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News Article: "Monster Role": Nathan Jones Going From WWE Wrestler To Hollywood
By Anthony DeBlasi
May 30, 2004, 02:27               <<BACK TO NEWSBOARD

Article courtesy of The Sunday Mail based out of Australia:

Monster role

Nathan Jones, 34, who now lives in the United States, shares the film's opening battle scene with heart-throb Brad Pitt.

As the warrior Boagrius, he is picked by his king to fight Pitt (Achilles) who is the opposing king's champion.

Jones, who is 208cm tall and weighs 150kg, yells his defiance as Pitt's character charges but is quickly silenced by Pitt's sword.

A former Gold Coast builder, Jones was jailed in 1989 for eight years for armed robbery.

Now the man who won fame as Queensland's largest prisoner could return to Brisbane to play a tough guy in a new crime movie.

Solicitor Chris Nyst, who wrote and produced the award-winning crime comedy Gettin' Square, told The Sunday Mail: "I think it's great to see he has stepped away from all of that. It's fantastic.

"To be honest with you, I've have this new film coming up, and before Troy I was considering him for one of the parts.

"He fits the bill perfectly. It's set in Brisbane, in the Valley. He knows that world. These sorts of blokes know it, get it."

However, Hollywood appears to know little about Jones' former life. Film and fan websites focus only on his role in Troy and his short career as Megaman on a TV wrestling circuit.

A website profiling Jones' stint as the Monster From Down Under with Wrestling Superstars says: "Raised on a farm on the Gold Coast of the down-under continent, Jones recalls discovering special physical powers as a kid."

Jones' life in his late teens attracted Australia-wide interest, particular his stints at Brisbane's Boggo Road Jail and Hobart's Risdon prison where he had a reputation for breaking cell doors and snapping handcuffs. It took 10 guards at Risdon during one outburst to restrain him.

At his Brisbane trial in 1989, the court heard that Jones had been a victim of steroid abuse.

Southport solicitor Bill Potts, who knew Jones during his early years, cannot wait to see his former client on the big screen.

"It's good he has found fame. Even if it's being killed by Brad Pitt in three minutes," he said.

Mr Potts recalled Jones defence against armed robbery as "definitely a beauty".

"He argued it was a case of mistaken identity," he said.

"He was on armed robbery and here you had this six foot seven blond-haired giant saying, 'It must have been someone else.'

"He was a really nice guy – a kid in a man's body," said Mr Potts.