Bren Foster Talks “Beast”, “Mexicali”, and “Relentless”

Martial arts, as we all know, is a treasure shared all over the globe across thousands of years and among every culture and nation on the planet. That also means that in the world of martial arts filmmaking, it is common to see big names and stars break out as the champions of cinematic butt-kicking in different corners of the earth. When it comes to Australia, few in the 21^st century can make a better case to that crown that Bren Foster – certainly not if his 2026 itinerary is to be believed.

“Following the breakout success of his 2024 hit “Life After Fighting”, Bren has been on a roll in establishing himself as one of the next great martial arts stars, with 2026 having already seen the release of Bren anchoring Luke LaFontaine’s “Mexicali” and strolling into the cage as an MMA force of nature in Tyler Atkins’ “Beast”, but Bren’s still got more up his sleeve. Returning to the director-leading man-writer-producer combo chair of “Life After Fighting”, Bren will also soon be seen in the upcoming “Relentless”, capping off an epic run of martial arts movie glory that’s also just the beginning for the indomitably energetic Bren.

“Today, KFK speaks to Bren on the making of “Mexicali”, “Beast”, and “Relentless”, the challenges presented in each, along with tackling a very different kind of protagonist role in “Relentless”.

(Note – this interview comes from two individual conversations with Bren Foster)

“Hi Bren, welcome back to Kung Fu Kingdom! Hope you’re doing well and great to have you back, sir!”

“Hi Brad, I’m doing well, and great to speak again!”

“Awesome, great to hear, Bren! Well, let’s go ahead and kick off with the making of your first new release of 2026, “Mexicali”. How did you come aboard “Mexicali” as the movie’s leading man as well as one of its producers?”

“Yeah, I think it was back when I was on “The Last Ship”, I had lunch with Jesse, and we spoke about it, he sent me the script, and I liked it. Then, as life does, a few things went here and there, and then about six or seven years after that initial meeting, we finally got around and ended up making it happen. So, it was in the pipeline for a little while.”

“So, compared to a movie like “Life After Fighting”, where you were really captain of the ship, what would you say were some of the challenges in the making of “Mexicali”?”

Bren brings deft marksmenship training to the action of Mexicali.

Bren brings his legendary kicking skills to the fight scenes of Relentless.

“Well, with “Mexicali”, I think my input as a producer was merely coming on board as the lead! But in terms of that, “Life After Fighting” was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, and coming on board “Mexicali” with such a good team with Jesse Johnson and Luke and such a great cast, it was more about me just coming in as the character, and working with Luke to choreograph and put together the fights. So, it was a joy of a job, absolutely loved it, but it was a lot less strenuous that what I had to do on “Life After Fighting”. That’s not to say it wasn’t hard, enjoyable work, and very fulfilling, it absolutely was, but it was just a different animal.”

“Speaking of hard work, the underground MMA fights were also basically done in one centralized block of filming. Did that make it more challenging to tackle Joe’s underground fights in the movie?”

Bren brings his skills in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to the fight scenes of Beast.

Bren deflects a strike in Beast’s epic finale!

“Yeah, we smashed them out real quickly, but we had some really good stunt guys. You’ve got really great partners to work with, and you can work on it really quickly, and we had some rehearsal time, so we were able to knock them out and come into these fights knowing the choreography, and it’s just a testament to the way everyone was on that film. It was probably one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve had to date, because of all the people involved, they were just so passionate and good spirited, and everyone really wanted to come in and make the best movie possible. Luke was pumped, Jesse was pumped, all the cast were amazing, the stunt guys were just fantastic to work with, it was just some really good energy, and I think that really shows in the film we were able to finish and put out.”

““Mexicali” also reunites you with Tania Raymande, who you previously starred with on “The Last Ship” and “Deep Blue Sea 3”. What can you share about reuniting with Tania for “Mexicali”?”

