In terms of both mind and body, Sean Patrick Flanery owes his success to his love of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. A lifelong martial artist (he took his first Taekwondo class at age nine), Flanery became fascinated by Jiu-Jitsu when he learned he had absolutely no way to counter the grapple-heavy style of Matt Akins, who utterly dominated him on the mat. Instead of throwing a temper tantrum or dismissing the loss as bad luck, Flanery opted to become a student of the sport, and to this day, he considers himself a martial artist who dabbles in acting, rather than the other way around. Considering his success across film and television, in acclaimed projects like The Boondock Saints, Young Indiana Jones, and Dexter (among many others), that’s certainly saying something.

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Flanery’s latest film, Born a Champion, marks his debut as a screenwriter, and he also choreographed the numerous Jiu-Jitsu fight scenes. Born a Champion follows Flanery as Mickey Kelley, a Jiu-Jitsu black belt in the early 1990s, before the establishment of UFC, back when grappling was seen as abnormal and strange. After suffering career-ending injuries from a dirty fighter’s illegal blows, Kelley is coaxed back into the ring for one last chance to change his family’s lives forever. Equal parts Jiu-Jitsu showpiece and character study, Born a Champion packs a lot of emotion and excitement into its runtime, and it’s clear that Flanery possesses a love and dedication to Jiu-Jitsu that few can match.

While promoting the release of Born a Champion, Sean Patrick Flanery spoke to Screen Rant about his work on the film, including his ongoing journey with Jiu-Jitsu, a martial art that many people still don’t understand, and that many martial artists don’t learn to respect until they find themselves rendered completely immobile by a complex sequence of grapples from which there’s virtually no defensive options. Flanery discusses the difference between being a fighter and a martial artist (hint: a fighter is anyone willing to throw a punch), and how he is raising his children to have the hearts and souls of true martial artists. Finally, he talks about his writing process, how he first came up with this script all the way back in 2007, and the long road to release.

Born a Champion releases January 22 in theaters and VOD, and January 26 on Blu-ray.

How you doing, man?

I’m doing alright! I just went back to my little house in Far Rockaway to make sure it survives the snow storm that should be coming today.

Where are you at?

I’m in New York.

Oh, it’s butt-chilly cold, right?

Oh yeah, it’s really cold!

It’s kind of balmy here in Texas.

Oh man, living the dream! Well, tell me about… I want to jump right into the movie because I liked it so much.

Ah, thank you, brother.

I got to talk to you last year for the movie you did, Outsider, which I also liked very much, and now you’re two for two with me. Sometimes I interview people where I’m like, “Let’s talk about other stuff because your movie is fine,” but it’s like, man, two for two, you knocked it out of the park. Tell me about picking them, tell me about picking them.

Thank you man, thank you.

Tell me about choosing these kinds of roles. I’m sure there’s stuff you can do that is easy, but you’ve gotta do stuff with soul. Tell me about picking a role with soul, like this.

This is a passion project, because I wrote it. I wrote this story in 2007. It’s kind of the marrying of two of my biggest passions. I found martial arts long ago, when I was nine years old. So, to be able to put that on screen, something that changed my life in that type of capacity, that’s a dream come true. I think you saw, from the film, I even have my two sons playing my boy at different ages. They’re both Jiu-Jitsu practitioners, and they have been for years. Anytime you have that opportunity, to merge those two worlds, it’s a dream come true. I originally moved out to L.A. to be a writer. I wrote a piece of children’s theater when I first got there. Then, lo and behold, in that process, an agent… I had done acting in University, and, not to sound arrogant, but I thought I was a decent actor… But I didn’t want to put all the eggs in the basket that was being judged by a panel of five people. I just thought that was a little subjective. I was more attracted to the objective. I thought, if I write this, I think I can sell it. An agent suggested letting me go out for some commercials, and I got a few of those, and then he suggested me going on some TV shows, and the next thing you know, I was a full-time actor. But I moved out there to be a writer. So, in the last few years, I’ve gotten back to that. This is the first thing of mine that’s reached the screen. It comes from the heart, and I don’t say that lightly. Two of the things I wrote, right around the same time… I had a book that came out in 2016, one of the most important things that I’ve penned, and this story, that I wrote in 2007. I hope it’s welcomed with open arms, at least people will give it a try. I hope so, because it means the world to me.

Sure. Tell me a little bit about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I think, a lot of people, when they see any kind of martial art, the immediate misnomer is, “Oh, that’s a cool way to kick somebody’s ass,” as opposed to, from what I understand, the real spiritual discipline that comes with learning and teaching these kinds of arts.

