Chris Jericho has been wrestling for over three decades, but he’s also acted in a few films. His next film project is titled Dark Match, which will be streaming on Shudder from January 31. Recently, Jericho opened up about his character in the wrestling-based horror film.
While speaking to The Takedown on Sports Illustrated, Chris Jericho shared how being a good wrestler can help produce a good actor.
“I’ve been playing a character and acting for 34 years. That’s one thing that I’ve always loved about wrestling, is you get a chance to play a character. So, of course, when you branch out and do other roles, it’s very natural. I say that like being a wrestler at the top levels, at the highest of levels is like show business boot camp. You learn a little bit about everything, as far as how to be on camera, whether it’s live, or whether it’s behind the scenes, or whether it’s you doing 10 takes of something.
“You really do learn from that experience. But (films), it’s a different world. So you really have to go in a lot of new ways. [It’s] from enunciating to 1000s of people in an arena, to basically one person in your scene and the camera. That’s a whole different style of acting. All of those things help, though. And I think being in this business for as long as I have, it’s a real great foundation to take your acting skills to other places.”
“My biggest mission was to make people forget that it’s Chris Jericho on screen”
The Ocho also shared that The Learning Tree gimmick and the character he’s playing in the film are totally different characters. He was initially hesitant to agree to do the film. However, he was intrigued as the Prophet character had multiple layers to it.
“They’re not the same characters, or even close. And as a matter of fact, when this movie first was pitched to me, I had some hesitations about taking the part, because I am a wrestler. But, this was so much deeper than that — kind of playing this multi-layered character with all of these different issues and problems, and his whole overall plan to take over the world, and unleash Satan from hell.
“I think my biggest mission was to make people forget that it’s Chris Jericho on screen. Which I think as the movie goes on, we did a really good job of that. I’m so connected with wrestling. But this is not really so much a wrestling movie as it is just a great horror movie with wrestling as a background,” Chris Jericho said.
Are you excited about the upcoming Dark Match film?
