This is ironic. Two nights ago I composed a somewhat long and rambling post pointing out that I found it odd that so few MMA fighters have tried to go into movies, only to have it mysteriously eaten by the Mobius gremlins. In it, I pointed that it used to be common for men and women who'd achieved fame in martial arts circles to try to become movie stars. Admittedly, most never achieved the success of Bruce Lee or even Norris or Seagal, but they sure tried; Jeff Speakman, Cynthia Rothrock, Cathy Long, Ron Van Cleef, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Mike Stone, etc. So why aren't these new guys tried the same thing?
Sure, a few MMA guys have had small movie roles. In CRADLE 2 THE GRAVE, Jet Li beats up Tito Ortiz and a whole cage of UFC fighters with a midget (not as awesome a scene as it sounds). My friend Hannah, a cute blonde who loves cheesy action films AND the UFC (thus defying two different gender stereotypes at once) says she's seen several members of the Gracie family in some "dreadful" film with Rowdy Roddy Piper. I saw Kimo, who gave Royce Gracie a hard fight back in the early days of UFC, get beat up by Lorenzo Lamas in some direct to video filler on Cinemax some years ago.
Still, none of them are headlining low-budget action films, and you just know that if this was 1987, they would be.
So who would be a natural for this kind of thing? Well, there's The Natural himself, Randy Couture, who's articulate and has an easy charm that suggests Ed Harris on steroids. Chuck Liddell looks more like a paunchy bouncer, but he's still more handsome than Seagal. Mirko "Cro-Cop", whose awesome kicking style make make him better suited for cinematic fighting than the grapplers and ground-and-pounders, looks more like a badass leading man, somewhere between a homelier Jason Strahan and a prettier Vinnie Jones, although I don't think he speaks much English and his Slavic stoicism, which in the ring makes him a nice contrast to the posturing fighters he regularly beats up, might not translate well to film. Cung Le, who was a San Shao (essentially, a Chinese variant on Muay Thai with standing throws) champion before he went MMA, comes as close as possible for any real world fighter to Tony Jaa's atheliticism, but on screen he might seem like a pale imitation of Jaa, with the vicious elbows and knees but lacking the acrobatic grace.
And then there's Gina Carano. When I first saw her on Oxygen's FIGHT GIRLS, where she's one of the "mentors" training five "ordinary" American women to fight female Muay Thai champions in Bangkok, I thought she was was just an exceptionally attractive woman who'd trained hard and possibly won a fight, but who was now primarily going to be eye candy like Lisa King, the other "mentor" on the show, and whose future career would consist of being a trainer and doing instructional videos that showed off how good she looks in a sports bra. But no, Ms. Carano isn't just a buxom beauty; she's one serious badass, with a 12-1 record in Muay Thai and K-1 and now 4-0 in MMA.
Here's a brief puff piece on her from before her fight on Showtime's EliteXC, mainly showcasing her hotness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1o1Aa3VjvgAnd here's a highlights clip somebody put together, first showing her training, then beating the holy crap out of various opponents in Thailand and Vegas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oju0gn4AjEMOkay, she's not quite the regal world-class A-List beauty that Michelle Yeoh is, but she's a damn sight hotter than other real martial artists like Cynthia Rothrock or Cathy Long, and I'd take her over Jennifer Garner, Sarah Michelle Geller or whomever eventually gets picked to play Wonder Woman. Marty has complained about skinny little girls beating up men in action movies. Carano isn't skinny, and while I doubt she could take Tyson or Ali in their primes, and maybe not Benny the Jet now, she could probably kick all our asses combined, as well those of most guys playing action heroes these days. Her small but regular role on FIGHT GIRLS puts up there with MYTHBUSTER's Kari Byron one of my two strongest TV crushes right now.