This New Zealand actor refuses to move to Hollywood, doesn’t eat meat while filming, avoids the spotlight, but never gets tired of thanking his fans. We’re talking about Karl Urban, an actor known for his roles in Judge Dredd, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and the hit series The Boys.Why did he spend ten years planning revenge on his co-actor from The Lord of the Rings? How did he almost become James Bond? Why did he injure Bruce Willis and scare Jack Quaid? In our new video, we’ll tell you these and many other details about one of the most private Hollywood actors.
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This New Zealand actor refuses to move to Hollywood, doesn’t eat meat while filming, avoids the spotlight, but never gets tired of thanking his fans. We’re talking about Karl Urban, an actor known for his roles in Judge Dredd, Star Trek, The Lord of the Rings, and the hit series The Boys. Why did he spend ten years planning revenge on his co-actor from The Lord of the Rings? How did he almost become James Bond? Why did he injure Bruce Willis and scare Jack Quaid? In our new video, we’ll tell you these and many other details about one of the most private Hollywood actors. Karl Urban: How Billy Butcher from The Boys Lives Karl-Heinz Urban was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on June 7, 1972, to a family of German immigrants. His father owned a leather goods manufacturing business, while his mother worked at a local film production company. She was the one who introduced Karl to the world of cinema and nurtured his love for the industry. Karl enjoyed public performances from childhood: he joined a drama club in elementary school and appeared in a little-known New Zealand TV series at eight. He even had a single line there. However, he didn’t pursue acting as a child and set aside his career until he finished his education. Urban attended St. Mark’s Church School in Wellington, and in his free time, he played football and engaged in other sports with his peers. Karl often visited his mother at work and was captivated by the actors’ transformations. At the time, he also performed scenes from the British sitcom Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em at school events. The main character of this series, Frank Spencer, wore a beret and trench coat, so young Karl had these items to make his performances more convincing. Karl’s father hoped to pass on the leather business to his son and tried to persuade him to abandon his hobby. His mother also warned him about the challenges of an acting career, but Karl was unshakable. Inspired by the comic book Judge Dredd, he decided to write a script and stage a homemade play based on it. Unlike the comic book, which focused mainly on Judge Dredd, Karl’s play depicted the residents of Mega-City and their problems. He performed the play in high school, earning local fame as a theater star. From 1986 to 1990, Karl studied at Wellington College and then enrolled at Victoria University of Wellington, intending to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. However, a year later, he pursued an acting career and dropped out. Karl began acting in commercials, landed several theater roles, and soon moved to Auckland for TV roles. His adult screen debut was in 1991, in New Zealand’s first police procedural Shark in the Park. The title referred to an unofficial code term used by officers when Inspector was nearby, and they needed to look busy. While the show did not gain international fame, it was important for New Zealand as it launched the careers of many renowned actors. Then, Karl had minor roles in the soap opera Shortland Street and a TV adaptation of Jack London’s novel White Fang. In 1995, Karl moved to Sydney, Australia, but returned a year later because he felt lonely. His return was the right choice as the young actor appeared in the popular TV series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess in 1996. Karl returned to Hercules two years later to play a different role, and in Xena, he appeared in 12 episodes as various characters. From 1996 to 2001, he portrayed four characters: Mael (based on the biblical Cain), Kor (leader of a nomadic tribe), Cupid, and Julius Caesar. The last role appeared in eight episodes and was loved by the fans. By the way, Cupid was supposed to return in the final episode of season five, but Karl was busy with other projects. So, lead director Rob Tapert added Julius Caesar to the 18th episode of season six specifically for him. It became one of the most popular episodes. Karl’s personal favorite is episode 15 of season two, titled A Day in the Life, even though he didn’t appear there. In fact, while playing Cupid, Karl abstained from eating meat to maintain his energy. He still practices it during the filming. Besides fame, the