As I said, I started martial arts when I was nine years old. The traditional martial arts are taught with a lot of discipline, integrity, character, spirituality. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is taught more of a sport. For me, coming from a traditional martial arts standpoint, I incorporate all those things. In my class, we still bow, on and off the mat. We pay respect to the mat. A lot of damage can be done on that mat. Before and after every match, you shake hands, you look in your training partner’s eyes, and you pretty much say, regardless of what happens, we’re family, we’re friends. Although, between that handshake, before and after the match, I’m gonna try to hyper-extend your arm, and I’m going to keep going until you do this (taps his shoulder) and ask me, “Okay, that’s enough, please stop,” and when you do that, I will honor it with immediacy. That’s a bond you do not get in any other aspect of life. When another person takes your back and has your arm wrapped around, and is collapsing both of your carotid arteries, and you’re relying on a simple flutter of the hand to make it stop, that’s a trust that doesn’t exist in culinary school. It doesn’t exist in the oil industry. In that respect, I found something that’s truly changed my life. As a legacy, I want to leave that for my kids. I want to put it on the screen. That’s why this, to me, is a true love letter to that martial art. Everybody says something has changed their life. Without question, fatherhood does. Without question. Those are “normals.” But to have something abnormal directly affect your life in a profound way, this is it. Jiu-Jitsu has changed my life for the better. I would not be a fraction of the person I am without that martial art. I pay homage to it on a daily basis, and I want to leave behind a legacy of that pure, authentic Jiu-Jitsu for my kids to pass down. It’s that important to me. This film, I hope, does just that. It is truly my love letter to a martial art that has done more for me than I can calculate.

That’s amazing. And not to be reductive about it, but you look fantastic! You are shirtless in a lot of this movie, and you look great!

Thank you brother, I appreciate that.

I used to write for Muscle & Fitness, RIP that magazine. Tell me a little bit about… Were you ready for this movie in terms of working out, being in shape, doing these shirtless wrestling scenes, or was there an intensive, “alright, I’ve got a few weeks where I’ve got to tone this, I’ve gotta tighten this up.”

You know, it’s funny, doing a PR campaign for this film, one of the angles I think they pitched was, “let’s talk about how you prepare to do a martial arts film.” But I’m not an actor who dabbles in martial arts. I’m a martial artist who dabbles in acting. What changed about my life, was absolutely nothing. When you do this every single day… I didn’t prepare for it. I didn’t want to do a cycle of steroids and have this guy look different. That’s what the body looks like when you do Jiu-Jitsu every single day. That’s what it looks like when you’re wringing wet, six days a week, and actively sparring for an hour. It’s not a chiseled body builder look, but it’s real world, applicable, age-appropriate. That’s what it looks like. And, love it or hate it, I didn’t want anything to be inauthentic. I wanted him to look like his age, doing what he did every single day. And what I had to change to put that on screen was absolutely nothing, because that’s what I do every single day. I try to eat a healthy diet, and I train every single day. Every day I do four things. And I teach, in the kids’ class, how to do these four things. Whatever you believe, whomever you believe put you here, that’s probably the greatest gift we’ve ever been given. So every day, I have to write a thank you letter. And that thank you letter is what I do with that gift, and there are four things. I eat good, I sleep good, I train my body, and I train my mind. Even in the kids’ class. Those are the four things. There are certainly people with more chiseled, athletic-looking bodies, and there are people with less chiseled, athletic looking bodies. But that’s what a real body at that age looks like when you train Jiu-Jitsu every single day.

That’s amazing. And you did the stunt, well, the fight coordination, choreography, whatever the term is. And it has this authentic look to it. It’s not, like, you’re jumping around doing roundhouse kicks, I mean, all respect to Chuck Norris, one of the greats. But tell me about representing this authentically, and having characters in the movie disparage it with the rampant testosterone-fueled homophobia that comes with any kind of wrestling critique, and how that critique melts away when they’re about to be knocked out cold because you’ve got them and they can’t move one inch.

