A random black man and drags his innocent child into an unprovoked photo-bombing with the cast of The Raid!
A random black man and drags his innocent child into an unprovoked photo-bombing with the cast of The Raid!

Sometimes meeting people you admire can be the worst thing you can imagine.  To have the pedestal that you have placed your icon on knocked down because they are a total douche can be amazingly disappointing. On the flip side, there is no better feeling than finding out someone who you may follow or admire is just like you: a normal person trying to make their way through an average day.  Before this picture was taken, I had just participated in my own “last man standing” battle with my 2 year old son to get his haircut at Champs Barbers in central London (If any of you have ever tried to get a toddler to have a haircut, then you will understand how tumultuous it is, for those who haven’t had the pleasure, you lucky sons of bitches). We were making our way back to Oxford Circus station when my spider sense started tingling, alerting me to a bunch of guys coming towards us who all happened to be dressed somewhat similar. A number of things popped into my head as to who they might be: Super villain’s here to plunder the city? (they were all dressed alike); Hare Krishnas? No they were too quiet; A ‘B Boy group? No they moved like they did something physical but not dance like;  Shaolin Monks?  Hmmmm maybe. And that was when it hit me like a punch from one of the 36th Chambers: THE CAST OF THE MOTHERF**CKING RAID!!! These guys are so bad ass! I just had to take a picture, otherwise I knew I would be muay thai kicking myself for the rest of my life.  To cut a long story short they were the nicest of guys and were happy to answer all my questions (they were promoting “THE RAID 2“).  They were also excited by Luca Sky (my son) who had the biggest stink face on, as he was still pissed off about what I had just done to his curls.  We said our goodbyes and what sticks with me about the meeting is that they seemed just as genuinely excited as I was.  In a nutshell they are people that make martial art films and I happen to love martial arts films, and with that one thing in common we were able to stop for 5 minutes and crack some jokes with no heirs or graces.

Thanks and santi (cheers/good health in Indonesian) to the cast of The Raid for being a bunch of normal kick ass guys.

And as I wrap up, I leave you with the wisdom of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”