An MMA Fan's Look at ‘Never Back Down'

Gigandet (pronounced gi-gon-day) is filming "Twilight," a vampire movie, in a soggy marsh in Vancouver, Wash. At night, the area becomes a foggy haven for ghosts and teenagers looking for macabre fun, but today it is muddy and clear. "Twilight" is being made by Summit Entertainment, the same production crew that made "Never Back Down." It is day 14 of a 45-day shoot, and the crew is far too involved to notice a stranger pulling into base camp. Numbered vans drop off crew members, who quickly form an ant-like conveyor to move boxes from one vehicle to another.

Done with their box task, the grunts assemble a few feet away but seem uninterested in my presence. Then the talent walks through, instantly recognizable from the crew by their demeanor, smooth skin, perfect hair and flimsier footwear. I am looking for Gigandet, who was a star on "The O.C." but I only know from the "Never Back Down" trailers. He has short blond hair and a Brad Pitt-quality. But all the stars have long hair and pile into the wardrobe trailer. I would later learn they were wearing wigs.

Finally, a security guard taps on my window.

"Excuse me, sir," he says.

"I'm here to see Cam," I answer. "He's expecting me."

And that was good enough. Apparently name dropping carries some weight in these parts.

Hollywood types either forget or don't acknowledge the wonderment normal society feels at their behind-the-scenes magic. I wanted to explore the star trailers and I admit a wandering eye was peeled for anything pocket-sized that might be of value on E-Bay.

Gigandet, 25, grew up in Auburn, Wash. -- a strip-mall hell south of Seattle that sometimes smells of cows. A high school football player, he realized he was too slight to make it to the next level and began to search for something else. Eventually he convinced his parents he wanted to go to Santa Monica Community College, more a move to get out of Dodge than for education. He lasted about three weeks before he quit going to class.

I am just beginning my interview when an anxious woman tells Gigandet he is wanted in touch-up. He seems unconcerned until she comes back and flashes me a dirty look.

"Come with me, and we will do it from the makeup chair," he says.

No sooner had I set foot inside than I was pushed back out by a man called Tico.

"I'm not trying to be macho or a jerk," Tico says. "We've just got to do a reshoot before the light changes. We have to hurry."

The crew avoids me as I stand alone with my pad and paper. Then Gigandet blows by me so fast I have to run after him. His beautiful girlfriend and wannabe starlet Dominque Croix trails behind us both.

"After that, I signed up for an acting class," Gigandet says, cigarette smoke trailing from his hand through the tendrils of his wig. "I walked in and just knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life."

After false starts and many managerial issues, Gigandet began to work. His big break came with "The O.C." and his stock continued to rise until he landed a key role in "Never Back Down." After he passed the audition, he had to pass a basic fitness test. Then he began to work out for four months solid -- the evidence of which is displayed gratuitously in the film.

In "Twilight," Gigandet is playing a vampire, though Croix laughs that makeup has been unable to "ugly him up." He hangs from the rafters of a dilapidated boat dock for his reshoot. Four takes and he's done.

"In ‘Never Back Down,' we filmed the fight scenes last so we'd have as much time as possible to work on them," Gigandet says. "Plus I was able to train while (lead actor Sean Faris) was shooting. I had a lot more time to practice choreography, but that was OK because my character was supposed to be more refined."

Gigandet trained martial arts briefly in high school, and that work paid off while working with the same stunt crew from "300," "Matrix" and "Fight Club."

"Of course, the big kick you see in the trailer was the hardest to learn," he says. "I had to practice it specifically every day over and over. And up until the day of the shoot, I still hadn't got it right. I didn't have the height. Then it was the day of the shoot, and we were on the set and did five or six takes on camera and it worked. The adrenaline was pumping."

Unlike some boxing movies, the combatants in "Never Back Down" did not actually hit each other. It was a trick of the camera. When they did land kicks, they were able to pull them to minimize the damage.

"The hardest thing was keeping up the stamina in the fight scenes," Gigandet says. "We'd do them and then do them again."

He takes another pull of his omnipresent cigarette and begins to wax about MMA in general.

"I didn't watch it before I was booked for ‘Never Back Down'," he says. "But I did my homework and I actually started to enjoy it. I admire the discipline and skill. I don't know if I enjoy it for the same reasons (as other people), but the amount of dedication and thought is just amazing. It really is like a chess match. I've become a fan. You have two guys on top of their game trying to find out who is better. I admire it. It's something I could never do."