In Redeemer Marko Zaror plays the title character, a former hitman who strikes a deal with god and becomes a vigilante keen on destroying the men who took his life from him. The action packed film feels refreshing for its clever use of genre conventions, its breathtaking imagery and of course thanks to Zaror’s inventive choreography and his charismatic performance. As the film prepares for its Blu-ray debut we talked to the action star about making genre films in Latin America, the role of women in action movies and whether we’ll see more of Redeemer soon.

This is your fourth collaboration with director Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, do you find it better to work with people you’ve known for a long time?

Yeah, that’s always helpful. I have known Ernesto since we were in high school, so we’ve developed all of our films together, as a director he knows how to get the best out of me in terms of acting, but it’s also very nice to meet new people and work with them. I’m not closed to either possibility but I obviously love working with Ernesto.

I don’t believe Redeemer smiles once in the film. So I was wondering if you kept a stern mode in between takes as well?

(Smiles) The character has a very deep internal conflict, he has a mystical delirium he uses as a way of escaping all he’s been through, but when we the director said cut we made jokes. Unless we were short on time and had little breaks in between scenes, then I’d remain in character so it wouldn’t be hard to go back into this dark place. It wasn’t very hard though, I didn’t need to be so tense all the time.

I like that you brought up the mystical because I loved all the Christian iconography in the film, which was rather refreshing for a genre movie. Have you found any conflicts presenting a film like this in conservative, very religious spaces in Latin America?

I can’t say just yet, the film hasn’t opened everywhere, it’s just opening in the States and Asia, it hasn’t even opened in Chile yet, so I don’t know yet. I doubt we’ll run into any problems though, we would have to wait and see. I feel the film is an important critique to religious fanaticism, Redeemer assumes that he was personally rescued by Jesus and he becomes hooked on this way of thinking. But then he meets Antonia and realizes that he was wrong, that things aren’t what they seem, he eventually understands that the only way to cleanse himself from this cycle of revenge and violence is to stop being a part of it.

Antonia is the only character in the film that doesn’t seem to be afraid of Redeemer.

You’re right (laughs)

I like how this reflects a more modern role for women in action films. Antonia doesn’t need to be rescued in a traditional sense. Could this mean we could see you having a female sidekick in your next film?

Of course! In this movie Antonia is the savior, she shows Redeemer compassion and kindness, she sees his fear and allows him to be more human.

I read that your mom was who first got you interested in martial arts, and I believe we can see how your respect for women is reflected in the films you’ve made since.

Yes, my mom was very involved in martial arts when I was a kid so she got me started, then I watched a Bruce Lee movie and he became my idol. When it comes to my movies, both Ernesto and I are interested in having more human characters. In Kiltro for instance we wanted to show how in highschool we had crushes on girls who didn’t even know we were around, so we show how he the hero wants to win the girl over. In Mandrill we also show a very strong woman who seeks revenge on the man who uses her. In American films men are usually cold, distant, but we want to show the other side, a little bit more human. Like you said, the woman in Redeemer is the heroine. Since we don’t have that many resources in Chile to make explosions and big set pieces, we need to find ways to reflect our culture in the best way possible, what would a Latin American superhero or a James Bond type be like? Since we are more passionate, we want characters who fall in love, or for instance we wonder what a real life superhero would be like in Chile. Someone who struggles because he has no money for food for example.

Movies like yours didn’t exist in Latin America when you were a kid. Do you think in the future we’ll see even more genre movies being made by Latin American filmmakers?

Definitely. That’s the idea, I’m very happy with Redeemer I think it’s our first film that has made a big splash in terms of box office and marketing. I hope this will let young filmmakers know that they can make genre films in Latin America, that they don’t need to be in Hollywood to make them,

Can we talk about the choreography for a second? You choreograph the action scenes and have to perform them as well. Does Marko the choreographer ever argue with Marko the actor during the action sequences?

Yes, the job demands a lot of concentration, if it wasn’t hard enough having to learn dialogues and get into the inner lives of your characters, the fights themselves are very demanding, especially because we want to make the best action scenes we can. They take hours of rehearsal and you need to schedule your production around days your body needs to take breaks and other things. So it gets very complicated, you also have to check in the monitor how the fights look to see if anything has to be changed. I worked in this film with great martial artists like José Luis Mósca and Smirnow Boris who also act in the film. I just did a movie called The Green Ghost in which I was called as a fight coordinator and also play the villain, but in that movie we needed stunt doubles for some of the actors, so you choreograph according to the actors. It was also fun to work with Danny Trejo again in this movie.

Do villains have more fun?

(Laughs) I like doing both. In my films in Chile I have always played the lead, but in my American films like Machete Kills and Undisputed I play crazy villains. You never know what’s going on with them, so I think villains give you more chances to experiment and play.

Redeemer leaves us with a very open ending. Any chance we’ll see a sequel?

This is the one character I’d love to revisit to be honest. So that would be great!

Redeemer will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on September 1.