T.J. Storm

November 18, 2022December 7, 2022 Rachelle Henry 0 Comments

Having brought to life some of the most iconic characters in film, TV and video games, TJ Storm is The King of MoCap. He starred as Godzilla himself in “Godzilla” and “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” and has stepped into the shoes of Colossus, Rocket Raccoon, Darth Vader and many others. Recently, TJ starred in the Disney+ film “Under Wraps 2”, as the mummy, Sobeck. Between acting, MoCap, stunts and martial arts, TJ is an unstoppable force of nature.

ILLUMINATE: Well, hello TJ. I’m so happy to talk to you again. It’s been forever!

STORM: It’s been forever. Between the pandemic and work, it makes it difficult. But I’m so happy to see you.

ILLUMINATE: I know. Me too. This is a fun reunion, so I’m really happy you’re here and that you’re going to be in ILLUMINATE Magazine. Very happy about that.

Well, one of the things I really wanted to talk to you about is you’ve been promoting your newest film UNDER WRAPS 2 a lot right now that just came out. The premiere was at Disneyland. Tell me everything about it.

STORM: It was amazing. We got to shoot UNDER WRAPS 2 for Disney in Vancouver and we shot in the wintertime. It was freezing and I was running around Vancouver, wrapped up like a mummy, trying to stay warm and doing the shoot. And it was a blast. We had a great director. Alex Zamm really knew what he wanted. He got it. Between the kids and the mummies and everything, it is not easy to shoot something like that. But we got it. We had a blast. I had an amazing acting partner, Jordan Conley. He is on ABC “America’s Got Talent” and he’s a huge standup comedian. He’s amazing and he’s absolutely hilarious and it made the entire project really, really fun.

And then we got to premiere, like you said, at Disneyland, which is amazing that Disney let us send our families in and we just got to ride everything. And then at the end of the day, we had the premiere and it was really, really magical. It was absolutely amazing.

ILLUMINATE: Wow. I’ve heard before about premieres at Disneyland, but I haven’t known anyone that’s gotten to do that. So when I saw you post about it, I was like, oh my gosh, that’s a dream!

STORM: Amazing! It’s so fun. I loved it. Absolutely. It’s wonderful. And I get to play a character named Sobeck. He’s an ancient mummy. He was a high priest in his day and when he wakes up from his long sleep, through a bunch of kind of mistakes, he wakes up, he realizes that the love of his life is nowhere near him. So he goes and he finds her, which is not a good thing, in this story context, because she is all in love with the other Mummy, Harold, and he’s the star of UNDER WRAPS 2, so Sobeck tries to steal her away yet again.

ILLUMINATE: Ooooh, I like it. I like the villain origin story. I know that UNDER WRAPS was originally a film in the nineties and then this has been the remake and reboot to that. So had you seen the original and had you known anything about that legacy going into it?

STORM: No, I just knew that it was really, really popular and everybody that I mentioned it to was like “I remember UNDER WRAPS,” and I was like it was only out for a year? And they were like, “No, no, no! It was back in the nineties. It was awesome.” But I saw the new number one (UNDER WRAPS). I didn’t see the original, but everybody has very, very fond memories of it. It must be very, very popular because everyone loves it. We got a guy named Adam Wylie, who was the original kid in the original UNDER WRAPS. He played a character in this one. He plays a jeweler that we come into contact with. And it’s really, really fun. And now he’s a magician and a comedian. He’s amazing! He’ll just stand there and he’ll be like, “Oh, oh!” and he’ll pull a card out of your head. And then he’ll split it into 50 cards. You’re like, “Well, how did you do that?” He’s amazing. He’s absolutely amazing.

ILLUMINATE: That’s awesome that they brought him back and gave him a cameo in this.

STORM: He was the main kid in the nineties, I think. So it was really, really fun.

ILLUMINATE: That is so cool. I know that you do such intense research and diving into those roles, especially for the physicality of those characters. What was your process of creating a mummy?

STORM: It was really, really fun. The audition process was intense. They’d seen literally hundreds of people and then I got a chance to do it and was like, “Wait, they have already seen hundreds of people. What, what? What could they have seen already?” So you imagine all the things that you would do first and then you forget all of that. And then you go on to the next bunch of ideas and you start to research. I’ve been to Egypt researching one of my other scripts and I’ve been to the pyramids of Giza. I’ve been to the Pyramid of Saqqara, and I’ve been to tons of museums. And there are tons of museums in the City of the Dead and all those places.

So I have a great respect for Egypt and its mythology and its history, and I love that they did all that stuff. So I wanted to give it the weight of a little bit of that culture. And so I started with what I had gotten to research when I was in Egypt, and I added to that. And I’ve always loved mythology and I’ve always loved these stories that we carry as humans.