“It was great! Tania is a fantastic, fantastic actor, she’s right up there, but the beauty about working with her is she’s just so easy going. She’s always so level-headed and harmonious, and she really, really commits to her work. We spent time going over the script and she had some really fantastic ideas that really, really worked well, so she’s a real blessing to work with, and she’s worked with some huge names. She was on “Goliath” for a long time with Billy Bob Thornton. And of course, I worked with her on “The Last Ship”, and we played adversaries on “Deep Blue Sea 3”, and then, when we came together on “Mexicali”, I knew the relationship was just going to be fantastic because of the level of actor that she is.”

“On that note, what can you share about working with Kris Van Damme on “Mexicali”?”

“Kris is great! He’s a gentleman, he’s a really easy-going guy, and I think he’s a really, really good actor. He was great to work with, we went up against each other in a fight scene, and there’s some scenes that unfortunately didn’t make the final cut, not because they were bad or anything, they were absolutely fantastic, but sometimes, you just have to let go of scenes because of time constraints. But just purely speaking of Kris as an actor, he’s fantastic. I’ve been around for a while, whether it’s on non-action stuff from television to soap operas to sitcoms, and Kris is up there. He’s a fantastic actor, and I think he should have a standing in and of his own as an actor outside of being Jean-Claude Van Damme’s son, because he does the work as an actor and he’s very talented.”

Bren plays the ruthless MMA champ Xavier Grau in Beast.

Bren tackles a differen kind of fight in the upcoming Relentless.

“Looking at another of your co-stars in “Mexicali” now, what can you share about working with Jesse Johnson’s frequent collaborator Louis Mandylor?”

“How good is Louis, Brad! I mean, I had a lot of fun just bouncing back and forth with him, and he’s really in the moment, he’s really invested as an actor. I also really liked the movie he directed with Scott Adkins, “Prisoner of War”, I think he did a fantastic job, and it was great working with him, had a lot of fun.”

“Going back to the pit fights in “Mexicali”, the second section of underground fights calls upon Joe to wear a mask during his fights. Did that make the underground fights harder to perform?”

“Yeah, it does limit the vision a little bit with the mask, but Joe, his hands were tied. He had to go and try and make some money so he could go and buy some weapons so they could go back and fight to take their farm back, because they had left with nothing. But the cartel have eyes everywhere, so he had to go in there with the mask, make some money, and take off.”

“But yeah, when you’ve got any kind of mask on, it takes away a little bit of vision, but I was channeling my inner chi power, mate!”

“Were there any injuries or mishaps during the making of “Mexicali”?“

“No, not like “Life After Fighting” where I tore my hamstring and tore my hip! I had a little bit of an ache in my leg at one point, but other than that, it was pretty good.”

Bren brings a spiritual side to the story of Mexicali.

Bren dons a mask for some of Mexicali’s most intense fight scenes.

“That’s good to hear! There’s also a lot of gunplay in “Mexicali”. Did you have to do a lot of gun prep for the weapons in “Mexicali”, such as in the stand-off against the cartel?”

“Well, because of all the years I spent on “The Last Ship”, I’m pretty good with handling weapons from that, a lot of the training that I did on that show carried over. Other than that, I used to spend a lot of time over at the Oak Tree gun club sport shooting, so it was relatively easy. Just put the gun in my hand, if it was one of the lever-action guns, they just ran me through it a few times, but other than that, just the holding and the positioning and the footwork, that all came back to me.”

“So, what would you say was the action scene that you’re the most proud of in “Mexicali”?”

“Oh! Look, I like them all, but I think I liked the machete stuff the most. Moving through the multiple opponents, and then facing off with Bryan [Sloyer] again. But I really like them all, and it’s a testament to all the stunt guys, they’re all fantastic, all a pleasure to work with, but yeah, I would have to say I really enjoyed the machete stuff, and when I saw it on screen, I said “Oh, this stuff pops!””

“Agreed! So, wrapping up on the making of “Mexicali”, have you, screenwriter Jesse Johnson, and director Luke LaFontaine talked about any further collaborations? “

“Oh, absolutely, I would work with Jesse and Luke again in a heartbeat! As I said, it was kind of a perfect integration with each other. We’d just need the right project to come up.”

Bren is ready to kick butt in the fight sequences of Mexicali.

