Noah Hathaway: Sushi Girl
by Nicole Powers for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

Noah Hathaway is one of the nicest people you’ll ever have the pleasure of seeing tortured – but a least he’s only suffering for his art. In Sushi Girl, a bloody stylish homage to ‘70s Grindhouse, he plays Fish, a participant in a diamond heist gone bad. For his trouble he gets six years inside, while his partners in crime remain free thanks to his silence. On the night of his release, they lay on a special dinner, which involves more pain than pleasure for Hathaway’s intriguing character.

Hathaway is perhaps best known for his role as Atreyu in the 1984 fantasy film Neverending Story. He spent his formative years within the Hollywood system – most notably playing Boxey at the tender ages of 6 in the original Battlestar Galactica TV series – however he’s refreshingly unaffected by it. This might be because, unlike other child stars of his generation, he quit while he was ahead and got out of dodge, at least for a while. Sushi Girl marks Hathaway’s return to Hollywood. Aside from an appearance in To Die, To Sleep, which filmed in 1992, it’s his first major film roll since Troll in 1986.

I meet Hathaway in an elaborate looking, but musty smelling defunct Chinese restaurant near Universal CityWalk, which serves as the location for much of the Sushi Girl action. The film was co-written and produced by longtime friend of SG Destin Pfaff, which is why this special all-access set visit is on the menu. Despite its shoestring budget, the project has an incredibly high caliber of cast, which includes Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Tony Todd (Candyman), James Duval (Donnie Darko), and martial arts legend Sonny Chiba (Street Fighter). It also features smokin’ hot newcomer Cortney Palm in the title role.

Having already chatted with Pfaff, Chiba and Palm, I sit down for my final interview of the day with Hathaway as he’s munching on a craft service chicken dinner between scenes. Our conversation quickly takes us to places one might not expect to go with the wide-eyed kid from Neverending Story. We chat about his own street fighting skills, his love of chopper bikes, his apprenticeship in the art of tattooing, and his passion for women with ink.

Nicole Powers: I understand you’ve been working as a tattoo artist in Amsterdam.

Noah Hathaway: When I moved to Amsterdam I decided…I’d been getting tattooed for so many years and I was like, I love art, I love tattooing, I’m going to learn how to tattoo. So my wife apprenticed me. She’s been a tattoo artist for 7 years. She apprenticed under a guy named Zulu. I got my first tattoo when I was 15, I’m almost 40 now, so in all these years I just kept collecting work. I was like, “God, I want to tattoo.” I was feeling left out. So that’s what I’ve been doing the last year, just tattooing. And then I got this phone call…

NP: Destin tells me it was quite serendipitous how that happened, that you got a Facebook message from him the day that you decided to head back to LA.

NH: It was crazy. I got a Facebook message at about…I normally get up 10:30, I’m not an early riser. I got up early that morning and checked my email. It was like 8 o’clock. I got a Facebook [message] from the producer saying, “Would you be interested in doing this movie with Sonny Chiba.” All he had to say for me is Sonny Chiba. I’m like, “Cool.” I hadn’t even read the script. I auditioned that night over Skype and I was on a plane four hours later…So that’s kind of how this all happened, and I’m here. This is my first picture in many years. I worked from the age of four to my early ‘20s without really stopping, so I got burned. I had been screwed over, business was suing people to get paid for the movies that you were in. It just started to wear on me. So I just disappeared for a bunch of years, and so now this is my comeback movie.

NP: What made you want to come back?

NH: I love tattooing, but when you know what you’re supposed to be doing and you’re not doing it, there’s always a little something that you feel is missing or not right. I acknowledged that. I thought, “This is what I’m supposed to be doing, what you’re good at, and what you love, so go do it.” …At the same time, I had been talking to my wife about going back to LA for pilot season this year, and the movie came up. So it’s something that I had been discussing with her, and it just all happened really quick.

NP: I guess, now you have more of a life balance with the tattooing and the acting.

NH: Well yeah. It also keeps me busy between projects, I’m not sitting around getting in trouble. I can go and work and do something else that I really enjoy doing. I’d like to open a shop in LA also, maybe a little later. We’re just finishing getting our shop up in Amsterdam. It’s not completely finished.

NP: Do you now plan to split your time between LA and Amsterdam?

NH: I’m going to try to. I’m not crazy about the cold. I spent two winters in Amsterdam and I’m not feeling it. I’m born and raised here, so I think I might go back for the summers and that’s about it.