And the mummy story is one of the great stories, and especially when you attach it to the idea of coming back from the dead for love. So I attached those two ideas together and it made a character that made sense. And then I started thinking about how does a body move if it’s been asleep for 2000 years, and what is his attitude about his current situation? He’s probably upset that he is in this new world and doesn’t understand things. So I just played with the ideas of what it is to be in the situation and what do I want and how will I get it.

ILLUMINATE: I love that you always do that kind of research for all of your roles. You are incredible. That’s how you booked all the things you’re in. You’re Godzilla. You did Colossus and Deadpool. All those things you’ve done are because of the intense, extensive research you’ve done and all the hard work you’ve put into it. And it really shows.

It’s really amazing. I remember when I was sitting next to you when we were watching GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS, and I looked over at you and I could see you watching it and you were critiquing it in your mind. And I thought, “That’s why he’s the Master. That’s why he’s the King of MoCap right there.”

STORM: Thank you, thank you. No, I love it. I love it. Ever since I was a little kid, I’m an only child, so you imagine and you pretend a lot when you’re an only child. You don’t have the distractions of brothers and sisters and the playtime with them. So I had my pets, which I got. That’s how I understand animal movement behavior, because they were my best friends, all the dogs that I had, and the cats that I had when I was a kid. All my attention was on them when I wasn’t doing schoolwork. And then if I wasn’t doing that, I’m out in the yard pretending things. I was either Batman or I was one of my dog’s friends, and we were playing as dogs. And I started to understand that they have their own language and they move differently than we do. And I had time to think about that. And now I try to bring some of that, not only to the characters that I get to bring to life or help bring to life, with the help of thousands of CGI artists and special effects artists.

ILLUMINATE: Bringing to life literally, if they’ve been a mummy that’s been dead for a thousand years.

STORM: Yes, yes. But I also get to share those movement ideas and secrets, and acting ideas and secrets with new students who want to train with us at Mind’s Eye Tribe and it’s really fun.

ILLUMINATE: I love that. The makeup. How long did it take for you to be in that makeup, in your wardrobe?

STORM: My makeup artists were amazing. They got up to a speed of about probably 45 minutes to an hour once they got it down. But it could take longer, easily up to 2 hours. But the outfit itself is one thing, and that’s wardrobe and we had to shimmy into that. And there were literally, I think there was like 65 buckles and clips and snaps on it. And she knew where they all were. She would click, click, click, zip, click, click, zip, zip, click. And I’m like, Oh, ok.

ILLUMINATE: And then you just standing there?

STORM: Yeah, and then makeup, they would work on it as well. And they’re amazing to watch. They just start applying stuff and putting glue here and there and sealing it in. And then they put the jewel over my eye and then they put a contact in, which is another technical person who does that. It was amazing. It was really, really fun.

ILLUMINATE: Wow. Because I love all the photos of your character. It’s really cool to look at and I wonder what the makeup process was for that. We know that it takes a while.

STORM: The first time you’re doing the makeup, they have to make the mold of your face and head. That is actually more intense because they basically cover your clothes. You take your shirt off, cover the rest of your clothes, and then put tape around your chest. And then they’ll just start to paste and pour goop all over your head. And there’s nose holes for you to breathe. Other than that, they cover everything. You’re completely covered in this heavy slime. It solidifies, it warms up a little bit and solidifies. And then they crack it off of you after a while. And then that’s how they make the makeup pieces for you later that will be used.

And that happens weeks before the actual shoot. But it’s a pretty cool process. Makeup artists are their own breed of people and they have their own science and art and it’s really amazing.

ILLUMINATE: It really is. I know some people get claustrophobic with that. Do you ever feel claustrophobic?

STORM: I don’t get claustrophobic, but I can see how you can. Your skin can’t breathe for a little while. And I’m in a full body mold, which was, I mean, literally, they put you in a coffin and they they pour the stuff and I think they gave me a straw to breathe out of. And I remember with that much stuff, whatever it was, latex or whatever it was, they put it on top of me, it takes longer to set. So I remember watching the entire movie of “True Romance” while I was waiting for it to set. And your skin starts to go, “I can’t breathe” and it feels like its crawling. You’re like, “Okay, I need to relax,” but there’s nothing you can do. There’s nowhere to go.

ILLUMINATE: Right? You’re just stuck there.

STORM: It’s crazy. Have you ever worn prosthetics?

ILLUMINATE: I have worn prosthetics before. I haven’t I haven’t done the full casts yet, though I’ve always been intrigued by that. I went to Son of Monsterpalooza and I saw Ve Neill doing the Beetlejuice makeup and I was like, oh my gosh, because I loved “Face Off,” you know, the show that she judges.

STORM: Absolutely.

ILLUMINATE: I just had such a fangirl moment.

