In Rebel Ridge, Aaron Pierre Is a New Kind of Action Star

AARON PIERRE IS a powerhouse. A graduate of the prestigious LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), the 30-year-old English actor began his career on stage and has since played memorable roles on screen in Barry Jenkins’s historical miniseries The Underground Railroad and M. Night Shyamalan’s existential horror Old (he played a rapper cheekily named ‘Mid-Size Sedan’). Standing 6’3” with broad shoulders, striking hazel eyes, and a sonorous baritone (all the better to voice Mufasa in the live-action Lion King prequel later this year), Pierre radiates strength. His lead role in the movie Rebel Ridge, now streaming on Netflix, is the most commanding showcase of that to date.

In Jeremy Saulnier’s high-velocity thriller, Pierre plays Terry Richmond—an ex-Marine who finds himself at the center of a conspiracy after entering the remote township of Shelby Springs to post bail for his cousin. Thrown off his bike and handcuffed by corrupt cops who then unjustly seize his life’s savings by exploiting a maddening loophole in state law, Terry confronts their police chief (Don Johnson) only to learn he’s rigged the system in favor of his officers. With the stakes rising fast, Terry’s left with no choice but to rely on his combat and survival skills to wage a one-man war—at which point Rebel Ridge escalates into an action throwback in the taut, muscular mold of Rambo: First Blood and Walking Tall.

Pierre first read the script in 2021—more accurately, the actor says he tore through it “in 90 minutes or so.” Seeing that Rebel Ridge had been written by Saulnier, known for searingly brutal thrillers Blue Ruin and Green Room, was enough to make Pierre take notice. “I have a checkbox system: filmmaker, script and character,” he says. “Every single one of those checkboxes had a big green tick. Jeremy’s a phenomenal artist. He operates with intentionality, clarity of vision, and the deepest love for the work. The script was undeniable. The character…wow.”

Saulnier knew Pierre was right for the role immediately after the two met over Zoom. “The dude vibes superhero,” Saulnier says. Even beyond his physicality, Pierre’s poise and thoughtfulness stood out. “Once Aaron and I connected, I knew within less than two minutes of our first Zoom that he was the guy. I’m sitting there, paying attention to the very substantive exchange we’re having, but in the back of my mind I’m also saying, ‘Holy shit—don’t let him go.’”

Playing a character who exists on a knife’s edge between simmering intensity and explosive violence demanded strength and discipline. The crackling charge of Saulnier’s dialogue infused the filming of every slow-boiling standoff with tension, intensified by the Louisiana heat during the film’s summer shoot. Pierre underwent extensive strength and weapons training; working with military advisors and stunt coordinators, he honed pre-existing hand-to-hand combat skills and threw himself into sequences where Terry cycles fast enough to catch a speeding bus, drags cops across concrete, and grapples his way through close-quarters battle.

Pierre sat down with Men’s Health to discuss finding the strength to portray a martial-arts superhero, modeling masculinity, and making movies with his community in mind.

MEN’S HEALTH: How’s your day going?

AARON PIERRE: My day is going wonderfully—thank you for asking. I like to believe I’m someone who does my best to operate with intentionality, and I love a routine. So, when my routine is routine, I’m always happy. Today, before these interviews started, I woke up, and I had my daily hot water. I had my 100 grams of oatmeal with maca powder. So, I’m good. I’m happy.

MH: When Rebel Ridge came your way, what appealed about this character?

AP: Jeremy had written Terry Richmond with an elite, intimidating level of physical prowess. At the same time, he is so centered, grounded, and emotionally intelligent. That he paired those traits—and arguably made a statement in doing so—was exciting. Something highlighted to me, early in my journey, was my height and my size; I was told that some people may not be able to envision me as a character with the capacity to be emotionally intelligent.

Jeremy had completely turned that on its head; every filmmaker I’ve worked with, as a matter of fact, has turned that view on its head. Physicality is not indicative of emotional intelligence. I was deeply grateful to him to write this character with such prowess, to be so physically present and strong and still so emotionally intelligent.

MH: You’ve brought humanity and grace to characters across films, like Rebel Ridge and Brother, and shows, like The Underground Railroad and Genius: MLK/X, who struggle to define themselves in opposition to external pressures. Tell me about the throughline of playing characters on a path to self-declaration.

AP: Something so deeply important to me is allowing my community to feel seen, heard, understood, and respected, and also telling stories of individuals on the path to self-declaration, to being unapologetically themselves.

One of the reasons I was so thankful to Clement Virgo for casting me, a 6’3” and framed-as-I-am man, as a high school student in Brother, for example, was because within our community, many of our young men are 6’3”-plus before they even reach adulthood. Sometimes the world engages with them in an inappropriate way based on that.

My younger brother is 10 years younger than me; he’s about 6’4”—take a quarter of me, add it onto me, and that’s him. And he’s been that size since he was in high school, you know? I was so grateful to have the opportunity to play a high school student for that reason; it was a privilege to play a character so nuanced and dynamic.