NP: That sounds like a sensible plan. So did you grow up watching Sonny’s Street Fighter movies?

NH: Absolutely. We had a little theater a couple of blocks from my house and on Sundays all the neighborhood kids would go watch kung fu theater and cartoon Sundays for 50 cents. That’s where I saw all the Shaw Brothers and Sonny Chiba movies. I think I was 6 or 7-years old. Then I got started in marital arts. Saw Bruce Lee movies there.

NP: So getting your ass kicked by Sonny is a dream come true?

NH: Oh, absolutely, an honor. I mean, for anything to be better you’d have to bring Bruce Lee back from the dead.

NP: What marital arts disciplines have you trained in?

NH: I have a black belt in Tang soo do. I’ve taken Judo, Jujutsu and Muay Thai. I had a bad back accident, I had a horse fall on me, and so I don’t do a lot of kicking in martial arts anymore, but I box a lot. I’ve been boxing with Freddie Roach on and off for the last 15 years who trains [Manny] Pacquiao, Michael Moorer, James Toney and a litany of world champions. That’s more where I’m at now. I really like Jujitsu. I don’t do a lot of it. It’s hard on the body. I kind of drill, I don’t go full speed. I take it easy. But, yeah, I like the fast hands and the maneuvering of boxing. It’s a great sport.

NP: Do you get to do any ass kicking in this movie?

NH: No! Eighty percent of the movie is me getting beaten to death. They beat me with hammers, a sock full of broken glass, they pull my teeth out…

NP: Ouch! What have you done to deserve that?

NH: Well, they want their loot from a heist and I don’t know where it is. I don’t have it, but they think I do.

NP: Hence the ass kicking.

NH: Right. It’s going to be fun. It will be a lot of fun.

NP: Have you rehearsed these scenes?

NH: Not yet.

NP: So this is improvised ass kicking?

NH: Some of it is. They’re going to have to choreograph some of the stuff, but when you have Tony Todd, who’s the Candyman, beating you up – that’s scary in itself. I mean, if you just see us next to each other, I think I come up to his waist. He’s huge. There’s a couple of very intimidating men on this movie.

NP: Is eating a chicken dinner actually the best thing to do before getting the crap beaten out of you? Won’t it get squeezed out of you in five minutes time?

NH: Probably. Probably…That’s a pretty thought, thank you.

NP: You’re welcome. So, you said earlier that you like SuicideGirls.

NH: Of course. I’ve liked tattooed women since I was a little kid. I remember dating a girl when I was 18 or 20 who had a full back tattoo, and [purrs] it was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen. I’ve dated a lot of girls who are tattooed. My wife is sleeved and you know…

NP: What was the first tattoo that you got?

NH: I got my zodiac sign on my left shoulder. I’m a Scorpio. So, I got the little M with the tail.

NP: Are you still a Scorpio since they messed with the dates?

NH: Yeah, still a Scorpio…

NP: That’d be really unfortunate wouldn’t it?

NH: And you’d be shocked how when I was 15 – I mean, this was in the early ‘90s – how people freaked out. It was maybe an inch big, but I might as well have put a big tattoo across my forehead at the time.

NP: How did it go down with your parents?

NH: It didn’t. They hate them. They’ve never liked tattoos. But I think if you live for other people you don’t really enjoy your life to the fullest. I’ve been my own boss since I was like 15 or 16 anyway. I was emancipated and did my own thing at 14 or 15, so they didn’t have much say.

NP: So you had a very traditional Hollywood childhood then?

NH: It hasn’t been as crazy as a lot of the other Hollywood kids. I had a pretty good head on my shoulders. Stayed pretty grounded. I went to school with a lot of the kids that are dead and fucked up now…People crack up when I tell them who was at the school. We had Corey Feldman, Corey Haim, Christina Applegate, Scott Grimes, like a litany of ‘80s and ‘90s child stars and so it was just very surreal. Some of them are dead and some of them have been in jail. Not that I’m a saint, just being like that never interested me. I think I always had a little too much self worth to let that happen to myself. I always had too many things going on. Good things. I think you have to care enough about yourself first.

NP: And have other interests so that your world doesn’t just revolve around acting.

NH: Absolutely. Because if that’s your everything and it gets taken away, what do you have? Nothing. You’re screwed. I was a dancer and a martial artist and I always had other activities and things that I did on top and in addition to being an actor…And it wasn’t like I couldn’t get work anymore, I just didn’t want to work anymore. I wasn’t one of those kids that was struggling to stay working and miserable. I was like, I’m done. I kind of walked away from the table instead of 10 years of struggling…I was like, I’m done, finito.

