Arthur The King may star a dog, but Lionsgate’s upcoming true-story adventure features an even more unlikely casting choice: Bear Grylls.
Playing himself in a narrator role, the survival expert lends his weighty wilderness-conquering wisdom to the story of Michael Light (Mark Wahlberg), a pro adventure racer taking part in the legendarily tough World Adventure Racing Championship.
Ex-British SAS man Grylls may have presented survival entertainment shows since 2005, but that’s a different discipline entirely to acting in a major Hollywood production. How did he find it?
“The honest answer is, it's the only thing I've ever been good at in my life. You know, from a young age, my dad was a Royal Marine Commando, and loved all of that adventure and the survival and the climbing side of things. And that's what I was brought up always doing,” says Grylls.
Arthur The King is based on the exploits of real-life adventure racer Mikael Lindnord who, after forging an unbreakable bond with a stray dog in Ecuador, tests the limits of survival during the Huairasinchi World Adventure Racing Championship.
While the film relocates its action to the gorgeous but potentially deadly surroundings of the Dominican Republic, and Americanises Mikael Lindnord’s name to Michael Light, Grylls was on hand to ensure the survival techniques you see are as authentic as possible.
“I came away thinking ‘wow, they kind of nailed a lot of this,'" says Grylls. "Not only in terms of the kind of ambition, and the reality of what they were doing in terms of adventure, but also the friendships between each other…The truth is, they got something much greater than any trophy through this."
Non-actor celebrities playing themselves in films tend to be hit and miss. See former NBA player Kevin Garnett’s role in 2019’s Uncut Gems as a shining example of the former and chef Gordon Ramsey’s kitchen nightmare in 2011’s Love’s Kitchen as an example of the latter.
But Grylls is confident in the cameo. As someone who’s bitten the head off a live snake and slept inside a camel, he’s definitely survived worse.
For more on the film, read how Arthur The King puts Mark Wahlberg in survival mode.
Arthur The King releases in cinemas 15 March.
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