series Xena: Warrior Princess brought a new love into Karl Urban’s life, actress Natalie Denise. She played a minor role in the series as well, and their relationship was passionate but short-lived. For a while, Karl dated American singer Natalie Cole, but he never shared any details about it, even the time span. Meanwhile, Urban landed roles in the 1998 crime thriller film Heaven, the horror film The Irrefutable Truth About Demons, and the 2000 fantasy film The Price of Milk. Those were all New Zealand films, and having gained fame at home, he caught the attention of Hollywood producers. In the late ‘90s, Karl met makeup artist Natalie Wihongi. Their romance began publicly on set, and their first son, Hunter, was born in 2000. Soon, Karl was cast as Éomer in the second and third parts of the epic trilogy The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King. One was released in 2002, and the other in 2003. In his youth, Urban worked on his aunt and uncle’s farm, where he learned to ride horses. However, since Éomer was an excellent horseman, Karl felt he needed additional lessons. He trained five times a week for two hours a day for a month and a half. It was very important for him to control the horse with one hand so the other could remain free for sword fighting. Additionally, he wanted to feel a deep connection with the horse so he wouldn’t have to think about its movements. Along with other actors, Karl trained with British fencing master Bob Anderson to make the fight scenes as realistic and plausible as possible. On the set of The Lord of the Rings, Viggo Mortensen played a prank on the actor. At 3 AM, Viggo called Karl’s agent, pretending to be Karl, and claimed he didn’t want to board a flight to London because he couldn’t find his lucky pair of red socks. When the real Karl woke up to the agent’s call, he couldn’t understand the fuss about the red socks. When the prank was revealed, Karl laughed but didn’t forget about it. Almost ten years later, he got his revenge during a press conference by casually mentioning that Viggo had bought a goat farm and decided to dedicate himself to cheesemaking. Karl made this up on the spot, and Mortensen had to answer odd questions from journalists afterward. The cast of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won a Screen Actors Guild Award. Karl Urban’s unofficial paycheck was $400,000. The most important thing was the fact that his career took off after The Lord of the Rings. In 2002, he appeared in the American horror film Ghost Ship, and in 2004, he starred in the action film The Bourne Supremacy and the sci-fi film The Chronicles of Riddick. By the way, during the filming of the latter, Karl, along with Vin Diesel, Judi Dench, and Thandiwe Newton, played Dungeons & Dragons to pass the time. On September 16, 2004, Karl and Natalie got married, and on June 28, 2005, their second son, Indiana, was born. One day, the couple was watching an Indiana Jones movie, and pregnant Natalie exclaimed, “Oh! Indy! What a great name for our child”. So, the family simply calls the boy Indy. In 2005, Urban played Staff Sergeant John “Reaper” Grimm in the sci-fi film Doom, based on the eponymous video game. Karl liked the role because video games were his hobby. In fact, the character’s nickname “Reaper”, combined with the surname Grimm, forms the euphemism for death, the Grim Reaper. The film flopped at the box office, failing to recoup the production budget. Fortunately, this didn’t affect Urban’s career, and he remained a fairly sought-after actor. At that time, Karl had the chance to become Agent 007. He met with producers but couldn’t pass the final test due to his commitments to another project, so the role went to Daniel Craig. Karl wasn’t disappointed and was even grateful he didn’t play James Bond. In 2020, the Bond topic returned unexpectedly: without his knowledge, Karl participated in a casting for the new 007. An AI conducting the selection process chose him with a 96.7% match. Chris Evans and Will Smith were close contenders. However, this casting had no connection to the actual Bond creators, and Daniel Craig will likely be replaced by British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Karl also appeared in the New Zealand drama film Out of the Blue, based on real events, playing a police officer. In January 2007, the Canadian-American adventure thriller film Pathfinder was released, where Karl played a Viking raised by Native Americans. Urban, always a prankster, bet his friend Jack Black to replace one of the Native American extras. Around this time, Karl was considered for a role in another film about Norse warriors, Outlander, released in 2008, but lost the competition to Jim Caviezel. Karl has admitted that he doesn’t chase high-profile projects but only considers those that are interesting to