“Take Cover” – Interview with Scott Adkins

When the time comes to kick butt, Scott Adkins always answers the call, with his latest such excursion being the suspense-filled actioner “Take Cover”. The directorial debut of stunt veteran Nick McKinless, “Take Cover” follows two military special ops veterans, Sam Lorde (Scott Adkins) and his long-time friend and associate Ken (Jack Parr).

A tragic turn on their latest mission convinces the morally conflicted Sam that the time has come to retire, but hanging up his guns for good won’t be as easy as he thinks.

Right as Sam and Ken are coming to terms with the former’s retirement, they find themselves and two young women pinned down in a penthouse apartment with a sniper intent on taking them out. With more incoming attacks on the way and a good idea of who is behind their predicament, Sam must call upon all his deft military and martial arts training to escape his and his friend’s dire predicament.

Today, KFK speaks to Scott Adkins on the making of “Take Cover”, working with Nick McKinless in his directorial debut, and making a high stakes action movie is a relatively tight setting. Additionally, Scott also shares some exciting tidbits about his upcoming 2025 action movie slate, “Skyline: Warpath”, “Diablo”, and “Death March”!

Hello Scott, welcome back to Kung Fu Kingdom! Great to connect once again! How’s it all going?

Hi Brad, I’m doing well, thanks!

Fantastic. Well, let’s go ahead and dive into your newest action movie, “Take Cover”. It’s a bit different of an action film for you, in that it is primarily a single location movie when the main plot kicks in. How was the making of “Take Cover” different from other action movies you’ve done?

Well, we spent a lot of time on that set. We had to build that penthouse set, because we were going to systematically blow it apart.

So, there was a lot of effort put into the design of that and getting it built in time for us to start shooting. We probably needed a bit longer in there than we had, but the DP Rick [Joaquim] did a great job at shooting it and made it look really good.

The director, Nick, did a great job of spacing out the action so you never got bored, and keeping the audience entertained the whole time, whether it was through a little bit of comedy or a bit of drama or another action set piece, whether it’s a fight or gunfire or maybe people on fire. So, it was a different movie for me, for sure.

So, what was the most stand-out action scene or stunt for you on the making of “Take Cover”? Did you experience any injuries or mishaps during the making of the movie?

You know, the weirdest thing happened. I was doing the fight scene with Lucy Cork, and she blocked my punch, and I ended up with this massive dent in my arm. And I was actually really annoyed about it – not at her, but just looking at it and thinking “Man, that’s weird, there’s a dent in my bicep. I’ve been working on that bicep all my life, and now it’s ruined!” It eventually just went away, but that was weird.

I also hurt my shoulder in the fight with Lucy. She’s tough! But the most fun part, stunt-wise, was I did get to do this high fall. It’s higher than it seems in the film, because you can’t really tell what’s CGI and what isn’t, but I did do a proper high fall, which was great fun, and Nick, who’s a long-time stuntman, and his whole stunt team set that up for me and kept me very safe, so I appreciate that. I don’t know if they thought I was going to go through with it or bottle it, because I had a stunt guy there on the day, but I did it, and that was great fun.

Wow, a dent in the bicep sounds harsh! On that note, what was it like working with director Nick McKinless on his directorial debut?

It was great, I’ve known Nick for a long time. He actually knew about the script for “Take Cover” when I brought it to him, and he told me “Oh, I was trying to make this before!”, and I thought “Okay, great, well that’s a good sign.”

Nick, obviously, he’s from the stunt world, and he knows that stuff inside out, so we had that covered. But the way he spoke about the characters and the theme of the movie and his vision for the film really impressed us, so that’s why we ended up going with Nick as director in his directorial debut.

So, what would you say was the most challenging part of the making of “Take Cover” for you?

I mean, there’s a lot of dialogue, and we don’t have a lot of time, to be honest. It’s not like you can hone every piece of drama and make it as good as you want to make it, and because you get one or two takes, the actors have really got to be on point. But we did do a lot of rehearsal in the first week before we started shooting, which really helped. You’ve got to be ready as an actor to perform, there’s not always enough time to go back and try things again.

Well, looking ahead now when it comes to 2025, one of your most anticipated movies is “Skyline: Warpath”. How was it to make the movie, joining the “Skyline” franchise, and working with Liam O’Donnell and re-teaming with Iko Uwais after you previously worked with him in 2019’s “Triple Threat”? What’s one AMAZING thing from “Skyline: Warpath” you’d like to tease to get our followers excited?

Well, it’s always a pleasure to work with Iko, he’s such a nice guy! He’s great fun, he’s an incredible martial artist, and to be out there in Indonesia working with him team on all the action was great. I know they know what they’re doing, so I just do what I’m told and I can concentrate more the acting and get to be early!

I’ve been in contact with Liam for a while, and it was fantastic to work with him. I like the “Skyline” movies, they’re good fun, the sci-fi, the action, and this is more of the same, but I would say probably more leaning into the action on this one.

Awesome, sounds like “Skyline: Warpath” will be a sci-fi action blast! You also have some other big action movies coming out in 2025, one of them being “Diablo” with your frequent co-star Marko Zarorand directed by Ernesto Diaz Espinoza.

“Diablo” is going to be great! We’re editing the movie at the moment, and I’m seeing stuff all the time. Sometimes, it’s hard to see the woods through the trees, but I’m super happy with that one! I’m really, really happy with everything, the action, the story, the drama, everything about “Diablo” is just really good. I’m really happy!

Sounds great, Scott! Also, your third action movie you have coming up in 2025 is “Death March”. What can you share about the making of “Death March” and crafting the action of the movie?

Yes, “Death March” is directed by my good friend Louis Mandylor, who starred with me in the “Debt Collector” films. “Death March” was actually an idea that I came up with, and the producer, Marc [Clebanoff], took it and wrote it all up from my idea. It’s set in World War II in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, and my character is an English wing commander. He crash-lands in the Philippines and he’s put into this prisoner of war camp, but because he grew up in Hong Kong, he knows martial arts.

The head of the Japanese prisoner of war camp, he’s a karate nut. He’s training his troops in karate, and he likes to test out his techniques on the unfortunate American POWs, and obviously, when that happens to me, it doesn’t go as planned, and it’s kind of a whole “Bridge of the River Kwai” with martial arts affair. It was good, I had a good time filming it.

“Death March” sounds great, Scott, can’t wait to see it! Well, as we prepare to sign off, Scott, what message would you like to share with KFK fans and your followers around the world right now?

Keep up the good work and the website. Kung Fu Kingdom, I’m speaking to my tribe, man! And, I’ll keep doing my best to make good action films/martial arts films, and I’ll do that if you guys keep watching it!

Awesome, thank you so much for your time today, Scott. It was a pleasure speaking to you again, and we wish you all the best with the release of “Take Cover” and all your upcoming action projects in 2025!

Thanks Brad, great to speak to Kung Fu Kingdom again today!

“Take Cover” is now available on VOD platforms!

Have you seen “Take Cover” yet? What are your thoughts on the movie’s stonking action scenes and use of a single location setting?

Are you looking forward to Scott’s upcoming action movies “Skyline: Warpath”, “Diablo”, and “Death March”? Let us know in the comments below; Like, share and join in the conversation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter & Instagram!

TAKE COVER for far more in the KINGDOM of FU, along with these Top 10’s, Top 5’s, deep-dive interviews, TURN IT UP A NOTCH in KFK wear, and explore DIABOLICAL HEIGHTS of ACTION on YouTube!