He might be coming off the heels of a particularly brutal gauntlet match on Monday Night RAW, but CM Punk is all smiles when he appears in my Zoom window the very next day.
“I thought I was going to feel a hell of a lot worse than I do,” he tells Inverse. His appearance on RAW saw him facing off against Bron Breakker, one of the more ruthless bullies on the WWE roster. Though he emerged victorious, effectively punching his ticket to an even greater match at SummerSlam in a few months’ time, the Superstar otherwise known as Phil Brooks also had to survive an ambush from Breakker’s ally, Bronson Reed. (He’s partial to body slamming his opponents from the top rope of the ring, a move he calls the “Tsunami.”)
Despite Bronson’s attack, Brooks is largely unfazed today — focused, as ever, on the road ahead. “I’m pretty fortunate I’m on top of the world right now,” he says. “I feel great mentally, physically, spiritually.”
Brooks has never been afraid to punch above his weight — or to tout a clean, non-conformist lifestyle — and both are largely working in his favor. His return to WWE after nearly a decade has been nothing short of a whirlwind: this year he’s held his own against Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins and reinvigorated old rivalries with John Cena. Now a title shot is in his sights, but he’s briefly stepping out of the ring for his latest venture.
You can next see Brooks guest-starring in Revival, Syfy’s riff on the small-town zombie invasion. SyFy’s latest series pits gnarly creature effects alongside noirish intrigue, and Brooks’ Anthony Check — a small-time crime lord with a crude fascination with “revivers” — finds himself at the center of it all in this week’s Episode 6. His arrival signals a turning point for the heroes of our story; in a conversation with Inverse, Brooks unpacks his character’s murky motives and the appeal of “visceral, guttural” violence.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
I’m curious what you think is worse: Getting Tsunami’d by Bronson Reed or fighting a reviver?
[Laughs.] I’m all for new experiences, so I’m all for fighting a reviver at this point. I’ve been Tsunami’d by Bronson Reed. It’s not fun and… I think I could fare better if I had a fighting chance.
Your appearance in Revival is brief, but pretty memorable. Walk me through the experience of filming that showdown between Anthony and Em.
“Brief and memorable.” That’s how I would like to be described. That should actually be on my tombstone… Could we make a note of that, please? Episode 6, it was a whirlwind shooting it and filming it. The logistics of getting me out to Halifax and then flying me from there… I think I wrapped the night before War Games for WWE. That was in Vancouver, and I almost didn’t make it because while we were shooting, we got hit with a really bad snowstorm. I had to switch airports, I had to drive in a blizzard, streets were plowed — but I made it and I filmed the show, so all’s well that ends well. It’s a really tremendous, fun experience. It’s exhausting. It was like a 16, 18-hour day.
Obviously, you’re very busy: Almost every week you’re on RAW or elsewhere. How do you choose what projects you say yes to or pursue?
Oh, boy. I feel like it’s any other business. It’s not really what you know, it’s who you know. I like working with cool people. That’s the biggest barometer for whether I do a project or not. You can tell me it’s going to be the biggest movie in the world, and it’s going to make the most money and it’s going to win awards… but if there’s a bunch of people that I don’t enjoy being around, I don’t want to spend my days that way. I like working with a like-minded, ambitious, talented people because I get to sit back and I get to learn. I get to watch and I get to absorb all their knowledge and learn things for the next adventure. This was an easy yes though, because I was a fan of the source material and the comic book for so long.
When I spoke to [Revival co-showrunner Aaron B. Koontz], he mentioned that in filming fight scenes with you, you were kinda like, “Yeah, you can hit me a little harder than that…”
Yeah, well, listen, what I do in the WWE ring is what I do. So when I do flight scenes for TV and movies or stuff like that, I bring a bit of that to it. There’s tricks you can do with the camera to make stuff great. There’s no replacement for real, visceral, guttural action or violence. Luckily, everyone was kind of receptive to a couple of my ideas… I haven’t seen it yet. I can’t wait to see it, but I’m hoping it looks really good. I know it was a lot of fun to shoot and we shot that thing real late at night. Everybody was real tired, but it was an adventure and I think it got everybody excited and it certainly woke me up. I got to have fun that night.
Your character’s introduction comes at a big turning point in the series. There’s a big supernatural reveal, but then there’s also the threat of this “big boss” pulling strings in the shadows. How’d it feel to be one of the characters that’s bringing this conspiracy and intrigue into the show?
I just think Anthony Check is a fun character to play. I love being a bad guy. It’s just kind of second nature to me. I think I probably look like a bad guy; I think I kind of fit the role… So it is fun being that character bites off more than he can chew, thinks he’s big time when he’s small time, bullies his little brothers who are bigger than him. It’s a super fun dynamic. It’s a fun role to play.
John Cena’s got Peacemaker; David Bautista is doing a rom-com. What’s next on the horizon for you?
Well, I have something coming out, [but we’re] waiting to see which movie festivals we get accepted into. It’s called Night Patrol. It’s really hoot of a movie if you’re into horror. It’s got Bloods, Crips, vampires, cops —I think a lot of people will be excited about that. As far as coming up, I don’t like to talk about things that haven’t been announced. There’s some really cool stuff coming though. I was asked about my horseback riding experience… that’s the only hint I’m going to give anybody for anything.