For the people who aren’t privy to how Jiu-Jitsu ended up on our shores… In 1989, Rorion Gracie wrote an article in Playboy magazine, and he issued a $100,000 challenge to anybody who could beat their martial art. In 1993, the UFC started. Rorion Gracie started the UFC to promote his martial art. But there was a $100,000 challenge that existed, and there were dojo matches up into the early 2000s. I witnessed a handful of those. I actually participated in one, unbeknownst to me. Those are very real. I wrote that specific scene you’re talking about for something that actually happened to me. The choreography is exactly what happened to me, both times. It comes from a very real place. This was when nobody knew what grappling was. Nobody believed it. As for the dynamic nature, it’s ugly! It’s not very cinema-friendly. There are no spinning back-kicks. Basically, it looks like a takedown, and the person is on top, smothering, and you can’t really tell what’s happening, and then the person just gives up. I remember Jim Brown was commentating UFC 3 or 4 or 5, and he’s commentating, saying, “There’s nothing,” Gracie’s on the bottom, Dan Severn’s on the top. Jim Brown is saying, “Nothing there, nothing there…” And then Dan Severn taps out. He was in a triangle choke, and Jim Brown didn’t even know what it was. That perfectly illustrates America’s perception of the martial art. They had no idea what this f****** sorcery was. But they knew it just crushed everything in its path. Being a lifelong martial artist, when I first saw that… There’s two types of people. There’s people who are so ingrained in their own style, that they say, “No no no, that can’t be real, I know my system can defeat it.” And there’s the person who goes, “You know what? Let me try it. If it proves as strong as I think it is, let me train in that. I need to figure out how to have that power over another mortal.” And I was in that category. I’d never been comprehensively dominated that severely in my life, as when I walked into Rickson Gracie’s academy and they threw me a gi. I went against a 130 pound dude, and I was an athlete, I was doing triathlons at the time. I’d been doing martial arts since I was nine. And Matt Akins, Henry Akins’ little brother. Henry, I consider to be still an instructor of mine. I came up under his tutelage at the Rickson Gracie academy. Matt Akins was his little brother, 135 pounds. And that dude could do anything he wanted to me. Arm locked me, choked me, took my back, wrist locked me, ankle locked me, shoulder locked me. I didn’t have an answer for it. As a man, it takes a lot to swallow that and say, “what do I need to exchange to learn that?” Or you’re the type of person who goes, “No, well really, on the street, I would have eye gouged him,” no. There’s nothing I could have done. If that kid wanted my wallet in a dark alley, I’d have to give it to him. And I can’t sleep at night knowing that’s a possibility. So I signed up. I said, “What do you need?” I signed up for two days a week. And that lasted one day. And then I changed it to unlimited. And I pretty much camped out at Rickson Gracie’s academy for… A long time. I became completely addicted, a lifer. It’s still a seven-day-a-week adventure for me to this day.

You walk the walk. You don’t just talk the talk. You are the real deal, when it comes to this art, this sport. Tell me a little bit about how you live that today. You mentioned six days a week and the classes you teach. Tell me about, not just that, but the way those principles guide your life.

When I say “very few things,” what I really mean is “nothing.” Nothing outside of fatherhood – my wife and fatherhood – has changed my life more significantly than this martial art. Nothing. Whenever you think back on your life and things that you could eliminate, one of the last things I would eliminate is what this martial art has given me. Right here, in my office, let me reach out and show this to you… (grabs item) I retired it, but this was the first black belt that I was beaten with when I got my black belt. May 4 of 2008. It’s still in my office. Obviously, it’s old and decrepit at this point, but this, the relationship that this has provided me with, the confidence, the physical health, everything that I walk into a room with and walk out of a room with, a large portion of it is comprised inside this belt. One of the most profound and important things that I can leave behind to my kids is the legacy of what that’s done for my life. We train on a daily basis. Today, I have a kids’ class at 5:00, and an adult class at 6:30. When I say it’s an active part of my life, I train every day. I’m on the mat every single day. I will show you one thing on my cell phone here, which is probably a little odd, but I’m so into this, it’s such a huge part of my life, that I will show you… Let’s see… This is in my back yard. (shows photo of a dojo)

Wow.

Obviously, I’m outside of Houston in Texas, on a lot of land, but I built this in my backyard. So, when me and my boys want to go train, we walk out the door. We don’t get in the car and drive anywhere, we just walk out the door. I have a facility on the property. That’s how dedicated I am to giving my kids that confidence, that security. I will never allow my kids to rely on the charity of a bully to not get their lunch money stolen. Ever. I want their “no” to contain more than just hope. If I would have had that as a kid, it would have saved me a multitude of problems. So I want to make sure that my kids can walk through a room and say, “No, you’re not going to take that from me,” and mean it, and have the ability to back it up.

And the discipline and education to not run wild with it, I guess is the term…

It’s a good thing you brought that up. There is somewhat of a separation between martial arts and fighting. A fighter is anyone who’s willing to go to blows. A martial artist knows conflict avoidance all the way to extreme violence. My kids, coming up through the discipline, the character, the integrity of traditional martial arts, would never use this unless it was absolutely necessary. As a matter of fact, me and my wife make a joke about it all the time. My oldest, Charlie, he’s a little Jiu-Jitsu protoge. You’d probably have to kick sand in his face 20 times for him to finally snap and say, “It’s not gonna happen again.” He’s just that wonderful-hearted kid. He plays the older version of my son in the film. So yes, they are true martial artists. I’m not breeding fighters. I’m breeding martial artists, from top to bottom.

