Mick Foley Explains How He Pays Tribute To The Rock, Taps Back Into His Dark Side For His New Movie
Mick Foley went back to a dark, familiar place to channel his character in the new movie ‘12 Hour Shift‘.
WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard recently interviewed WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley. During the interview, Foley reflected on his experience in the new film, available now on video-on-demand services including Amazon. Foley says he might be known for being more cheerful and nice in recent years but it was pretty easy for him to get in the right mindset here, noting that Mankind and Cactus Jack were pretty twisted guys too.
“If you recall, for a few years, I did portray dark characters when I was Mankind, and there was an element of darkness to Cactus Jack at certain times as well. So it was fairly easy to rediscover that. But the main thing is the script was really fun and I could tell it was, it had the potential to be a good movie. You never know with these things, but I’m told by actors much more experienced than I am that sometimes you’re really surprised with either how good something comes out or how much less enjoyable it is than you thought it might be. And in this case,” Foley said, “from all the reviews I’m hearing, it seems like Brea Grant hit a home run with her direction and the script is every bit as good as I thought it would be.”
Foley’s character is a definite contrast from his real-life personality, cursing up a storm in a short amount of screen time. Noting that he has worked the ‘F-bomb’ into the punchline of his stage show, Foley said he doesn’t “make people wait 90 minutes for the F-bomb in this movie, I hit ‘em with it right away.”
“It’s fun to play somebody different than I am, you know, because I don’t curse much in real life. I think my daughter says she’s heard me drop the F-bomb twice in her life and she’s 26. Outside of my shows, she’s heard me drop it twice. So it’s fun, it’s like being a chance to play with a new toy and I think I make the most of it. And speaking of playing,” Foley said, “I’m kind of playing dress-up and in case anyone wonders, am I paying tribute to The Rock with the shiny shirt? The answer is absolutely, I am, so I saw that as one of my choices and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, yeah I’m wearing that shirt for sure.’”
Foley says he feels really lucky to have had two good movies back-to-back (12 Hour Shift and last year’s The Peanut Butter Falcon) and hopes he can continue acting in these “small but important” acting roles since he enjoys them.
Related: ‘12 Hour Shift’ Is An Off-The-Rails Black Comedy And Bloody Good Fun