Bren is ready to rock with his trifecta of 2026 martial arts bangers Mexicali, Beast, and Relentless!

“Looking ahead now, you also have “Relentless” coming up, which you also wrote, starred in, and directed. What can you share about how “Relentless” came about?”

““Relentless” was born from my mother and when she had cancer and watching her fight it. The warrior that she was, I watched her fight it, and that started me thinking of my character in “Relentless”, Connor. What would it be like for a warrior or a combat athlete to be afflicted with something that’s just going to slowly drain and tear you down? So, that was the genesis of “Relentless”, but I think it became a whole lot more, as well. It became a real in-depth meditation on how families and human beings are affected when terminal illness has infiltrated their lives, the person that it’s on, and then their direct family, whether it’s wives, husbands, children, best friends, it affects everyone in the vicinity in that person’s circle.”

“So, with “Relentless”, we get really deep into that and how it’s a truly a testament to the human will of how hard can someone fight? How far will someone go just to keep hanging on because of the people that they love and the people around them? And ultimately, so many people have been touched by cancer, whether it’s from a friend, or a family member, or maybe themselves, there are just so many people in today’s day and age that have to deal with it in some way, and a lot of the times, the results and the end mark, they can end in tragedy, but a lot of times, people recover also. So, the movie is also a message of hope for anyone whose had their lives touched by cancer in any way, shape, or form. There’s always hope, and as long as you’re willing to fight and stand by those you love, hope can find us in the end.”

“Is the plan for “Relentless” to be out later this year, perhaps in the summer or fall of 2026?”

“Yeah, we’re still kind of working that out, but it’s coming along really, really well. We’re into music now, and color-grading and sound design, so it should be finished by about June or July, and then fingers crossed, we either get an end of the year or beginning of 2027 release. But I’m really excited about this one, and the fight scenes are going to be a little bit different from “Life After Fighting”, but with the same level of commitment and output and intricate, high-level fight design, but obviously, the given circumstances are a little bit different, and with a little bit more money!”

“(both laugh)”

“Well, we look forward to seeing “Relentless” when it debuts. Looking now at your other big project debuting in 2026, the MMA drama “Beast”, how did you come aboard “Beast” as the movie’s MMA villain, Xavier Grau?”

“Yeah, “Beast” kind of came to me. Daniel MacPherson, who plays the lead, he also produced the movie, and he got Russell Crowe on board. Tyler Atkins, who is a fantastic director and comes from a drama background, he came on to direct, then Luke Hemsworth came on, and then they were looking for my character, Xavier Grau. So, I spoke to the producer about the role, and then I went in and had a bit of a read and a meeting, and shortly after that, I got the role.”

“My one stipulation was that I do all the fight choreography. Xavier has two major fights in the movie, so very quickly after that, I ended up choreographing all the fights. Daniel MacPherson was at my gym with my team, and we were training and putting the fights together, and shortly after that, we were shooting. We shot in Thailand in one of the big One Championship arenas that hold 100,000 people in the crowd, and the production value on that was insane. We did parts of the fight in front of all those people, and then came back and shot different elements of the fight at different times.”

“I was actually filming “Relentless” when they had a cast and crew screening for “Beast” in Australia, and I couldn’t just leave set and go to that, so unfortunately, I had to miss that, then there were a few screenings in Australis I had to miss because I was in the U.S!”

Bren leads Mexicali as the peaceful farmer Joe.

Bren reunites with his frequent co star Tania Raymonde in Mexicali.

“So, what was it like portraying the villain of an MMA movie?”

“Yeah, it’s good to switch it up every time, but Xavier Grau was the character that suited me. He had to be this formidable, really in-his-prime athlete who was just dominating the MMA world, and he had to be a force that the lead character was going to have a great deal of difficulty overcoming. So, I really enjoyed playing Xavier, and obviously, its Patton James’ story, but I’m sure as hell I gave him an insurmountable opponent to come up to!”

“What would you say was the biggest challenge that you faced in the making of “Beast”?“

“I think first was creating a final fight that was worthy of the end spectacle of a movie. So, creating a final fight that was really exciting and exhilarating, and showcasing so many MMA techniques, I think that was the most difficult part.”

