Scott Adkins: The cult action icon still waiting on a mainstream breakthrough
Every self-respecting action junkie knows fine well that Scott Adkins is one of the most accomplished, dependable, and committed stars the genre has to offer, but he remains a phenomenon that largely goes over the head of mainstream audiences.
He’s been in some huge movies but never in a lead role, which is strange considering he possesses everything the industry wants from its ass-kicking stars. He’s tall, built like a brick shithouse, has been training in martial arts for over 30 years, boasts plenty of screen presence and charisma, and has proven that he has superior dramatic range to many of his contemporaries. He ticks all the boxes, then, but for whatever reason, he’s yet to be afforded the opportunity to take top billing in a major mainstream action flick.
Adkins is every bit as prolific as the majority of his contemporaries who operate largely in the VOD circuit, but the major difference is that he’s shown plenty of quality to match the quantity. Ninja II: Shadow of a Tear, Castle Falls, Close Range, Legacy of Lies, Accident Man, The Debt Collectors, and Avengement are all solid at the very least, allowing the star to showcase his versatility by tackling comedy and drama in amongst the obligatory destruction of many hapless goons.
Regular collaborator Isaac Florentine thinks he should be a much bigger deal than he is, a sentiment echoed by many of his supporters. “Scott should have been James Bond, he should have been Batman. Because people will see someone who not only can act, but can move like nobody else, with no stunt guys and no doubles,” he said to The Hollywood Reporter. “He deserves to be a mainstream star.”
Adkins did audition for the ‘Dark Knight’ in Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before losing out to Ben Affleck, though, but the overwhelming majority of his biggest movies in terms of appeal and brand recognition have reduced him to standing in the background, albeit with one notable exception that still carries a major caveat.
He had the misfortune of being Ryan Reynolds’ body double in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and he regrets playing the forgettable bit-part of Lucian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Doctor Strange at the expense of waiting for something bigger, as he made perfectly clear: “Did I really want to blow my load on that? No, I don’t think so.” He was also the largely silent henchman Hector in The Expendables 2 and John in Zero Dark Thirty before being buried under prosthetics for his biggest Hollywood part to date.
Hamming it up as the portly and thick-accented Killa in John Wick: Chapter 4, Adkins gets ample screentime but is unrecognisable. Still, he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ve been begging him to put me in a John Wick movie for a while now. and he finally ‘Yes, but there’s a catch,'” he explained. “I actually relished the challenge and the opportunity to create such an amazingly evil, yet jolly character. I figured I’m going to have to go big. There’s no good being small in this.”
He’s one of the most memorable parts of the film, too, but that mainstream headline slot remains out of reach. That’s not to say he desperately needs it to convince anyone of his capabilities and talents, but unless it’s a viewer very familiar with the ins and outs of VOD action, there are far too many folks out there who haven’t had the chance to discover or appreciate Adkins’ undoubted skills.