STORM: Yes, awesome.

ILLUMINATE: In her element. I want Ve Neill to do my makeup one day. Like, that’s a goal.

STORM: That would be the best Halloween ever. Ditto that.

ILLUMINATE: Oh, that would be amazing!

STORM: To have people like that working with you is amazing.

ILLUMINATE: Oh, that would be incredible. Now, you were touching on a little bit about your childhood and about learning like the animal movements and things like that. Now, I know that you have a background in dance and martial arts, but how did you get started in acting and mocap? When did that idea come into your mind?

STORM: I was a dancer for a very long time. I danced for a lot of projects. And to me, it felt like as much as I loved dance, you have to love dance to dance as much as we do, or did. People forget about it as soon as you’re done doing it as soon as you’re off stage, it’s gone. Unlike a movie, we’ll talk about a movie or a television show all week, all month, all year long. We’re still talking about Game of Thrones. But when was the last time you spoke about a dancer 5 minutes past the TikTok video you watched? And so I was like, well, I want to make something that lasts longer in people’s minds. I mean, I love the feeling of having people clap while you’re doing it, but I want to have people remember the story that we’re telling.

So I thought I would try acting and I started working on it because I could choreograph and because I could do martial arts. Those two things together make it very easy to do fights, stuff like martial arts and fight scenes. So I got into movies doing that during the time of the kickboxing movies. I did tons of those kinds of movies. Some were very, very low budget. Some were extraordinarily bad. Many of them were. And then after doing 20 or 30 of them, I decided to go to acting school. In retrospect, I should have probably have done those things in reverse, but I went to acting school and I walked in and I was so cocky. I was like, I’ve already done 20 or 30 movies.

I don’t even recognize any of you people. Obviously, I’m the actor here. I sat down and then I was like, Oh my God, I am the worst actor here. I know nothing. And very quickly realized that I knew nothing. I thought I had been in films and I had, but I did not know how to act. And I found out at that time and wow, it was a Meisner class. It was a very, very serious, very, very heavy Meisner class, which I eventually graduated after two and a half years. But that first year was so brutal, it was so painful, and I had so many lessons to learn. I still do, but I feel much more comfortable now that I know more.

But wow, there’s a lot. It’s still an art form and I didn’t respect it as much as I should at first and I learned the hard way that you need to, as with all arts, you have to. Later I got into motion capture. I was in a directing class and I just happened to meet somebody there and they’re like, “Hey, you want to help me with this new technology?” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, I guess.” And I didn’t know what it was. Nobody knew what it was and what I did that day ended up being that company’s logo. And then like, “Hey, you did such a great job. Can you come back and help us with this video game?” And at the time he gave me a stack of VHS tapes and he goes, “Watch these. This is the entire seasons of STAR TREK, the original STAR TREK with James T, Kirk, William Shatner.” And I was like, “Okay, like why? What? Why?” “You’re going to play James T Kirk in this video game and then some of the other characters. Then if you have any friends, can you bring them? We’ll just have Uhuru and we’ll have a Spock and the Doc.” And I’m like, “Yeah, cool.” So we did that. I learned how to move and talk like JamesT. Kirk, and we went in and William Shatner had already done the lines. And all of the actors had already done the lines, and we lip synched along with them but we had to move in the way that they move. And then we did that and it was amazing.

It was really, really fun and I learned a lot and that was the beginning. And that was 25 years ago. We’ve done literally hundreds of video games and films since then through the media of motion capture as well. And performance capture is a magical art. And if people watching this don’t know what performance capture is, motion capture, it’s you wear a very tight suit in a very empty room that is surrounded by infrared cameras. And the infrared cameras flood the room with red light and then all that red light, or infrared light, bounces off of your markers and then goes back to the camera. And the computer can only see the white light. You look like a living constellation. You can see your body, but only the dots. And all of those dots create a constellation of you as a human, and then they’ll attach any model they want to it.

The model could be Godzilla. The model could be captain James Kirk. It can be Darth Vader. It could be anything that they want or need it to be. And then you make that character come to life.

ILLUMINATE: Wow, I still have yet to do motion capture, but I have taken classes and you have the best motion capture classes at your studio, Mind’s Eye Tribe, for anyone watching. Check them out. How did you decide to found your own company to teach people about motion capture?

STORM: I love performing and a lot of people had no idea about performance capture. They’re so many actors, and so many actors want to work. They want to perform. But there’s only so many characters in a movie, so many characters on a television show. A few years ago, films and music together made about $49 billion. In that same year, video games made $69 billion and video games continue to explode, where movies have slowed down a little bit, especially because of COVID. You can still play video games at home, but you couldn’t go to the movies anymore. So video games started needing actors even more than movies did. And actors were like, I want to work there. I want to do that. I want to just perform. And that’s what we want to do.

