And yet his films would be boring if nobody ever took him on face-to-face, toe-to-toe. Don’t they know who he is? It’s a core principle of suspending your disbelief in a movie that you accept the way in which famous faces aren’t recognised within the world of the story, and that their tenacity for killing, punching and battering across a popular filmography isn’t immediately apparent to the poor sucker who tries to engage them. Enter the henchman, the mainstay of action cinema. We’re not talking about the big-hitters, like Jaws, or Bennett, or Boddicker, but the usually nameless average Joes who are unfortunate enough to stray into the path of a rampant Jason Bourne, or Bryan Mills, or John Matrix. While the James Bond series is full of memorable big-hitters, its hero must have killed or incapacitated more of these characters than can be counted. Bond is so infamous for this trope, it inspired one of the more memorable spoofs from the Austin Powers series, starting with International Man Of Mystery‘s cutaways to the bereaved families of the anonymous blue-collar workers who die in the crossfire of an international criminal’s downfall. In Goldmember, Michael Caine’s character cheekily judo chops a bunch of Dr Evil’s henchmen, one at a time, and tells the last man to simply lie down on the floor without trying. Actor Mark Tindle was recently battered and slammed into a fridge over 13 times by Luke Goss in a scene for his new movie, Interview With A Hitman. I sat down with Tindle for a chat about the film, being a henchman, and his aspirations for future fridge-related dust-ups. Hi, Mark, tell us about your character in Interview With A Hitman. What would you name him, if you could? He felt like a Harry, to me. Definitely a Harry. And outside of Harry’s role, what is the larger plot of the film? Luke Goss plays a hitman, who I believe is Romanian, who basically sets out to take revenge on people, for some reason, and if the trailer is anything to go by, it involves him killing everyone that he can find, particularly everyone in Newcastle. There’s a very beautiful French woman [played by Caroline Tillette] involved as well. You also see Viktor, Luke Goss’ character, slamming Harry’s head into a fridge, and that’s you, but not your original role? How did you initially get involved, and how did you get promoted, so to speak? Having seen us and got to know us as people as well, they tried to see which roles we could fill that hadn’t already been cast, so I was upgraded to a henchman, and I just presumed I was going to be standing at the bar, looking menacing. It didn’t quite pan out like that. [Laughs] Instead, you became Fridge Head! And at this point, I think my brain must have just shut off because I sent back the reply, “Who wins the fight?” And bless her, she sent back the reply “I’m not quite sure”, but it ain’t gonna be me, is it? So, I arrived on set, found out the fight scene I was in was going to take place in a kitchen, and– well, I’m not going to give the story away. Watch the trailer! [Pause] I don’t win the fight. Spoilers! But moving on, what kind of stunt choreography did you have to undertake before the scene? Having done it like that, I ran through it with Luke himself a couple of times, and then we started off shooting the scene. They did also provide me with some padding. I was wearing quite a thick leather jacket, I thought that would provide a bit of padding, and that’ll be alright, but I thought I’d just pad my elbows. And I didn’t hit my elbow once, in any of the takes. But were there other injuries? You get so caught up in the adrenaline of it. I didn’t realise the amount of pain I was in. Later, it’s like “Aaargh” and I fell over, slightly. Looking back, I did about 13 takes, with different amounts of fury from Luke as he slams me into this fridge. What was the make of the fridge? Looking at the long and honourable history of these seemingly small, villainous roles in the movies, is there a minor character that you wish you had played, or a favourite action scene? I’d have loved to be that one guy in Indiana Jones, who does all of the sword-waving, and then gets shot by Indy. He is the source of so many memes, and he’s become something of an icon. Yeah, and it’s absolutely perfect. As a scene, it feels like anything else just wouldn’t sit. I think I’d also liked to have been an extra in Star Wars; look at the guy who was Wedge Antilles. After five minutes of screen time, split over three films, he’s had fan fic written about him, and he pops up in the authorised books… it’s incredible. Along those lines, looking ahead at your own career as an actor, is there an action star you would love to have slam you into a fridge in the future? Viggo would be awesome, and it would have been good to work with one of the sort of classic action heroes. To be roundhouse-kicked by Chuck Norris would be a fantastic experience. Bang it on the wishlist: “get roundhouse-kicked, into a fridge, by Chuck Norris. Mark Tindle, thank you very much. Interview With A Hitman is released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 27th 2012. Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
