Knights of the Zodiac: Madison Iseman & Mark Dacascos on Bringing the Manga Classic to Life

The enormously popular manga series Saint Seiya by Masami Kurumada is adapted into the dazzling live-action movie Knights of the Zodiac, blending high fantasy with hard-hitting martial arts. As the ancient goddess Athena is reincarnated in the body of a young woman named Sienna (Madison Iseman), it is up to streetwise fighter Seiya (Mackenyu) to defend her from dark forces. Among the figures helping mentor Seiya and Sienna is the no-nonsense warrior Mylock (Mark Dacascos), who takes point in not only providing for the young heroes at home but steps up in fighting the enemies pursuing both of them around the world.

In an exclusive interview with CBR, Knights of the Zodiac stars Madison Iseman and Mark Dacascos talked about bringing the hit fantasy story to the big screen, compared notes on how they approached their performances, and shared their secrets behind delivering the movie’s quiet moments and big action scenes.

CBR: With Knights of the Zodiac, you have the benefit of having rich source material to draw from, including manga and anime. Did you dig into that for research or did you want to start fresh?

Madison Iseman: Oh, we dug in! It’s such a big universe and there is so much source material. I don’t even know how you could begin to jump into this and not know anything. Not to mention, there is so much exposition throughout the film, if you had no idea what you were talking about, I think it would show. We did a lot of research and I still feel like I’m catching up to this day.

Mark, I’ve been watching your work since Double Dragon. What is the secret sauce behind a good action scene because you get a great one here?

Mark Dacascos: The secret ingredient would be having Andy Cheng and his stunt team. He’s phenomenal, and the team members that he handpicked are incredible. He took the story [and] characters and fit it to our bodies and our characters and put the team to assemble a fantastic puzzle. We just have to figure out how to fit in, so to speak. You have to come in as prepared as possible, fit, limber and with stamina, trust your teammates and then go.

Iseman: He’s also being humble. He’s really incredible, and it’s really fun to watch!

Madison, I love the scenes that you have with Mackenyu. Between the science fiction and martial arts chaos, your quieter scenes are the emotional crux of the story. Do you remember first meeting him and forming that rapport?

Iseman: This project was very quick, so we sort of just jumped right into it. It was interesting because we sort of worked backwards in the beginning, so we shot the climax of the film first, which sometimes you just have to do it that way. I don’t think I even said a word the first three weeks of filming. I was screaming the entire time, so that was interesting. It was one of those things where we just got along really well.

We always try to make it light on set and have fun. I think that’s [apparent] on screen, and we wish he was here with us today. He’s so professional and such an incredible actor and we both just really cared about it. Even though we did go backwards to the beginning, I think it still pays off and looks like we had this long journey even though we really started with those scenes.

Mark, you’ve played plenty of stoic characters before, but there’s always a lot going on under the surface. In playing Mylock how do you find the nuances in his quiet moments and body language?

Dacascos: Every element informs, from the script to the sets and certainly the costumes and props. In terms of physicality, the physicality is the physical dialog of our characters. The most important thing for me at least, I know every actor has their own way of working, is, “Am I breathing? Do I have my feet on the ground? Have I released my unnecessary tension?” and then be present. I learned that from me Shakespeare teacher, Patsy Rodenburg.

Iseman: That’s a great thing to ceremoniously dump on all of us, thank you. [Laughs]