Who's the best martial artist in acting right now?

[kehcorpz]

Can you pick one?

With best I dont mean most popular I'm talking about real fighting skills.

I think Scott Adkins must be pretty good, not just in movies where everything is scripted.
I have seen videos of him training and he does exactly the same stuff he does in movies, too.
He's flying through the air and twisting like 720 degrees it's really crazy.

I also saw a video where he's in the dojo and somebody's holding up a punching pad and Adkins
kicks him more or less right from the spot without any run-up (I think he only takes 1 step towards him) and the guy literally flies back a few meters and then lands
on his back! I dont know how many people can do this but it looked really spectacular.

If I had to compare him to Chuck Norris or Van Damme then I'd say that Adkins seems much more
dangerous and artistic. What do you think?

Another thing I ask myself is how well do you think would Adkins do in MMA? Could he use these crazy
kicks in MMA or wouldnt this really work and instead he had to rely on other stuff like punching and simpler
kicks?

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Ed O'Neills been practicing bjj for something like 20 years I believe, and has a black belt in BJJ, that's pretty impressive. Doesn't really show it on screen, but my bet is that he's better on the ground than most of the people on this site.

 

[drop bear]

Randy couture.



Is that even a real question?

 

[Andrew Green]

There are a lot of real fighters that turned actors... Cung Lee, Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Gina Carano, Georges St. Pierre... These are guys (and girls) that where fighters first, and actors second. They will always come out on top of non-fighters that fight on tv. I mean it's kinda like asking which medical drama doctor is the best Doctor in reality, they are completely different skills and trades.

Good stage skills and good fight skills are very different, Chuck Norris was legit, Van Damme is a little more questionable when it comes to real fighting. And that's fine, as far as martial arts movies go Jackie Chan is at or near the top, but he's not a "real" fighter, he's a stage fighter.

 

[drop bear]

Ed O'Neills been practicing bjj for something like 20 years I believe, and has a black belt in BJJ, that's pretty impressive. Doesn't really show it on screen, but my bet is that he's better on the ground than most of the people on this site.

There are a lot of real fighters that turned actors... Cung Lee, Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Gina Carano, Georges St. Pierre... These are guys (and girls) that where fighters first, and actors second. They will always come out on top of non-fighters that fight on tv. I mean it's kinda like asking which medical drama doctor is the best Doctor in reality, they are completely different skills and trades.

Good stage skills and good fight skills are very different, Chuck Norris was legit, Van Damme is a little more questionable when it comes to real fighting. And that's fine, as far as martial arts movies go Jackie Chan is at or near the top, but he's not a "real" fighter, he's a stage fighter.

And a few actors turned fighters. Power ranger Jason David frank did all right in the cage.

Tony danzer was an all right boxer.

 

[Touch Of Death]

There are a lot of real fighters that turned actors... Cung Lee, Bas Rutten, Randy Couture, Gina Carano, Georges St. Pierre... These are guys (and girls) that where fighters first, and actors second. They will always come out on top of non-fighters that fight on tv. I mean it's kinda like asking which medical drama doctor is the best Doctor in reality, they are completely different skills and trades.

Good stage skills and good fight skills are very different, Chuck Norris was legit, Van Damme is a little more questionable when it comes to real fighting. And that's fine, as far as martial arts movies go Jackie Chan is at or near the top, but he's not a "real" fighter, he's a stage fighter.

Jackie might surprise you, in a dark alley.

 

[kuniggety]

Ed O'Neills been practicing bjj for something like 20 years I believe, and has a black belt in BJJ, that's pretty impressive. Doesn't really show it on screen, but my bet is that he's better on the ground than most of the people on this site.

Aside from maybe Tony Dismukes, I'd say he's better than all of us and not just most. I'm not detracting from what you're saying... Just emphasizing the point.

 

[Tames D]

i think it's pretty clear... Actors are not martial artists and martial artists are not actors. The two don't mix.

 

[MAfreak]

i think it's pretty clear... Actors are not martial artists and martial artists are not actors. The two don't mix.

haha a good one. martial ARTists are actors in any way and don't really fight.
combat sportsmen/women are no actors, i guess you meant that. and its clear. everyone of them sucks at acting in movies.

 

[MAfreak]

Another thing I ask myself is how well do you think would Adkins do in MMA? Could he use these crazy
kicks in MMA or wouldnt this really work and instead he had to rely on other stuff like punching and simpler
kicks?

btw the more simple the more effective in real fighting.
720 kicks and stuff is just for show, thats why its called arts, not combat. being acrobatic and doing this stuff says less than nothing on if the practitioner knows how to fight.