No matter what it is, we just want to perform most of the time. So people started asking me, “So what is this thing you do? What? How do I get into that?” I’m like, “Well, I can show you.” And so I developed a whole bunch of classes, along with my friends who are amazing teachers. We have an incredible swordmaster. We have an incredible tactical person who teaches guns and military movement and how to do that kind of stuff. We have someone who teaches Creature Fit and how to be healthy and strong while you’re doing these kinds of movements…Andi Norris, who helps me run Mind’s Eye Tribe Action Actors Academy. And then I teach a bunch of the classes as well, which include, you know, “Hero’s Journey.”

We’re making one class specifically to teach you how to be a villain, how to move as a villain, how to bring power as a villain. Because these are a lot of the weaknesses that we see when we’re on stage working with people. They have never had to make these larger than life characters. Oftentimes, even if it’s a normal character, it’s so far outside of their normal experience that it’s like to play somebody seven feet tall or to play a pixie who’s 21 inches tall.

You’ve never thought about those things. So we help understand those things.

ILLUMINATE: And the process, having taken multiple Mind’s Eye classes, and all of the instructors are amazing, by the way. So everyone, if you’re interested, go check them out. But it is interesting because when you are in the middle classes, you are doing things you hadn’t really thought of. Which way is your body? What force is pulling your body in that direction? Is your head? Is your heart? Is it your groin? It’s those three, right?

STORM: Yeah. Yeah. Great memory. That’s great. And it makes very, very specific characters. You can tell the difference and you’re like, Ooh. I wonder what he’s thinking about or who’s this guy? You can immediately look at them and if a picture is worth a thousand words, we’re able to control the picture. We’re able to tell the story very quickly with a slight adjustment of the body. And hopefully that helps the actor, or the performer, the stunt performer or the creature performer bring the story that the director and the team needs to life.

ILLUMINATE: Right, exactly. And all those classes that you have really do bring those elements. You were saying that there are some weaknesses and missing points. Which things do you personally think are the biggest gaps in the industry that people need to learn for motion capture?

STORM: It depends. Everybody has their own weaknesses and their own strengths, but the stuff that we see is the stuff that we make classes for. So in video games, most video games, although it is storytelling, it tends to be action-oriented. So you’re going to do one of a few things and that’s what we build skills around.

So we have swords, we have shooting weapons like firearms, which are usually Nerf on the set because we don’t need real weapons. But still, since we’re teaching firearms, we have to teach all the safety that goes along. Even if you’re holding a nerf, you still assume that it is a real live weapon and you have to treat it as such because the people who use real live weapons are going to watch your product eventually and they’re going to be like, “This person obviously has never held a real weapon before” and you want that for a performance.

We want them to understand how important and how much responsibility goes into holding a real weapon. So swords, guns, creature movement, those are the big three. And then after that, action, basic action, punching, kicking and getting hit, getting shot, you have to be able to tell those stories. So those four things are the big four. And then we also have heroes, we have villains, we have magic.

So when you’re using these weird forces and you’re lifting people up or force choking them or whatever it is, you have to know how to receive that kind of magical force, that supernatural force. You have to know how to blend it and not look silly while you’re doing it, because believe it or not, we’ve seen people on stage just completely blow that part of the storytelling because up until this point in their life, they never thought about, how am I going to force choke a person? Why would you think like that?

ILLUMINATE: Right.

STORM: So we help people with that in our Heroes class. It teaches you how to walk the hero’s journey, but it also teaches you how to inhabit the superhero body. And what does that look like? And why do superheroes stand like….

ILLUMINATE: Hero pose.

STORM: Yeah! Why do they do this? There’s a reason for it. But you have to have that reason come organically from the inside. You have to know why you’re rising to this occasion as a superhero and the superhero story is often a little bit different than a hero’s story. They’re bigger. So we have to show you how to inhabit that bigger space.

ILLUMINATE: It’s such a fascinating thing. And those classes go so in-depth with all of it. You know, we can’t even talk about all that right now because it’s so much detail. But thank you for touching on that, because I’ve always found that interesting. And one of your big characters, not only big as in you played the title role, but also physically large characters, is Godzilla in 2014, GODZILLA and in the 2019 film GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS.

I know that you had always been a fan of Godzilla. Tell us a little bit about your Godzilla journey.

STORM: When I was probably five or six, my dad took me to my very first movie that I remember. That first movie was “Godzilla vs the Smog Monster,” Hedorah is what they call it in Japanese, and already characters are bigger than life on a movie screen. But when I saw a bigger than life image of a bigger than life monster, it was it dwarfed all the people on screen.