NP: Have you any specific ambitions of people you still want to work with?

NH: I’d love to work with Tarentino. Robert Rodriguez, I love. My favorite genre of movies are from the late ‘60s, ‘70s. That Grindhouse experiment. They were trying to get away from the ‘50s swimming and dancing movies, so they went way the opposite and it got really gritty and raw. I really love that look.

NP: I was looking at the Street Fighter trailer just before I came here and it has such a different, un-slick look.

NH: And that’s what I love about Sonny too. For me, I think I like him better than a Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was so pretty and perfect and polished. Sonny was just so raw. It was raw nerve, and brutal and grimy almost. That’s more of my alley.

NP: You get to the point now with movies like Crouching Tiger where you’ve almost taken the violence out of martial arts – it’s more akin to ballet.

NH: Well, Crouching Tiger was a beautiful movie. I think that’s my favorite of all the high flying wire movies. That’s beautiful. But I’ve got a lot of problems with the wire work. Never really got into it. I like it when it’s super cheesy. Like the old Shaw Brothers stuff and The 36 Chambers. I like that old, old stuff. But when they try to do the new movies and they’re using all the wire work, I’d rather see somebody really do some cool hand to hand combat in real time, you know?

NP: Right. When Bruce Lee or Sonny were doing their stuff, it wasn’t trickery, they were really doing it.

NH: Yeah, I’m not into the trickery. I want to see somebody really kick some ass, and know that they can do that. You know what I mean? There’s a big difference, especially when you know a little bit.

NP: I guess it’s not so fun when you’re on the receiving end and you’re really getting your ass kicked though.

NH: Right. I will be getting a lot of that.

NP: You really signed up for some punishment with this movie, like on every other page…

NH: Every other page…Acupuncture torture with chop sticks, I know, they really put me through the grinder in this one.

NP: What scene are you least looking forward to filming?

NH: I’m looking forward to filming everything. Really. I know I’m going to be exhausted and tired at the end of the day. It’s very emotional to act like you’re being tortured to death. It takes a lot of out you, I’m sure. Not that I really know. I’m looking forward to all of it. I’m just really glad to be working, and the people that I’m working with are awesome.

NP: That’s what Sonny was saying. I asked him why he was doing this, and he’s like, “If my friends are making films, I have to be in them.”

NH: I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been on a lot of productions, and as far as people and no egos, it’s the best production I’ve ever been on for working. Everybody knows their shit and everybody is cool. The feeling is that everybody’s family and they just want to do a great job. You know, if you’re on big productions, there’s so many bad experiences. You have people with huge egos, and fighting, and there’s no place for it. So this has been awesome.

NP: I can tell that, just from the vibe on this set. There’s no bad energy, no ones stressing out. It’s just really mellow.

NH: Yeah, it’s awesome. I couldn’t wish for a better project to come back on. And it’s something I love. I love this style of Grindhouse movie. That’s my little niche. I would be watching it, that’s the type of stuff I have in my DVD player.

NP: I can’t wait to see it.

NH: The character Mark [Hamill] has brought is just brilliant. Nobody’s ever seen him like this before.

NP: What's his character like?

NH: It’s really hard to put a finger on, but what it reminds me of is old Klaus Kinski, with that grown out bob that he used to have. He has a blond streaked, grown out bob, he has little glasses, and he’s really creepy. Like he’d have a doctor bag with tools for torture, he’s really got a great character. Nobody’s ever seen Mark Hamil like this.

NP: So it’s the complete antithesis of Luke Skywalker.

NH: Oh my god, if you saw him, you would just freak. It’s awesome.

NP: So there’s Street Fighter and Star Wars in this movie!

NH: Absolutely. You’ve got some of my favorite movies, Star Wars, Candyman, Street Fighter – it’s really a trip.

NP: Which was your favorite Star Wars?

NH: I think Empire was my favorite. I think that was the best out of the first three, you know, Star Wars, Empire and Jedi. I like the last one, because you got to see Darth come to life.

NP: As a fighter are you more Jedi or a Street Fighter?

NH: Wow, that’s a good question. I think I’d be more of a Street Fighter than a Jedi.

NP: So you’re not feelin’ the force, you’re just kicking some ass.

NH: Yeah, to me it’s about getting it done. I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want to be in there too long. I don’t want to think about it. I want to be as mean and as brutal and do the job quick and then be done with it and go home and have dinner. I don’t want to flip around and look pretty. I don’t care about that. I just want to get in and get out.

