FLICKSIDED INTERVIEWS Kent Moran: The Writer, Director, Star of THE CHALLENGER
May 19, 2015
FLICKSIDED INTERVIEWS Kent Moran: The Writer, Director, Star of THE CHALLENGER
” WE CHATTED WITH KENT MORAN, WHOSE FILM, ‘THE CHALLENGER’, WAS AN EXPERIENCE THAT WAS FOUR YEARS IN THE MAKING’
It must be tough to make a movie. For writer/director/actor Kent Moran — his first venture as a director is The Challenger — a boxing drama with Moran in the lead role, and the late Michael Clarke Duncan in a supporting role.
The plot synopsis goes like this: The film follows struggling Bronx auto mechanic Jaden Miller (Kent Moran) who will do everything in his power to save himself and his mother (S. Epatha Merkerson) from living on the streets. With the help of legendary trainer, Duane Taylor (Michael Clarke Duncan), Miller soon finds that boxing is their ticket to a better life. Earning the title ‘Bronx Boy,’ Miller becomes a local hero. After winning a big fight, a cable network takes notice and decides to give Miller his own TV show, ‘The Challenger,’ which will follow him all the way to the Light-Heavyweight Title.
What’s most interesting about that plot synopsis is the turn the film takes into reality television based. Moran first thought of this film in 2008, and when we spoke with him he said: “At the time reality tv boxing was huge with shows like THE CONTENDER being really popular. I thought it’d be an interesting idea to tackle a boxing film from that perspective.”
Boxing films seem a dime a dozen these days, but it’s this plot twist of the reality television setting that really got me intrigued in Kent Moran’s film. Not that Moran doesn’t respect or acknowledge the idea that boxing films tend to represent the economic times in which we live in. The Challenger is no exception: “This film really came to me at a time where this country was in the economic crisis of 2008,” Moran said. “That was really the inciting event for how the film came to me, and ultimately, how this film came to be.”
Michael Clarke Duncan
It’s tough enough to be directing your first feature film, it’s another thing when your Academy Award nominated co-star passes away, sadly. Michael Clarke Duncan left behind a great and loving legacy, one that Kent Moran agrees, was tremendous. “He really was the heart and soul of not only this film, but the filming process. I learned so much from Michael, and he instantly gave this project a credibility and prestige that no one else could have brought to this role. It was an honor to be able to just know him.”
The stories about Michael Clarke Duncan weren’t all solemn from Kent Moran’s perspective. He has a great story about first meeting Michael Clarke Duncan.
WHEN I FIRST MET MICHAEL, HE TOLD ME: “I’VE ONLY WORKED WITH ONE OTHER ACTOR/DIRECTOR BEFORE — ANTHONY HOPKINS…..AND NOW YOU”
Wow! Talk about a pressure cooker thing to say to a young writer director the very first time you meet him. But Moran took that as a challenge rather than succumbing to any kind of pressure. “Michael really embraced me from then on and the knowledge and wisdom he passed along to me during the shoot was tremendous indeed.”
THE CHALLENGER will make its West Coast premiere opening night at the Dances with Films festival in Los Angeles on Thursday May 28, 2015.
www.TheChallengerFilm.com
This article originally appeared on Fansided