I was just like, Wow. And the bad guy was huge and the bad guy was really bad. So when Godzilla came to fight the bad guy, I was like and I was cheering for him, although he was terrifying. All of a sudden I was cheering for the terrifying thing, fighting the more terrifying thing that was killing all the people. And he won. And it was such an emotional rollercoaster for such a small child. And that was my first exposure to such big ideas on such a big platform that it burnt into my retinas. It was burnt into my brain, and it was like, everything is possible! I didn’t know. And then came along Star Wars and all of these things.

And that started the journey into imagination. My imagination exploded and I was like walking around my yard “RAWR” and I was knocking over boxes and stuff like that, pretending to be Godzilla and whatever else I could imagine. Flash forward. A friend of mine called and he’s like, “Hey man, do you have any people who can do creature movement?” And one of our classes is all about creature movement. So I gave them some names and it’s very, creature movement is very specialized in very specific creature movement and special character movement. It’s because you’re moving in a way that normal humans have no reason to move in or think about. So to bring those kind of creatures life, we have a class called Beast Mode, and that helps you with that. And we have a whole system to walk you through, all the things you need to know to understand how to move like a special creature. And I think about these things all the time, oddly, and probably why I get hired to do a lot of them. I gave them some names and two weeks later he calls. He’s like, “Okay, can you come down and help us with the creature stuff?” And I thought what that meant was they had chosen somebody. Come down and help them get a little close, dial them in a little bit, like, “Oh yeah, that sounds great. Okay, cool.” And the reason I couldn’t do it and I didn’t give them my own name at the time because I was on another shoot.

So I went down and I remember walking in and it was me and two other guys just standing there and on the big open stage. And he turns to us and he goes, You’re Muto number one, you’re Muto number two, and you’re Godzilla. And I was like, “Wow.” It was awesome. It was so cool. So right then and there we just got busy and started doing the work. We started mapping out how that works. How does the creature come to life? What does this version of Godzilla move like? How is it the same and how is it different? We have to figure out all of those things. And then the studio is also kind of watching and giving us lots of notes. And then when everybody was happy, we started shooting.

ILLUMINATE: Wow. Did you find out right then that it was for Godzilla?

STORM: Yeah. He literally said, “You’re this, you’re that.” But before that, I had no idea.

ILLUMINATE: Did you know that you were playing THE title role?

STORM: Yeah, right then and there I was like, “All right.” it was it was mind blowing. I had no clue that it was going to be as big as it was because it was going to be as big as it was! Whatever. But yeah, you know what I mean? (Laughs)

ILLUMINATE: Massive creature.

STORM: Massive creature! But it was amazing. It was a great opportunity to revisit my childhood. And then I got to go back to my dad and say thank you because that’s a full circle and that is awesome!

ILLUMINATE: It really is. And you even got to go to Japan. Was it a Godzilla convention?

STORM: Yeah, it was. It was 65th birthday, Godzilla’s 65th birthday. I got invited to go to Japan and meet some of the other Godzilla’s and talk to the public as the current Godzilla. And I believe like 19,000 people showed up in that square. There’s a Godzilla statue there in Tokyo. And around that statue, they had Godzilla’s birthday party, and they had these artists. There’s a famous Godzilla artist, and he did a giant mural. He did it in real time. I sat there and I taped it. And then I was signing autographs, and people were coming up and I was trying to sign the autographs. And then I got to the high point of it for me was the first Godzilla was played by an actor, Nakajimason. And Nakajimason, Mr. Nakajima was the first Godzilla suit actor and he was amazing. Well, I got to meet his daughter because not alive anymore. But his daughter, Sonoe Nakajima, was there, and I got to meet her and she goes, “My dad would have liked you. He would have liked your performance.” And I’m like, “Awww!”

ILLUMINATE: That is the biggest compliment!

STORM: It’s the best! It’s the best!! It is absolutely the best! And he was the Godzilla that I watched growing up. That was the first movie. He was the first one that I saw so immense. So, so much! So now, flash forward again. We have something called the “Haruo Nakajima.” That’s his full name, Haruo Nakajima Action Actor Scholarship from Mind’s Eye Tribe. So every year, we find a performer or performers that we believe embody the spirit that he brought to the screen. And they may need a little help. So we want to give them that scholarship so that they can come, take our classes and be the next generation of storytellers on screen to do all of the magical things that we love people to do on screen.

ILLUMINATE: I love that. And I love the complete full circle story to that. It’s like dreams come true. Like that’s what that is.

STORM: Absolutely.

ILLUMINATE: I love that story. It makes me really happy. And you’ve also gotten to play another character that I completely adore. And I’ve always adored Darth Vader.

STORM: Yes. I have a Darth Vader. (points) He’s back there in the red. He’s glowing.

ILLUMINATE: Oh, I see him. He’s right there.