 

[Kickboxer101]

Michael jai white. Black belt in 7 martial arts and has competed in tournaments and the majority of his fight scenes are realistic moves and he's a great actor who's done more than just martial art movies e.g the dark knight he's also a director he directed never back down.2 and is doing never back down 3

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Tatsuya Naka, star of Kuro Obi and High Kick Girl, is a 7th Dan Shotokan katateka and a very good actor.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

haha a good one. martial ARTists are actors in any way and don't really fight.
combat sportsmen/women are no actors, i guess you meant that. and its clear. everyone of them sucks at acting in movies.

That suggests another question to examine. There are plenty of top-notch martial artists and fighters who have had roles in film, but the majority of them are completely crap at acting. I a propose a new metric: the AxM scale, which is defined as Acting ability (on a 1-10 scale) times Martial Arts ability (on a 1-10 scale). This produces a rating of 1-100.

On this scale, Chuck Norris would actually come out rather low - 1 (acting) x 9 (martial arts) = 9 on the AxM scale. Robert Downey Jr. would score higher - 10 (acting) x 3 (martial arts) = 30 AxM.

So my new question - which actor/martial artists would score highest on the AxM scale? Provide your calculations and justifications so we have something to argue over.

 

[Steve]

Jackie might surprise you, in a dark alley.

What's Jackie doing surprising people in a dark alley? Seems like a pretty silly way for a guy like that to spend his time.

That suggests another question to examine. There are plenty of top-notch martial artists and fighters who have had roles in film, but the majority of them are completely crap at acting. I a propose a new metric: the AxM scale, which is defined as Acting ability (on a 1-10 scale) times Martial Arts ability (on a 1-10 scale). This produces a rating of 1-100.

On this scale, Chuck Norris would actually come out rather low - 1 (acting) x 9 (martial arts) = 9 on the AxM scale. Robert Downey Jr. would score higher - 10 (acting) x 3 (martial arts) = 30 AxM.

So my new question - which actor/martial artists would score highest on the AxM scale? Provide your calculations and justifications so we have something to argue over.

Tony, I like your suggestion to use a metric for the discussion. I think it's still pretty subjective, unless we can all agree on what the scale looks like. I mean, is a 10 in acting someone who is capable of putting up an Oscar worthy performance? What does a 10 in martial arts mean?

That said, I'll throw out a few for discussion:

Ed O'Neil = 35 AxM (7 Martial Arts x 5 Acting)
Bruce Lee = 40 AxM (8 MA x 5 Acting)
Ken Watanabe = 24 AxM (3 MA x 8 Acting)

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I think it's still pretty subjective, unless we can all agree on what the scale looks like. I mean, is a 10 in acting someone who is capable of putting up an Oscar worthy performance? What does a 10 in martial arts mean?

Of course it's subjective - that's what gives us something to argue about!

I'd calibrate the martial arts scales by putting Randy Couture as a 10 and David Carradine as a 1. For acting, I'd put Robert Downey Jr as a 10 and Chuck Norris as a 1. (Full disclosure - I've only seen Norris's movies. Maybe he got better once he had his own TV series, but the clips I'm finding on YouTube aren't supporting that theory.)

This scale is not linear - obviously Couture is more than 10 x the martial artist Carradine was and Downey is more than 10 x the actor that Norris is. Maybe we could consider it a logarithmic scale where a 6 is twice as good as a 5, a 7 is twice as good as a 6, and so on. That would make a 10 on either scale 1024 times as good as a 1.

 

[Buka]

I'm not exactly sure how to rate it, but I'd give Ed O'Neil a high mark combination. Maybe a seven and a seven.

A lot of people think acting is easy, it really isn't. Nor is becoming proficient in the arts, come to think of it.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Donnie Yen seems like he should do pretty well on the AxM scale. Reportedly he's an excellent martial artist (6th degree black belt TKD, 1st degree black belt judo, purple belt BJJ, assorted CMA experience, street fight experience, testimonials by professional fighters as to his ability). I've only seen a couple of his movies, but he seems like a competent actor. Maybe 5 (acting) x 8 (martial arts) = 40 AxM?

 

[Steve]

I'm not exactly sure how to rate it, but I'd give Ed O'Neil a high mark combination. Maybe a seven and a seven.

A lot of people think acting is easy, it really isn't. Nor is becoming proficient in the arts, come to think of it.

I ranked Ed O'Neil = 35 AxM (7 Martial Arts x 5 Acting).

I agree with you about acting, but I think he's a character actor all the way.

Tony, I think you're pretty close with Donnie Yen.

Ronda Rousey = 18 AxM (9 MA and 2 Acting)
Gina Carano = 7 AxM (7 MA and 1 Acting)
Mickey Rourke = 20 AxM (5 Acting and 4 MA)

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Bas Rutten = 18 AxM (2 Acting and 9 MA)

 

[Tony Dismukes]

The AxM scale goes up to 100, but the highest proposed score we have so far is 49. Any candidates for breaking the 50 mark?