I prefer to play the villain or the antihero.

Im always trying to improve my skills as an actor. I think it shows in El Gringo; it shows in the new Universal Soldier. You cant rest on your laurels; youve got to keep improving.

I did martial arts since I was 10 years old, and I've got as much love for the movies as I have for martial arts, so when I was 18 years old, I started studying performing arts with the eye of getting into the film industry and went to drama school after that.

I put so much pressure on myself to raise the bar with each and every project. I treat it like every film is my last, and I make sure I pour everything I have into every film I make because if I'm not trying to improve, someone else will.

When I was ten years old, my dad and brother did JUDO so I went along because I felt like I was missing out. They eventually gave up and I continued, then moved into Tae Kwon Do, kickboxing and various other martial arts. I did lots of different things, but mostly things like Wushu, Jeet Kune Do, Krav Maga and stuff like that.

The genre of '80s action movies, I think, changed really when The Matrix came out and Keanu Reeves was able to perform kung fu. Then you had Matt Damon in the Bourne films, doing a great job. So it's different now, they can train actors to do their own fights convincingly on screen, so those guys aren't needed anymore. But I think everything goes around in circles; people still do want to see the guys that can do stuff for real, that's why The Expendables is so popular. I think it will come back again.

I just remember Bruce Lee blowing my mind on the screen, and I thought to myself, Thats what I want to do for a living when Im older. Bruce Lee was so magnetic and charismatic and held the screen so well.