STORM: But yeah, that’s actually the helmet that I used on the day because the first time I shot it, I believe we were at ILM in San Francisco and it was for something called VADER IMMORTAL, which is a quest to….it’s a VR experience. You go into the quest and it is terrifying. You get caught by a tractor beam. They pry open your door and they take you to prison. And then in the prison, the door opens up and you hear this (Darth Vader breathing) and you see this huge figure walk toward you. And it walks in. He’s like seven feet tall. So in VR you’re trying to back up away from him and you can’t. There’s nowhere to go. And he talks down to you and he goes, “You will tell me what I want to know.” And you’re like, “Ahhh, it’s amazing,” but I got to play the character. So even though I played it, I was like, “Ahhhh,” I’m still freaking out. It was amazing. And again, it’s something that I grew up watching, but it is pure magic to get to, to embody probably one of the most iconic villains in cinema history. And I got to do it twice. I got to do it for this and another project. And it’s amazing. I’m really, really fortunate that I get to tell these amazing and wonderful stories. I love it.

ILLUMINATE: I love that, too. Is there any other iconic character that you haven’t yet played but you’re still like, “I need to embody that character?”

STORM: You know, I’ve played the majority of my childhood, my cinematic childhood. And I cannot ask for more. I mean, there’s Godzilla and Darth Vader and the Predator and Iron Man and Groot and Rocket Raccoon and Black Panther. I’ve gotten to step into their skin and do something for each of those projects, not always the entirety of the thing. I mean, obviously Robert Downey Jr is Iron Man, but you get to do it for a little while. You’re just like, I’m Iron Man!

ILLUMINATE: Right?

STORM: And so I’ve gotten to do so many amazing iconic characters! Even Colossus! One of the coolest of the X-Men when I was a kid, I grew up reading and when I was out he was super cool. Him and Wolverine always used to work together in the comic books, so I love that.

I love the bad guy named Galactus. I would love to get to do something with that. But I don’t know if he’s part of the Marvel Universe yet or if he ever will be.

ILLUMINATE: Yet!

STORM: Maybe I’ll keep my fingers crossed. And Silver Surfer. Some of my favorite characters. So I would love to see them come to life again. But yeah, I think it’s really awesome.

ILLUMINATE: All of those roles take so much physical energy. Has there ever been a character that has been so challenging in terms of how physical this character is and how much movement, emotion, there is really physically demanding? Have you ever had a character that’s been particularly challenging?

STORM: Sure. I mean, movies can be easy by comparison to video games because there are two major career paths in video games. Because I’ve been doing it for so long, I do both, but most people don’t do both. Most people either do cinematics, which is one career path, which is the little movies, little cutscenes in between the video game and then on the other side is every single movement that all of the characters make in all the video games, and that’s called Navigations or Locomotion or in-game movements.

And to beat any character and have to do all of the movements for a character that can be challenging physically, because it is a lot of energy to put out. On one game, not too long ago, I worked five days and I walked, ran, crawled, jumped and sprinted the equivalent of two marathons in five days. And I was pouring sweat every single day. And that was just one character. And I have to do that for several characters. So, sometimes, I was sprinting backwards. Sometimes I was sprinting in circles. And my my Fitbit was like, “Stop moving!! Beep, Beep, Beep, Beep!!”

So physically, that’s one thing. Then if I have to hold a character, especially if the character is relatively new and I don’t know it well, you’ve heard actors say they go into that place. For instance, Sobeck, this Disney character, he was in a dark place. And so that and I want that because I want the performance to come through all of the makeup, it’s got to be somewhat real. So I’m carrying almost a little dark cloud over me. So the entire time I’m in Vancouver, I’m not the friendliest person in the world because I have some part of Sobeck in the back of my mind and I’m like, okay, I got to keep this character with me. So there were these wonderful actors that I got to work with, but they’re very young kids, and I didn’t need to hang out with them too much because Sobeck is not their friend.

So it’s hard to be like, “Hey, hey, hey.” And then turn around, “I’m evil.” I need to try to separate them. So I got to hang out with them a little bit and that was super fun. I got to celebrate my birthday with them. They actually held a surprise birthday party for me, which I totally did not expect.

There’s also this slightly dark cloud with me as I’m there, and then I was so happy once I was done with the character, I can let it go. And I was like, I could be me again. But for the most part, you have to have all this gravitas. And I’m carrying a bit of that character with me. Now, if this were a television series, for instance, or a theater, theatrical run, you’ve been the character for so long that you can take it off and put it on like a mask. But at first, this character was a priest and he was in love. And now he’s been betrayed. That’s a lot to just pretend to do. I could pretend, but it doesn’t feel right in the kind of acting, at least, that I’m trained in. It doesn’t feel right. So I hold a little bit close. I hold on to a little bit of it and then you can feel that bit of dark cloud. So even when I’m like, “Good morning.” That’s where, as normally, I’m like, “Hey, what’s up? Ahh!” I didn’t have all of that. I have this dark cloud with me. Also, I was freezing so that…

ILLUMINATE: Right. You were in Vancouver in the winter.

