Brodus Clay To Walk Red Carpet For 'No One Lives'

Despite that mean look and hulking size, WWE Superstar Brodus Clay is a laid back, friendly guy who likes to laugh and ranks The Princess Bride as one of the best movies of all time. 

So it does seem to be somewhat of a stretch for the lovable Funkasaurus to play a knife-wielding villain in the horror flick No One Lives that will be screened at the Sarasota Film Festival.

Brodus, who is credited as George Murdoch in the film, will walk the red carpet for the April 13 screening at 9:15 p.m., at the Regal Cinemas Hollywood 20.

The film is directed by Japanese horror filmmaker Ryûhei Kitamura, who made Midnight Meat Train, starring Bradley Cooper. In No One Lives, a couple makes a pit stop during a cross-country road trip and gets attacked and kidnapped by a highway gang with a thirst for blood. 

Brodus plays Ethan, who is the younger brother of Hoag (Lee Tergesen), who's like an enforcer and like a second-in-command, Brodus tells Patch.

"I like the cleverness of the movie," Brodus says. "The fact that you have all these bad guys, and the worst bad guy is the hero." 

Brodus has a Florida connection, having fought in the developmental WWE league Florida Championship Wrestling, now called NXT. But this will be his first time in Sarasota, where he hopes to check out Siesta Key while he's in town.

As for No One Lives, you can probably tell by the title that there's a lot of blood, and a lot of death, but Ethan doesn't really do the on-screen killing. You just assume that he has a hit list of all his kills. Maybe.

"Ethan, he's not really a killer. He is, and he isn't," Brodus says. "I think technically, he may or may not quite possibly have killed somebody. I'm leaning more of a 'If I did it, my bad,' but like I said, I think he's wrongfully accused."

Even the hunting knife Ethan totes in the movie, is more for intimidation, Brodus says.

Don't worry—there are some gross moments in the film involving Brodus. He had to get a full body cast made of himself for one scene.

"Some of the things Ethan has to do, no human being who wants to keep breathing would want to do this," he says. 

So there was the six-foot-seven-tall wrestler's full body cast in a warehouse somewhere now, that he had to stare at with his hair, tattoos and every detail possible.

"It was creepy to look at myself," he says.

But probably not as creepy as the scene it will be used for, Brodus says. 

"You won't forget," he says. "You will not forget."

Still, dying in a horror movie has to have some sort of fun element to it. Just think of the 1,000 ways to die in these films over the years. 

"That's one of the cool things about the movie—there is no easy death," he says. "They really go out in terms of out-doing each scene in terms of shock value and cleverness. If you're into death scenes, you're going to like this movie." 

Brodus believes his death scene has to rank up there near the top. 

"I think my death is up there because he kills me seven different ways—he doesn't stop. I'm like, 'OK, OK, oh, for real. You're really going to keep doing that?'" he says. "In one of the outtakes I start apologizing asking, 'What do you want? Please stop. Somebody, please come get me."

In another scene, he showed off his wrestling chops by being kicked by actor Luke Evans again…and again...and again, nearly 20 times in all.

"It's what I do for a living," he says.  

Brodus joins a long list of professional wrestlers in movies through the years, and this film is distributed by WWE Studios, which is a part of the World Wrestling Entertainment empire—allowing WWE to firmly put a stamp on movies with its wrestlers. Sarasota Film Festival audiences saw another WWE Studios film last year, The Day, where Kelly Kelly and Rey Mysterio came to Sarasota to promote the film. Though the wrestlers were not in that movie, it did star Dominic Monaghan. 

Brodus recognizes that wrestlers each has his (and hers) own journey into Hollywood movies. His was one of opportunity. 

"When my opportunity came up for the movie, I just wanted to say I did a movie, and anything after that, it'll be great," he says.

There have been some not-so-great wrestlers and movies through the years, but then there are guys like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who is buzzing along in Hollywood, and Hulk Hogan in Rocky III, which Brodus recognizes as "kind of launching Hulkamania."

But the best wrestler in a movie has to go to Andre The Giant as Fezzik in The Princess Bride, Brodus says.  

"That's a timeless classic. It never gets old. He's such a lovable character," he says, as he rattles off the famous lines from the 1987 classic—"Hello, Lady." "Inconceivable!"

"You just want to give him a hug," he adds. But, Brodus' character Ethan? No hugs there. 

"Evan is not as lovable as Andre was," he says. 

The late wrestler, Andre, was one of Brodus' idols growing up. He quickly rattles off all sorts of wrestling history and facts about Andre The Giant, like how the French wrestler partnered with Haku, forming the Colossal Connection tag team in 1989. Or the time in WrestleMania III when Hulk Hogan gave Andre his first defeat in 15 years.

Brodus, or George as he grew up, looked up to those guys, but found interests in the Boston Celtics' Robert Parrish, Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Captain Kirk.

"I was just a regular, everyday boy," says the now 33-year-old. "I was all over the place…If it was cool, I didn't care." 

His love for all kinds of movies helps explains his willingness to explore different roles, too. Even if it means a different type of murderer.

"After I did this, I definitely want to do it again. I'd like to train a different genre if I do another horror movie. I'd like to be an actual killer instead of Luke and Evan in the middle of nowhere," he says, laughing.

If you go

No One Lives

9:15 p.m. Saturday, April 13

Regal Hollywood 20, Theater 9

Runtime: 86 minutes

Tickets: $12.50 available at the Sarasota Film Festival Box Office Inside the Hollywood 20 and online.