A Conversation with Ellen Hollman
I spoke to Ellen Hollman about her new film Army of One — streaming NOW on iTunes, Amazon, XBOX, Google Play, Direct TV, Dish Network, Fandango, Vudu, iNDEMAND and more. We also discuss her involvement in the upcoming Matrix sequel.
Yanis: What can you tell me about Army of One?
Ellen: We follow former military Brenner Baker and her husband as they take a little break from work. They go into the woods, you know, not anything too out of the ordinary, until of course they come upon a drug cartel compound and her husband takes a bullet to the head. So that’s when shit really hits the fan and she decides to go on a murderous rage rampage.
Y: Nice! I got Rambo vibes watching the trailer.
E: You know it’s really funny. If Rambo and Deliverance were to have a hell spawn, it would be Brenner Baker.
Y: Interesting!
E: Mhm why not right? The intention initially was not Rambo, however I can see how you can certainly get that vibe from it. We tried to take away the 80s aspect. What makes this interesting is that it’s a female led action drama which we’re seeing more and more of in this day and age.
What does separate this from the rest of the pack is the fact that every single performer does their own action, so there are no stunt doubles. There’s no face replacement. There’s no fancy CGI. It is every single performer doing their own action.
Y: Really? Interesting. So that’s you with the bow and arrow?
E: It’s me. Every single weapon you can imagine is pretty much showcased, including other humans. It’s things she utilizes just in a room, just basically survival. She uses her skills that she used in the military and that’s what enabled her to really keep up with her male competitors you could say.
Y: No one is gonna mess with you after seeing this film.
E: You know Yanis I do have to say if they aren’t afraid of me before this movie — I’ve done a hell of a lot of action films —then this may just seal the deal.
Y: You were a writer, a producer and you star in Army of One, is this the most skin in the game you’ve ever had in one project?
E: This is definitely the most skin I’ve had in the game. I am one of the writers, there’s a few other writers. My husband and I came on board a little bit late in the game. They already had the first draft and even some cast solidified, so when we got into the picture we came onboard as producers.
We revised much of the script and also redid much of the action design. Stephen Durham was extremely generous in allowing us to take that liberty.
Y: Excellent. Every production has obstacles. Which ones did you have to overcome?
E: Absolutely. The top two are time and money. The funny thing is you can work on a quarter billion dollar budget like Matrix, and much less budget on Army of One, and still have the same constraints. In our industry you never know what those obstacles are going to be until they are jackhammering you in the face.
So those two things [time and money] certainly were a major factor which just forces you to be more creative since you don’t have the big budget to keep spewing money at you. In our case that was through a lot of the choreography.
In particular there is a oner [one continuous shot with no cuts] in the final act of the film. We were really running out of time because it was towards the end of our schedule, and my husband came up with the idea of “why don’t we just shoot this in a oner. There’s so many pieces to this to cover all of it. We’re gonna run out of light and run out of time.” And I said to him “you know I think we should try this. I think we should really just go for it.”
And we had some incredible performers in there. We managed to get it on the very first take, which never happens in regards to these big action oners, and that’s something I’m particularly proud of.
Y: When you say oner you mean one shot?
E: Have you seen Atomic Blonde?
Y: Yeah.
E: In Atomic Blonde there’s that massive oner sequence. The camera just doesn’t cut, so to do that you treat it like theater. You treat it like one continuous performance. And the reason that’s really tricky in the action genre, is sometimes the hits don’t sell depending upon where the camera is. Sometimes the breakaway doesn’t smash against the person. Sometimes someone misses their mark and then you have to start all over again.
The reset sometimes can be up to an hour, even more. You have a limited amount of breakaways and a limited amount of times you can hit the floor before your body falls apart. There is a big proverbial gun to your head, but I fortunately welcome the pressure.
Y: You got it in one take. That’s incredible
E: We shot it a couple of other times just in case. I was like “no way did every hit sell on the first take.” It was magic. Absolutely magic.
