*We spoke to actor Mekhi Phifer about his thrilling new action film “Long Gone Heroes,” where he takes on the role of a seasoned mercenary amid a backdrop of blackmail, deception, and political intrigue.
The film follows Gunner, “a special forces soldier who has witnessed the darkest side of country and combat, is forced back into the field of battle to save his niece, who is being held in South America. As the fight intensifies, Gunner and his team discover that her disappearance is part of a corrupt private operation that hits way too close to home. Acclaimed actors Andy Garcia, Melissa Leo, Josh Hutcherson and Frank Grillo star in a non-stop action thriller that will leave you breathless,” per the official synopsis.
Watch the trailer via the YouTube clip below.
Directed by John Swab, “Long Gone Heroes” stars acclaimed actors Frank Grillo (“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “The Purge: Anarchy”), Josh Hutcherson (“The Hunger Games” franchise), Eden Brolin (“Yellowstone,” ), Melissa Leo (“The Fighter”) and Andy Garcia (“Ocean’s Eleven,” “The Godfather Part III”).
The film marks the fifth collaboration between Swab and Grillo. The film debuted in theaters on Sept. 20.
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In our exclusive with Phifer, he unpacked the complexities of portraying a battle-hardened mercenary.
“I play a mercenary, so a lot of times mercenaries, at least from what I’ve my research, they work for some form of government… Army, Navy, Marines, black ops, Navy SEAL, something that they’ve been dedicated their lives to,” he explained. “A lot of times, sometimes people, whether you’re in law enforcement, whether you’re in the military, you have to do different sort of covert black ops type of missions and you think you’re helping secure the world and you are. But then at some point, sometimes people go rogue and they say, wait a minute, I want to be compensated for all this work that I put in. I want to be able to retire with a great retirement fund after all the people that I’ve seen hurt, killed… protected. I want to be able to retire and sit on a beach in Tahiti one day with a nice fat bank account,” Phifer said.
“I think that’s part of the motivation for any mercenary, to create a better life for themselves as they have found maybe that they weren’t as appreciated as they deemed that they deserved. When you look at the state of people in the VA hospitals and the government’s denying certain treatments or not acknowledging certain ailments and things like that, that can become a frustrating thing for a soldier who’s dedicated their lives to protecting the freedoms of America and any country for that matter, or any nation. And then they want what’s theirs, what they feel like they have coming. I think that that’s what is part of the motivation for my character.”
“People always ask me, do you like to play good guys or bad guys? I play neither. I play people who have made certain choices and living with those choices,” Phifer told us.
“It’s up to the audience to choose whether they are good or bad or justified. Whether you empathize or have disdain for this character. But it’s up to you. I feel like he’s moving in a certain righteous path,” he said of his character. “He does some things that I don’t think most people would agree with. But that was one thing that intrigued me to the role. And plus, I got to play with a lot of guns.”
Watch our full conversation with Mekhi Phifer via the clip below.
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