I mean, I’ve studied close quartered combat, like knife disarming and gun disarming. One of my martial arts instructors was working with a lot of the flight attendants after 9/11 and I was helping them with that. We were teaching the flight attendants how to disarm people with all kinds of things, trays and seat belts from planes.

I like dangerous stuff. I’ve always gone shooting and learned close quartered gun techniques and stuff, and some knife fighting. I’ve always been a little bit of a nut case. Not like I’m waiting for the apocalypse or anything, but I think it’s better to know it and not have to use it, than to have to use it and not know it – then you’re screwed.

NP: Do you have a zombie escape plan?

NH: No. I should.

NP: Yeah.

NH: Exit stage left. [laughs]

NP: I’m did an interview with the head of the Zombie Research Society.

NH: I love zombies.

NP: You do? Which is your favorite zombie movie.

NH: Dawn of the Dead. The original Dawn of the Dead. I love the first three, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. Those are, I think, by far the best.

NP: My favorite all time movie line is from Return of the Living Dead – “If you love me, you’ll let me eat your brains.”

NH: I like the comedy ones too like that. Those are a lot of fun.

NP: We need a martial arts zombie movie.

NH: That’s so funny that you said that; I started writing a script about samurais in Japan coming out of the ground and it was a zombie martial arts movie.

NP: Well, if you happen to be in Japan at a martial arts school and the apocalypse happens, you’d be surrounded by mutant ninja zombies wouldn’t you?

NH: [laughs] Right. That’s awesome. I agree. I think it would be great…I’d watch it. I love that stuff.

NP: You need to be in it. Never mind watching it.

NH: I would be.

NP: That’s your next assignment. You’ve gotta write it.

NH: I’ll get on it. It’s funny, all the producers and the director and we all have the same sensibility and quirks. We all like macabre stuff and Grindhouse, so we have things that we want to write together. I had mentioned that and they were like, “Oh, that’s really cool.” I also would like to do a ‘70s biker movie, like a Hells Angel type thing. One hasn’t been done in 25 to 30 years. You know, do a real grimy, Grindhouse-y biker movie.

NP: Have you got a bike?

NH: I’ve had one. I need to build one when I move back. I’ll have another one built.

NP: What kind?

NH: Just a custom chopper. Not too crazy…Like a panhead, a nice shovelhead, I love that ‘60s and ‘70s chopper feel.

NP: Where’s your favorite run?

NH: I like to go out to Malibu. When I used ride I’d go everywhere. I’d ride up to San Francisco and I’d ride out to Arizona. I just like to go riding. I don’t take a race bike anymore on the street, but I used to ride out. I’d go out to Willow Springs and race on the track. It’s so dangerous in Los Angeles to be on a sport bike, so I’ll put some leathers on and go take it out to the track if I want to go do that. [Otherwise] I just kind of cruise, cruise LA or wherever. Angeles Crest is nice. Just going up the PCH as far as you can go is an incredible ride. Go down to San Diego or Mexico. I’ve done all of those. I wanted to build a bike in Europe and go through the Alps during the summer. That would be absolutely incredible.

NP: Did you get into watching Top Gear at all?

NH: I love Top Gear. That’s a great show.

NP: They’ve done shows featuring some of the amazing roads in Europe, including the one in the Alps.

NH: That’s where I saw them. And what Ewan McGregor did with Long Way Round blew me away. He’s a stud. That’s amazing. I couldn’t do it. That’s really cool. I watched that one show and I was floored. That’s a trip. What was it, 20,000 miles, something like that.

[At this point Destin Pfaff walks in the room]

NP: [Talking to Destin] We’ve come up with another movie.

DP: Besides Lesbian Astronauts?

[a running joke from our previous interview]

NP: Yes, besides Lesbian Astronauts. Mutant Ninja Zombies.

DP: Done.

NH: I already started the script too.

DP: The Samurai Zombie thing? I’m into it.

NH: I am too. It’d be awesome. We can get Sonny for it.

[At this point Sonny Chiba walks in the room]

SC: I’m in.

DP: Done. We got him.


Sushi Girl premieres at Mann’s Chinese Theater on Tuesday, November 27th, and is available on VOD. For more info visit: sushigirlmovie.com.. Watch this space for news of Lesbian Astronauts and/or Mutant Ninja Zombies.

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Noah+Hathaway%3A+Sushi+Girl/