STORM: (Laughing) And I’m from Hawaii, so I’m not used to the cold.

ILLUMINATE: You’re like, “I want my mummy.” (Shivering)

STORM: Why? Why is it so cold? Oh, WOW! Well played. I want my mummy! Well played. I did not see that one coming. And that was good.

ILLUMINATE: I knew I had to at some point throw a mummy joke at you. Just was waiting for the right opportunity.

STORM: That was excellent! Excellent.

ILLUMINATE: I mean, I was keeping that one UNDER WRAPS.

STORM: (Laughing) NO! NO! I got root beer in my nose. No, no, it was awesome. Thank you for that. Well played.

ILLUMINATE: You’re welcome. So, of course, you talked about, for that role, you traveled to Vancouver, but I know you’ve gotten to travel for some other roles and conventions. What are some of the coolest places you’ve gotten to go to, because you’ve had one of those careers where you actually get to travel for some of it.

STORM: Amazing! Everywhere is a new adventure. I mean, before I did ILM, I don’t think I spent that much time in San Francisco. So San Francisco is a completely different vibe. It’s LA meets New York. It’s interesting. It’s really, really interesting. And I’ve been to the Philippines for action movies, and that’s an entirely different culture. The people are amazing! They’re absolutely wonderful. I’ve been near Machu Picchu in Lima, Peru, and those cultures are spectacular. I’ve gotten to go to Egypt doing research for writing. I’ve gotten to go to Vietnam and Cambodia near Angkor Wat, where it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The temple complex at Angkor Wat is spectacular and it’s ancient and it used to be overgrown by a jungle. So those places are absolutely magical!

I just got from Hungary. And that was incredible. There’s a movie coming out soon that’s actually, I don’t think it’s been officially announced yet, so I won’t say much about it, but it’s going to be spectacular and the cast is really, really cool and the action team, as well, is really, really cool.

So I get to work with them. So yeah, all of these places Hungary, Egypt, Vietnam, Cambodia, Vancouver, they’re all very, very different. And each one is its own adventure. And there’s things to see and people to learn from and people to meet and food. There’s all kinds of amazing food. So it depends what part of those things that you love.

And I don’t love to travel. I love to be in other places. The traveling sucks. (Laughs) But to be in the other places, that is pure magic. And I do love that. I love experiencing new cultures because you learn so much. You either appreciate more what you have or you’re like, Wow, I didn’t even know this existed. This is spectacular. Some places have their own beauty, which you can only understand once you’re there. And every place has something like that.

ILLUMINATE: Right? Exactly. Like I just got done in June, I filmed something in Tulum and I loved meeting the locals in Tulum. Getting to spend time there. And then I only had one day that was free to actually do anything touristy, but I went on a tour. We went from Chichen Itza…

STORM: And did you go to the pyramids?

ILLUMINATE: Yes, I did!!

STORM: You saw it??

ILLUMINATE: Yeah.

STORM: Was it cool? I haven’t been there.

ILLUMINATE: Oh, so cool! Apparently, they stopped letting you actually go up it, so you no longer can go inside of it. No one can climb up it. But they do have photos and they do talk to you about it. It is majestic to look at. It is amazing! And to think about how the Mayan people built that is just incredible! And I got to go to two little Mexican villages and I got to go to a cenote, which was 100 feet deep! The drop down was big. But once you were inside of it….

STORM: What is a cenote?

ILLUMINATE: It’s like a cave, pool thing. It’s hard to describe. They’re a very, very popular thing in Mexico. So I highly recommend if you ever go to Tulum or the Yucatan areas, go to some cenotes, because they are majestic! When we were up there, you can see down below and you can see all the water down there. You have to go down stairs. Once you’re down there, you can jump into the water. The water itself is 100 feet deep. So we were required to wear life vests.

STORM: Woah! That’s awesome. Is the water warm?

ILLUMINATE: It’s cold. But it’s so worth it because you get such an adrenaline rush. Your body’s like, “I’m hot!”

STORM: That’s amazing. That is super cool. Is it spooky that it’s 100 feet deep right beneath you?

ILLUMINATE: It’s a little bit eerie, but it’s also really cool, too, because you’re like, I am jumping into this natural formation. You know, it’s not built, it’s not man-made. It’s just naturally there. And there’s fish swimming around in there. You should go! I’ll send you the name of the place I went to. (Cenote Saamal) It’s so cool.

