{"id":48139,"date":"2026-04-28T20:35:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48139"},"modified":"2026-04-28T20:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T12:35:35","slug":"jax-actor-mehcad-brooks-reveals-struggle-with-mortal-kombat-movie-fight-scenes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=48139","title":{"rendered":"Jax Actor Mehcad Brooks Reveals Struggle With Mortal Kombat Movie Fight Scenes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Mehcad Brooks, the actor who plays Jax in the Mortal Kombat movies, has revealed his struggle with the fight scenes for the first movie \u2014 struggles he overcame for the imminent sequel.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">In a virtual press conference ahead of the release of Mortal Kombat 2, Brooks said that for the first film, released in 2021, he took the character of Jax to his therapist. Major Jackson &#8220;Jax&#8221; Briggs is a veteran Mortal Kombat who made his debut in 1993\u2019s Mortal Kombat 2 as a cybernetically-enhanced Special Forces officer. He&#8217;s known for his signature metal bionic arms, which he obtains in the first movie.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cI actually sat with my therapist for about six sessions and figured out why he was who he was,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cI like to overthink a character and then underplay them. And then I think what happened for me was the first film, I didn&#8217;t know if I belonged in the fighting scenes. So that was the hard part for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-slideshow\"><button type=\"button\" style=\"display:none\" class=\"jsx-2228525885\"\/><span data-cy=\"slideshow-view-trigger\"><\/p>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-preview\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 slideshow-preview\">\n<h3 class=\"title5 jsx-62124236 jsx-1085005187\" data-cy=\"slideshow-preview-title\">Who&#8217;s Who in Mortal Kombat 2<\/h3>\n<div data-cy=\"slideshow-images-container\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 images-container\"><button type=\"button\" data-cy=\"hero-image\" aria-label=\"Open Slideshow\" class=\"jsx-1711207865 hero-image\"><img alt=\"Here's a quick look at who's who in Mortal Kombat 2!&#10;\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"progressive-image jsx-2021719738 image aspect-ratio aspect-ratio-16-9 jsx-2605834259 jsx-2338608387 hover-opacity\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-cy=\"progressive-image\"\/><span class=\"button-text jsx-729543028 button button--primary jsx-3381835873 jsx-4266531355 row-pagination-button next contained centered round large\" data-cy=\"paginate next\" title=\"Open Slideshow\"><span class=\"ign-icon right-chevron jsx-2750866048 jsx-2919720488\" role=\"presentation\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-cy=\"right-chevron\" style=\"mask:url(https:\/\/kraken.ignimgs.com\/_next\/static\/media\/RightChevron.272be43c.svg?cors=1) no-repeat center center \/ contain;background:currentColor\"\/><\/span><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/output><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Brooks has a major fight scene in the first movie where he goes up against Joe Taslim, who plays Sub-Zero. Taslim, who reprises his role for Mortal Kombat 2 \u2014 this time as Bi-Han \u2014 is a martial artist who starred in 2011\u2019s The Raid, 2013\u2019s Fast &amp; Furious 6, and 2016\u2019s Star Trek Beyond. During the scene, Sub-Zero turns Jax\u2019s arms into ice before ripping them off, leading to Jax\u2019s rebirth of sorts as the cybernetically-enhanced Special Forces officer we know from the video games.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Behind the scenes, however, Brooks struggled to feel like he belonged in the fight scenes, given the martial arts expertise and experience of his co-stars. During the press conference, he recalled one scene in which he \u201cmessed up,\u201d leading to Taslim accidentally punching him in the face.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cWhat you saw in the film was my desire to be the best at what I was doing, matching my devotion, right? But in the rehearsals, I was like, \u2018I&#8217;m not getting this right.\u2019 I was 5% away for a month and I literally broke down in my hotel room in tears and I was like, \u2018Do I belong here?\u2019 And it was psychological because I&#8217;d never done a 27-step choreography with Joe Taslim. And I messed up once and he punched me in the face. And there was something about that, that I knew I belonged there as an actor, but I didn&#8217;t know if I belonged there as a fighter. And I&#8217;m really hard on myself when it comes to that kind of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><output class=\"box-wrapper jsx-2673806401\" data-cy=\"article-video\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">However, with the confirmation of the sequel, and being asked to return for it, Brooks felt a newfound confidence in the fight scenes.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">\u201cWhen I got to the second movie, I was like, \u2018Oh, I got this.\u2019 And it&#8217;s really affirming because we had such a great reception from the fans for the first one. So it was very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Trailers for Mortal Kombat 2 have shown Jax going up against Jade, played by Tati Gabrielle, and Shao Kahn, played by Martyn Ford, so he certainly has his work cut out.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\">Mortal Kombat 2 hits theaters May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n<p data-cy=\"paragraph\" class=\"paragraph jsx-2269604527\"><em>Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ign.com\/articles\/jax-actor-mehcad-brooks-reveals-struggle-with-mortal-kombat-movie-fight-scenes-but-had-more-confidence-going-into-mortal-kombat-2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mehcad Brooks, the actor who plays Jax in the Mortal Kombat movies, has revealed his struggle with the fight scenes for the first movie \u2014&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3622,21554,1441,21552,3153,21553,3152,1543,535,1777,10423],"class_list":["post-48139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-actor","tag-brooks","tag-fight","tag-jax","tag-kombat","tag-mehcad","tag-mortal","tag-movie","tag-reveals","tag-scenes","tag-struggle","wpcat-32-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}