“So, what would you say was your favourite memory from the making of “Beast”?”

“I’ve got two! Definitely working with my son Jaylen and pulverizing each other when he was doubling for Patton’s brother, Malon. But also, I remember fighting when I was coming up in martial arts, and we’d come out to these little clubs, and these days, you’ve got hundreds of thousands of people maybe watching the UFC or One Championship. But coming out to that full crowd at One Championship, I’ve got to say, that was an amazing memory. I don’t think it’s in the movie, but I came out to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, which is one of my favourite songs. So, I come out to that blaring, and that was a pretty crazy awesome memory!”

Joe traps his opponent in a rear naked choke.

Xavier’s rear naked choke has the gripe of a python!

“How did you approach your role as fight choreographer for “Beast” in terms of designing the action?”

“In terms of approaching the fight choreography, I wanted to make it a little broader. A lot of fighters are really good at Jiu Jitsu and wrestling and Muay Thai, but when you start putting in a lot of the high kicks and the spinning kicks, there are very few fighters who can do that. And creating that choreography, especially for Xavier, I wanted him to have a little bit of flash to him. So, we had a lot of the ground and pound, a lot of the Jiu Jitsu – “moving Jiu Jitsu”, let’s call it – but we also had a lot of the jumping techniques and the high kicks incorporated into all of that. So, it was a very seamless integration of a very well-rounded, complete, high-level martial arts, because the character was, pound-for-pound the greatest fighter in the world.”

“Then, on the other hand of that, we had to make a style for Patton that was very hard-hitting, very brutal, very grounded, and very heavy-set. So, he was more of a power-puncher and more of a brawler, so we had the juxtaposition of two styles coming together, and that makes for more entertaining fight choreography. If we just brought them together and they were both the same style, it starts to get a little convoluted and almost washed out. But, if you have two very different opposing styles, which was the goal of the fight choreography, then they come together, that made more of an interesting match-up. It would be like someone very flashy, very jumpy, very movey against someone very grounded, almost like a helicopter moving with bullets against a tank. So, that was the kind of mindset in came into doing the fight choreography with.”

“Looking now at the explosive finale of “Beast”, what can you share about filming the very intense final MMA match of “Beast” with Daniel MacPherson? Were there any injuries or mishaps?”

“Yeah, there were a couple of times where there were some punches that were supposed to hit the guard, but went through and hit the face. And it’s a testament to Daniel’s commitment that he never took a step back. I don’t mind getting the odd punch in the face, I’ve been training all my life and I’m used to it, so it was like if one got through, we were like “Oh, great, hopefully it looks good on camera!””

“There was also getting the cameramen and the DP to actually come back and film the action so we could actually see it. There were times where there would be a little bit of difficulty where they were too close, and we wouldn’t capture it, and so we’d have to say “Okay, we’ve got to pull this back so we can capture the beauty of the techniques”, and it is beautiful. I mean, in martial arts, the second word is “art”, so you’ve got the capture the beauty, you’ve got to capture the long lines, the full extensions of the punch, see the length in the arm. So, once we were able to kind of adjust and pull the camera back for a lot of the moments, that was probably the most difficult thing in terms of filming and capturing what we had very strategically and eloquently put together in the physicality. Once they had a little bit of an understanding of that, that really improved the visual aspect of the fights.

“That certainly comes across in the spectacular final showdown of “Beast”! Thank you for your time today, Bren. It was great speaking with you again, and we wish you all the best on your upcoming action projects in the future!”

“Thanks Brad, great to speak to Kung Fu Kingdom again!”

And that concludes KFK’s latest interview with Bren Foster! Be sure to check out “Mexicali” and “Beast”, and watch out for the release of “Relentless”! What is your favourite Bren Foster martial arts flick so far! Are there any martial arts stars you’d like to see him team up with? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram. (And don’t forget to pay a visit to KFK’s FU-niverse of movie reviews and exclusive interviews, including our previous interview with Bren on the making of “Life After Fighting”, grab your official KFK gear and subscribe for more action on YouTube, too!)