But what you’re talking about is getting to meet those people and experience those cultures. And like you were saying, the beauty that you’re finding there that you may not see if you’re just looking at pictures online. It’s incredible! So I was definitely jealous when I saw your pictures in

Hungary. I was like, “I want to go!” I want to go and travel. Some of the places you’ve been to look amazing!

STORM: You totally will. Your schedule is going to be nuts. I have no doubt it’s going to be great.

ILLUMINATE: Thank you. So what is some advice you have for performers who are in either the acting world, the motion capture world or even stunts? What’s some advice you can give to them?

STORM: The simplest advice is to network. I am an only child and as a result, I’m kind of an introvert. So I hated networking. I did not like it. And I’m still not a fan of going out and doing things. But the one thing I can honestly say is I have never not benefited from just being at a place and talking to the people. It has always, always benefited me every single time, as much as I hate to admit it. So that’s one thing that people need to do is just go out and meet the people that you’re going to eventually work with because you can’t do any of this alone. It is frustrating, but that is part of the job is to get out and meet the people that you’re going to work with and start training with them. Whether that’s acting or it’s stunts or it’s action or everything in between. Just get your tribe. Get your tribe and start to connect through them because they will help you eventually get to that place that you want to go.

ILLUMINATE: Exactly. I mean, there are so many wonderful people out there that you can connect with. And at some point it starts, once you know those people really well, you’re like, “How did I even meet you?” I can’t remember how I met you. I don’t remember the first time because we’ve now been friends for, what, like five years now?

STORM: Yeah, yeah.

ILLUMINATE: Yeah. We’ve been friends for a while!

STORM: It’s wild, but yeah, absolutely. And that’s part of the magic is that you start seeing people over and over again. Like if you think most people have a gym membership. You go to the gym and you see faces in the gym. You never talk to them, but you see them. And then one day you are at the store and you’re like, “Hey!” And it’s like, you guys know each other. It’s only from the gym and you never talk to each other, but all of a sudden you know each other. Well, the movie industry and the video game industry and the television industry is similar, but very much smaller. It’s so much smaller. So, if you start seeing those faces because you’re going to the places that you need to be and eventually, you’re going to bump into them like, “Hey, why haven’t we worked together yet? We should probably talk.” And that’s all that this is. Strengthening your network. Create your network, if you don’t really have one. And start to be an active part of it. Don’t just be, “Will you hire me for a movie?” No. Start making yourself useful to be in that network because they will understand that and they will pull you in if you’re a giving person in that network.

ILLUMINATE: Exactly. And even if you aren’t a direct asset, then they might have a friend who needs you for whatever piece of the puzzle you can bring. They might say, “Oh, I know the perfect person for this. I have a friend. Here you go.”

Now, I’m going to wrap this up because you are taking the world by STORM. (Dab).

So what are some projects you have coming out that we can talk about?

STORM: There’s so many things, but we can’t talk about them because they’re all NDA. I’m working on four video games right now, two films, and I’m sure one of these is for television. So they’re all NDA until they’re done. But I’m so excited. They’re massive. Some of them are huge. And I’m really, really, really excited.

Aside from that, the great stuff that we’re doing at Mind’s Eye Tribe Action Actors Academy, we have so many cool things. In fact, we have an open house coming up I think is the week before Thanksgiving. So, it’s like “Bring a friend day.” If you want to come and try out all of the workouts and classes, you can come for free and just try it out to see what it’s like here in Los Angeles. So we get to do all of this fun stuff and meet incredible people, and that’s what it’s all about.

ILLUMINATE: What day is your open house?

STORM: It is November 19th. So just go to the website and you’ll see notifications for it, and you can sign up for it and come to all of our classes on the same day, November 19th, in Sherman Oaks.

ILLUMINATE: Awesome. Any last words for our viewers?

STORM: Well, if they’re actors or performers or some people or creature performers of any kind, have your dream. Stay focused. Keep training, and do not give up.

ILLUMINATE: I love that. Where can people find you on social media?

STORM: Easiest is to go straight to the Mind’s Eye Tribe Action Actors Academy at mindseyetribe.com. I’m also on Instagram @stormzeye or @mindseyetribe. Either one of those is fine. And Twitter and Facebook.

ILLUMINATE: Well, thank you so much for being here. It’s been so long since I’ve gotten to talk to you.

STORM: It’s so good to see you. And I’m so happy you’re doing so well. Congratulations. And thank you for having me.

ILLUMINATE: And congrats on all of your projects. You’re on a roll.

STORM: Thank you. Thank you very much. It’s nice to get to do what we love. And I’m really, really happy that I get to continue to do it and share those ideas and skills with some of the people who want to do it as well. And the next generation of people, that’s awesome.

ILLUMINATE: Well, thank you so much for being here, TJ.

STORM: Thank you. Thank you.

ILLUMINATE: Have a great day. Bye!