MH: In promoting Brother, you reflected there’s “no one definition” of masculinity and stated “it’s whatever you deem it to be; hopefully you deem it to be operating from a place of love.” In Rebel Ridge, Terry stands up on behalf of the community, to seek justice. Even in his use of force, he’s using less-lethal methods to avoid loss of life and embody a more positive masculinity than represented by the corrupt police officers he’s up against. How did you find that balance of power and grace?

AP: I’m deeply in love with martial arts. I’m a student of Brazilian jiu-jitsu and boxing. I’ve done some Muay-Thai as well, but that’s the one I had the least experience in, by a long stretch. It was an honor to be able to utilize those passions. What I love about martial arts is, firstly, how deeply humbling it is. I love the family. I love the camaraderie. It feels like a unit or a team. It was wonderful to utilize personal passions for Terry.

Don’t get me wrong—it’d be a stretch to even say I have a fraction of Terry Richmond’s physical prowess. That dude is awesome. Jeremy’s written a character who—at the same time as having elite martial-arts knowledge and the capability to deal with any physical altercation and bring it to a resolve or conclusion in which there is no fatality and no one is irreparably harmed—would walk into a room and wouldn’t announce himself. Still, you would feel he was there, as if he had.

MH: We don’t learn about Terry’s past until it’s put into practice, when we learn he’s an instructor in the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP), the mantra for which is “one mind, any weapon.” MCMAP combines mental, character, and physical disciplines. Tell me about bringing those disciplines together to create this character, and about his awareness of the force continuum, how he seeks to de-escalate situations using the least amount of force required.

AP: Jeremy and I had countless conversations about everything we wanted Terry to embody. Even with the elite martial-art/weapons knowledge he had, we wanted him to be an individual who didn’t ever have the desire to abuse that knowledge—who actually wanted to mind his business and live a quiet life. He was someone who would only engage with that capacity within himself when he was pushed to the point where there was no other alternative.

Everyone who’s seen the film has highlighted that as being a reason, immediately, that they’re riding with Terry. He’s not being demonstrative. He doesn’t want to do any of this. He’s forced to. What’s satisfying, within the context of Jeremy’s screenplay and film, is that any time Terry engages, all he’s doing is for himself, for his cousin—and for the audience. He’s righting injustices, marking them off as if going down a checklist. He’s not doing any more than he needs to do to make it right.

MH: Tell me about your physical training for the role. What did your schedule look like, and what were you working hardest to play Terry?

AP: I was in the best shape I’d ever been in in my life to portray Terry. We filmed in a number of locations within Louisiana, all of which embraced us, but our base was in New Orleans—I love New Orleans. I love the community, the culture, the food, everything. Jeremy had this warehouse in New Orleans; within the warehouse, we had grappling mats, boxing bags, gloves, pads, wraps. We had weightlifting equipment.

Outside of the warehouse was where I did all of my weapons training. That’s where I did all of my pedal bike training. I’ve been riding a bike since a very young age, but not how I needed to ride a bike in this. In one scene, Terry is gunning after a bus; I was actually chasing the bus and had to do a number of takes. We really had to double down on the training for that. I’m really grateful to have had the stunt team, the weapons team, and everyone involved in helping me to realize Terry to the best of my ability. I had amazing teachers, all of whom have elite expertise and knowledge in their respective fields. It was great to be a student and learn.

We would spar. We would practice choreography. We would do drills. It was strength training, but I had to really work on being dynamic. This was one of the first times it fully set into me that flexibility is a strength, because without flexibility, you can’t engage with your strength to its fullest capacity. That’s one of the things I learned from this and have doubled down on since then. I’m a big Yin Yoga lover now.

MH: Keith Woulard, a retired Navy SEAL with law enforcement experience, was a stunt coordinator on this film; you two were already close, having previously worked together on The Underground Railroad. Jeremy Saulnier says you called him “uncle.” How did that shorthand contribute to designing the film’s stunts?

AP: Keith is outstanding. He is phenomenal at what he does. There was never a moment in which I didn’t feel incredibly prepared for any stunt. There was also never a moment I felt unsafe. That’s how anyone will feel working with Keith. What was really special is that we had first met on The Underground Railroad, and we had a shorthand from that, which allowed us to expedite some of our understanding of certain moments. He understood how my body operates, so he would immediately tailor things in that way.

MH: For Rebel Ridge, you had to be ready to lift someone over your head and smash them onto the ground, safely. You were also doing this in the Louisiana summer heat, at 128 degrees Fahrenheit with the heat index. How did you find the strength to push through those types of stunts?

AP: Honestly, I don’t think there was one day where I didn’t have a bruise or a graze or a cut, but I loved it. While I’m fortunate to be able to use my body in the way I am today, I love and relish opportunities to fully embrace and immerse myself in stunts and choreography. I want to utilize this time in my life so I don’t have any regrets later on in my journey about things I wish I’d done that I didn’t do.

I’m thankful for the stunt team trusting me and believing in me to engage with all of the stunts I did. That said, I certainly didn’t do every stunt. I’m so deeply grateful for the elite professionals who contributed to bringing Terry Richmond to life in the way that we can now present him to the world. Without them, it wouldn’t have been possible. It’s a real family, and this picture is a team triumph.

Stream Rebel Ridge Here

This interview has been condensed for content and clarity.