That’s excellent and good to hear! This movie has so much soul. You’ve got Katrina Bowden in there. She’s a darling, and I’ve adored her since forever. And it’s got this great framing device of the story being told, very documentary-esque. Tell me about, when you’re writing and you come up with a story, does something like that, that framing device, was it there from the beginning, or do you go, “I want an anchor for this, I want narration, I want a character telling this story,” Tell me about being in your room or wherever, with a quill pen, coming up with a movie that is yours.

I originally wrote this in 2007. And probably the biggest martial arts forum, where people discuss fights, UFC events, One championship, Bellator, and all the pro fighters post on there as well… There was a thread about, “Hey, somebody, post your original fight story, martial arts story, anything.” And I wrote the story that got me into martial arts. A story about a girl named Glenda Bilbo, and it got a pretty good reception. So I wrote a second one, and it was the Mickey Kelley story. I didn’t post it, because I wrote it and I realized I wanted to make this into a film. That was in 2007. From the minute the pen hit the paper, the story was all told through the voice, in a documentary style, through the interview about this character. So, from day one, it started with the interview and ended with the interview. From the first release of this story, in 2007, it stayed very true to that original penny. As you know, any film goes through an organic process. You know, when you write a scene and you go, “You’re in the tropical rain forest…” And then you realize you don’t have the money to go to the rain forest. So what about Hawaii? And you’re like, “Yes, and they’re all in bikinis instead of raincoats!” This never took that drastic of a turn. It stayed true to the way it came out of my head, and I’m grateful for that, for the opportunity to stay true to it.

Does that come from doing it outside of the big studio system, of being, “I want this to be my role, I don’t want somebody to change my words,” or do you roll with the punches, in those terms, so to speak?

It’s hard to say, because I’ve never written for a bit studio, so I don’t know. I do know that writing is incredibly personal, and it’s difficult when… You know, it’s the imagination. The reason a film can never be as good as a book is because when somebody writes, “The most beautiful girl in the world walks into a room,” in your head, that’s true. You imagine your version of her. The minute you cast, say, a brunette girl, well, everybody that loves blondes, they’re like, “Okay, she’s pretty, but she’s not really THE MOST.” So you start to go down from… Out of 1 to 100, say 100 is a perfect script, and every time you cast, you ostracize a certain percentage of the population. Maybe not 100%, but you start to lose people a little bit. When you say “the most physically sculpted man on the planet,” then, unless you cast Schwarzenegger from ’76, he may be sculpted, but he’s not THAT… You know what I mean? I don’t know what it’s like in the studio system. Obviously, that’s the pinnacle of movie-making, and certainly, a lot of those people got their jobs for good reason, but a lot of time, consensus is difficult. Some of my favorite films are done by auteurs. Auteurs who wrote it, cast it, selected the creative players, and saw it to realization. That’s more where this one falls. There weren’t a lot of cooks in the kitchen. When I wrote it, my producing partner, Paul J. Alessi, in my opinion, one of the most creative, brilliant producers out there, you’ll see a lot more from him in the future… We saw eye-to-eye on a lot of this. I’m grateful for that. I don’t know what the studio system is like. Who knows, a lot of times when somebody makes a change, sometimes it’s, “Oh my God, I didn’t think about that, that would make it even better!” But a lot of times, I’m sure it’s like, “Oh my God, no. The nun can’t be working in a whorehouse.” (Laughs) You know, when the change is so violent, you’re like, “No, it can’t take place underwater, it’s supposed to be an orphanage!”

Yeah! Thanks so much, the movie is so good. You and Alex did a great job. I hope that a lot of people see this one, because it’s special. You can tell it’s personal, you can tell it’s you, that you put your heart and soul into it, and that’s what makes it special!

I appreciate it, man. I hope people give it a shot as well, I really do.

It’s been an honor and a treat to talk to you, I hope I get to catch you on the next one, too.

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About The Author


Zak Wojnar
(946 Articles Published)

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Zak Wojnar is a writer from New York City. He’s covered everything from video games and movies to maple syrup and deli business. Thanks to Screen Rant, he’s discovered his newest passion, interviewing artists. He takes great joy in letting film and gaming legends tell their own story and share their passion for their art.
Zak’s first memory is going with his dad to Tower Records and buying the VHS boxed set of the original Star Wars trilogy. Over the next decade or so, those tapes would be completely worn out through overuse. When he’s not preparing for the next big interview, he can usually be found sitting too close to the TV, either re-watching Miami Vice or The X-Files, or getting lost in a video game.
Zak has bylines at Game Informer, Muscle & Fitness, PopCultureGalaxy, Men’s Fitness, Cheese Connoisseur, and Deli Business (see, that wasn’t a joke before!), among others.
Follow and engage with him on Twitter @ZakWojnar.

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