Y: I’ve seen countless horrible oners in action movies. The worst ones are often the protagonist versus a team of people. Since that’s the premise of your film, how did you succeed where so many others have failed?
E: We call that having egg on your face. Even as an actor you don’t want egg on your face where someone’s delivering the dialogue in a way that doesn’t enhance your performance.
Same with action. You’re telling a story, and the element of surprise really helped us out here. So you’re not gonna see that Hong Kong style where a bunch of guys are surrounding one person and they’re kind of waiting.
Y: OK, good!
E: Yeah there’s none of that. I think the most we do is two on one in the oner. It’s just back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.
So it’s believable. It’s absolutely believable. While one guy is recovering from a hammer to the face, the other one is coming at me. Then he gets coffee cup shards in his face. So when you do that kind of ping pong you have to give a reason as to why they’re hesitating.
And then of course it’s up to the stunt person to give that performance, that reaction. I don’t know how you would react when you get a hammer in the face, but you would probably need a few seconds to recover. Just enough time for me to throw the other guy over my head. So it’s a well balanced demonic ballet at the end of the day.
Y: A demonic ballet? I think that should be the movie’s tagline.
E: Oh I like that! Look at that, look at the progress we’re making. Wonderful.
Y: You’re a Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. Why do so many consistently rank Brazilian jiu-jitsu as the greatest martial art for vanquishing one’s opponent?
E: Well this is where you can get me in trouble here Yanis, because if I say yes then every other martial arts is gonna be upset at me. If I say no, then all my fellow BJJ practitioners are going to be upset with me.
I will simply say it is my favorite martial art because it does not rely on punching or kicking, or size and strength. What I mean by that is you utilize your knowledge and your agility, and that works particularly well for women.
Most of that time, at least in my case, I find myself smaller than my opponent. I have to be sneakier. I have to be one step ahead. I have to use leverage. I have to use their moves and their tactics against them.
We call it physical chess. To me Brazilian jiu-jitsu is the most like physical chess, enough to make sure your head explodes figuratively and literally sometimes.
Y: When all the world’s martial arts went head to head in UFC, BJJ came out on top I believe.
E: You’re referring to the Gracie family. They are really well known for kicking down the door in mixed martial arts.
Y: Literally!
E: Well actually not literally, because they didn’t do it by kicking. They do it by submission, in which it doesn’t matter how big your opponent is. You can still use their tactics against them.
What we’re seeing more in UFC is if you do not have ground game, you are not going to survive. You have to be just as good in your punches and kicks standing up as you are on the ground. Otherwise your weakness will be exposed and you’re not gonna last very long in that ring.
Y: Agreed. If you want to survive in the hexagon, you’ve got to have great ground game. So your parents are both professional musicians?
E: Mhm that’s right my mother is a master pianist and my father is in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He plays the viola.
Y: That’s quite an accomplished family, especially since you still hold a long jump record in the state of Michigan right?
E: I would be curious to see what the record is now. I hope someone has surpassed it since then.
My family is also quite physical as well. My father is a triathlete. My mother ran marathons. They were multifaceted from that standpoint.
I did at one point play the violin and the piano. It just wasn’t a passion of mine. I think I enjoyed kicking boys in the shins on the playground more, but they teased me first so they had it coming.
Y: They had it coming!
E: (Laughs)
Y: Your family seems so accomplished. What was your upbringing like? How does one become so industrious?
E: Oh they’re gonna love to hear that.
My father was really impactful in my life because he always said “if you love what you do you never work a day in your life.” He’s pushing 80 and he still goes to concert hall in downtown Detroit nearly everyday, and he does what he loves. He gets up onstage and he plays the viola.
He has always been an inspiration because you can just tell with every fiber of his being he is passionate about what he does.
In regards to my mother she certainly taught me discipline and being just as well versed with the machinery of things as opposed to the end result. What I mean by that is be just as left brained as you are right brained. Be smart with numbers, be smart with money, be smart about your future.
Marrying those two things together is what I feel Army of One accomplished. I knew what the budget was. I knew what the time constraints were. I knew what time we had to get crew out. I knew about the equipment, but I also understood the aspects of performance.
