lord of the Rings you may have seen him in The Bourne Supremacy (part of another of the best trilogies of all time). In Supremacy Karl Urban is again the villain playing second fiddle to Matt Damon’s hero who everyone loves; Urban was the Russian agent Kirill who killed Marie but inevitably failed in his mission to kill Bourne himself.

In 2007 Karl Urban got a shot at being the leading man in Pathfinder, a Viking adventure film. The film itself lacks in the dialogue area and replaces it with an emphasis on violence, blood and gore… this was probably a reason for the harshly negative reaction to it, however I don’t mind the film but it certainly didn’t do anything to help Karl Urban’s career.

As a childhood fan of Star Trek Urban actively pursued a role in the 2009 reboot.

In 2009 Urban returned to doing what he does best and decided to hang around in the background of another huge blockbuster: Star Trek. This is probably a role that Urban is most famous for to fans across the globe. In JJ Abrams reboot of the famous science fiction series Urban plays Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy who becomes Kirk’s first (and pretty much only) friend at Starfleet Academy. As Bones, Urban injected (a nice little pun for those who have seen the film) some comedic moments into Star Trek and his performance is held in high regard by fans of the original series.

After appearing in Red and Priest, Urban gets another chance at being a lead man in a big blockbuster this year in Dredd, a reboot of the 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone, in which Urban will be playing Judge Dredd. The film itself is being hotly anticipated by fans of the comic book character  and it received positive reception at Comic Con which has probably the hardest crowd to please in the world.

At the age of 40 it may be a little late for Karl Urban to make that step to the forefront after being in the secondary roles for so long but it is not unheard of. Urban has a real talent for acting and I have enjoyed every one of his performances that I have seen. In my opinion Karl Urban has not got the recognition or fan base that he deserves but with the Star Trek franchise looking as though it could stretch out easily for a few films then he may get it there or in any upcoming Judge Dredd sequels. He deserves it, that’s for sure.

Here’s a video of Karl Urban talking about his role in Star Trek and just generally being cool. His colleagues seem to love him too!

Charting the Rise of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as an Actor

Doesn't he just seem like a nice guy?

It was recently announced that Dwayne Johnson will be playing the lead role in Brett Ratner’s story of Hercules. He is also the favourite to land the role of Sinbad in another adaptation of a famous story: Arabian Nights. In the next couple of years Johnson looks set to cement his place as a leading action hero among Hollywood’s finest. Not bad for a guy who started out in WWF.

Most people will know Dwayne Johnson by another name: The Rock. He is probably the most famous wrestler ever to grace the ring and has been a fan’s favourite for years. His persona in the ring, his talent, the people’s elbow, ‘can you smell what The Rock is cooking?’ and that weird little thing he did with his eyebrow all memorable traits of his wrestling career. And then the best wrestler in the world made the step into movies.

His acting career didn’t start terribly well with films like The Scorpion King, Welcome to the Jungle and Be Cool. Johnson also didn’t help himself by starring in the very poor movie adaptation of video game Doom, panned by critics.

So, Dwayne, you know that hard man image you use to have? Not so much here.

But Dwayne Johnson did not give up his hopes of becoming an actor and instead of going down the hard man route which was all so easily laid out for him, the man formerly known as The Rock tried his hand at family films. In 2009 he starred in Race to Witch Mountain and the very enjoyable animation Planet 51. What he was thinking when he agreed to play the title role in The Tooth Fairy I don’t think we will ever know but the point is; he was becoming a well-known face on the family film circuit.

 

 

And after his work in Faster and The Other Guys, Johnson was finally given his big break; his chance to make it big as a film star. Dwayne Johnson was cast in Fast Five (or Fast and Furious 5, whichever you like) as Luke Hobbs, starring opposite Vin Diesel and Paul Walker in probably the most predictable franchise of all time. The fourth film in the series gained over $300million at the box office. The addition of Dwayne Johnson to the cast for Fast Five saw box office figures almost double for the fifth film, earning Johnson the unofficial nickname of ‘franchise Viagra’. And to be honest, he was very very good in Fast Five, he completely outshone the rest of the cast in my opinion.

This effect continued with Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the sequel to Journey  to the Centre of the Earth starring Brendan Frasier (hands up who had forgotten that even existed?). The first film grossed around $240million whilst the Dwayne Johnson led sequel added another $30million onto that. Studio bosses will be hoping he has that same effect again as he has been cast in G.I. Joe: Retaliation with the franchise already in danger of being run out of the cinemas.

One of these men was the real star of Fast Five. Clue: It wasn't the one on the left.

I will openly admit that when it was announced that The Rock would be trying his hand at acting I had my head in my hands. But who would have thought that the hard man Dwayne Johnson would become such a likeable and bankable actor. He is signed on for at least one more Fast and Furious film and will be starring in Pain and Gain with Mark Wahlberg in 2013. Whether it be action films or family films, you’d better get used to seeing Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson on your screens a whole lot more.