Jonathan Crocker

1. The Party At Kitty And Stud’s

“I’d been bounced out of my apartment and had slept four nights in a row at the Port Authority bus terminal, trying to avoid the cops. I owned two shirts, three pairs of underwear, a pair of pants and a jacket – all of which I had on at the same time since I had no place to put them. I mean, I was desperate. I read in a trade paper about this film that was paying $100 a day – for a $100 a day I would wreak havoc. So I showed up and found myself literally standing in the valley of the skanks. There was no real sex involved, just bad imitations and the close proximity of skankalicious skin. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19% [?]

You might have heard about it already, but there’s some sort of international football tournament being played in South Africa this month. To celebrate England’s impending victory in the World Cup, we could have given you a list of the greatest football movies ever. But we’re better than that. So here, lacing up their boots in dreamland, are the movie characters who’d make our starting eleven. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 12% [?]

1. The real… Rocky Balboa

It ain’t how hard you can hit… Sly Stallone based Rocky Balboa on no-hope heavyweight slugger Chuck Wepner after seeing him battle invincible world champion Muhammad Ali in an extraordinary fight in 1975. No one expected Wepner to last three rounds. But he took everything Ali could throw – then floored the champ with a bodyshot in the ninth. “Hey, I knocked him down!” grinned Wepner as he went back to his corner. “Well done,” replied his trainer. “But he looks really pissed off now…” Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

“Maybe this is going to be one of your best interviews,” says Jean-Claude Van Damme, on a shaky phone line from Hong Kong. Well, why not? There’s a hell of a lot to talk about. His rivalry with ponytailed face-smasher Steven Segal. The time he blinded a stuntman by sticking a thumb in his eye. The time he got an erection on TV. And, mostly, his comeback from career-death in one of the coolest indie movies of 2008. Part comedy, part biopic, part heist movie, JCVD hands Van Damme the most complex and fascinating role of his career: himself. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

1. Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1981)

“I was hired by a very unscrupulous producer. He put me with an Italian crew who spoke no English, then fired me a couple of weeks into the shoot and took over directing. Turns out, he’d done that on his two previous films. He wouldn’t show me a foot of film that I’d shot, so I went in and ran the film for myself. I made a few changes – I don’t know if the editor ever noticed – and it was fine. So I thought, ‘I actually can do this. I just fell in with a pack of thieves and whackos.’ Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]

1. Statham has action in his blood

His father was a boxer and a gymnast (and taught his son both). His brother loved martial arts (and used little Jason as his personal punch-bag). Growing up, Statham also learned the family business, working as a fast-talking London street trader.

2. Statham has a talent

When he was a kid, Statham’s parents took him on holiday to Miami. Wowed by a diver on the high board, he began diving aged 13. Inside a year, Statham was on the British team. He competed for 12 years, placed third in Olympic trials on three occasions and ranked 12^th in the world on the springboard. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 17% [?]

Rhona Mitra doesn’t like having her picture taken. That hasn’t stopped her being framed as a lad’s mag pin-up, a videogame character, a sex bomb and an action star. The Brit actress tells us how she’s breaking the mould(s)…

Rhona Mitra has a confession to make. But first she wants a cappuccino. Sitting down with Total Film on a damp afternoon in a London coffee-house, the British actress takes off her zebra-rimmed sunglasses and looks for the waiter. He doesn’t recognise her. Already we know he wasn’t at this year’s Comic Con. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]