If you marry those two things together I think that’s how you are able to wear all those hats.
Y: You took what your parents taught you when you moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. How did the first year go? I understand you started booking shortly after moving.
E: You know what’s really funny, I’ve been doing this nearly 20 years. Long enough to know better, but still do it anyway. There’s so many people who think if you go to some fancy Hollywood party you’re going to be “discovered.”
Y: That’s not how it works? WHAT?!
E: (Laughs) It doesn’t work that way! Maybe if you have a rich parent or your family is Hollywood royalty those things can also work out for you. I unfortunately didn’t have either of those things, so I had to hit the pavement and really put in my time.
You also have to have really thick skin because the rejection can be debilitating. That’s what people don’t see. They don’t see how many birthdays, anniversaries, baby showers, weddings and social engagements you sacrificed to make that callback you didn’t get, or to go to that audition you were humiliated in.
No one sees that part, that heartbreaking part. At the end of the day, you just have to be confident in your own ability. Just don’t give up. If you have a fraction of talent and you just keep doing it, eventually it is going to work out for you.
So many can’t handle the heartbreak of it, which I completely empathize with. I’ve thought about quitting, I can’t even count how many times. It’s extremely hard and I encourage those who do want to explore the entertainment industry as a way to make a living explore numerous aspects of it.
Let’s say you want to be an actor more than anything. Well, learn how to write. Learn how to write roles for yourself. Learn how to direct. Learn how to produce. Learn how to operate a camera.
You may discover you want to be a director of photography instead, or you want to write instead or you want to be in the editing bay — that’s what you’re passionate about.
The only way you’ll know if that’s something you’re passionate about is if you try it. Don’t pigeonhole yourself. That’s a massive hole I’ve seen so many performers fall in.
They think “if I don’t make it as an actor then I cannot be in this industry.” There’s so many other things you can do, and who knows, it may lead you back into being a performer. You never know until you try.
Y: Well said. Tell me about Visual Impact Now.
E: Visual Impact Now is a baby of mine. It’s a non profit organization. We dedicate ourselves to providing visual acuities, eye exams and dispensing glasses to needy children. Obviously we’re dormant right now because of the pandemic, because we’ll see nearly 1500 kids in a week collectively.
I knew if I wanted to raise a massive amount of funding for these clinics, I needed people to be inspired to open up their wallets.
And so we led by example. We put together a video where I visited some children at the Boys and Girls Club and we gave them the visual acuities and those who needed eyecare received eye exams and glasses. You could see the moment.
You could actually physically see the moment they could see clearly for the first time in their lives.
To be able to share that on a large scale level was always what I wanted to accomplish.
Y: I can’t let you go without discussing Matrix 4? Can you tell me anything?
E: It wasn’t an audition in the traditional sense. It was actually a meeting with Lana Wachowski herself, which was absolutely surreal. I have for the past six years trained closely with my husband’s stunt team 87eleven Action Design.
They’ve done such films as the John Wick franchise, Atomic Blonde, Deadpool. They’re so incredibly inspirational and generous having me alongside them.
Lana was aware of my physical capabilities. She wanted to see what kind of person I was and when we ended up having the meeting, it was her and I just learning about each other. I keep using the word “surreal.”
It was such a surreal moment. I didn’t feel like I was talking to internationally known director of the Matrix franchise Lana Wachowski. I was just having a chat with Lana.
I felt completely comfortable and authentic. I suppose that may have been what she was looking for — someone she could work with on a deeper level, not just someone who could do choreography on the job as a gun.
That led to me being part of the franchise. I’m pinching myself.
Y: Anything we should be on the lookout for?
E: You can find Love and Monsters with Dylan O’Brien and Jessica Henwick. Jessica is also a Matrix 4 costar of mine, as well as Michael Rooker.
You can find that on streaming and it’s actually getting really great reviews. If you’re into a movie that gives you all the good feels go check out Love and Monsters.
You can follow Ellen Hollman on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