him. If, after reading a script, he feels connected to the character, understands their motivations, and starts thinking about how to portray them, he does everything possible to get the role. Other factors are the director and other members of the crew he’ll be working with. These are his main criteria for choosing a role. In 2008, Karl Urban starred in the miniseries Comanche Moon about Texas Rangers, and then he landed a dream role thanks to the space action film Star Trek, rebooting the cult saga of the 60s. Karl had been a big fan of this franchise since childhood, so he started fighting for the role of Dr. Leonard McCoy as soon as he heard about the casting. In the original series and films, this character was played by DeForest Kelley, and Urban mimicked his accent so accurately that Leonard Nimoy, who had worked with Kelley, was moved to tears. Fans of Star Trek also praised Urban’s performance as one of the most authentic in the reboot. It’s rumored that Karl secured more humorous lines for his character and ensured that McCoy wouldn’t be sidelined. Thus, Urban’s Dr. Leonard McCoy became more interesting and charismatic than the original version. Embracing the wave of popularity, the actor introduced the crime drama Black Water Transit, the thriller And Soon the Darkness, the horror film Priest, and the action comedy Red. During the filming of the latter, Karl accidentally cut the lead actor Bruce Willis. During their first fight scene, Urban threw a mug at Willis too quickly, catching him off guard. This take made it into the final cut, and you can see a hint of surprise on Willis’s face. In 2012, fans of the comic book Judge Dredd saw a new adaptation with Karl Urban playing the lead role. It was another dream role for the actor, and in fact, you can see his enthusiasm and respect for the character and the story. By the way, Judge Dredd is partly based on Clint Eastwood’s character from the TV series Rawhide, so Urban’s voice sounds similar to the Western star. Director Pete Travis wanted to film a dramatic scene with Dredd removing his iconic helmet. However, in the comic book, the character never does this: it’s one of his key traits. That’s why Karl flatly refused to do that out of respect for the source material, sacrificing his own recognition. In the motorcycle chase scenes, he volunteered to perform all the stunts, even though a stunt double could easily have replaced him. The actor rode the bike himself and performed brilliantly: no CGI was needed, it was enough just to customize a real motorcycle to make it look more futuristic. Fans appreciated this and responded with mutual admiration. They bombarded the filmmakers with questions about a sequel. The previous Dredd actor, Sylvester Stallone, could only dream of that. Nevertheless, the film flopped at the box office due to an unsuccessful marketing campaign. “No one knew it was being released!” Karl complained. The public discovered the new Judge Dredd adaptation only after its DVD release: 750,000 copies were sold in North America in the first week. Still, this role remains one of the most famous and iconic in the actor’s career. There’s no Judge Dredd sequel just yet, although the talks still continue. Star Trek fans had more luck: the next installment in their favorite franchise Star Trek Into Darkness was released in 2013. Later that year, Urban appeared in the sci-fi action film Riddick, the family film Walking with Dinosaurs 3D, and the series Almost Human. Producer J.J. Abrams, who worked with the actor on the Star Trek franchise, personally recommended Karl for the role of Detective John Kennex. In 2014, the star appeared in two episodes of the New Zealand mockumentary series Short Poppies and the thriller The Loft. In this American adaptation of a Belgian film, Karl replaced Patrick Wilson, who was initially supposed to play Vincent Stevens. However, the movie flopped at the box office. That same year, Karl’s family life fell apart. Unexpectedly for everyone, he and his wife divorced, although they seemed like a happy couple. Karl even admitted that he owed his career success to his wife, who had always supported him. Nevertheless, for the sake of their children, they remained friends. Karl quickly jumped into a new relationship with American actress Katee Sackhoff. She had also gone through a tough breakup, and seven months after the split from his wife, Karl brought his new love to his homeland, New Zealand. In 2016, after a two-year break, Urban returned to the big screen with the family fantasy film Pete’s Dragon and another installment in the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek Beyond. This film, however, received criticism from fans who felt it depicted a militarized society rather than an idealistic one. By the way, Karl almost turned down the offer to reprise his role as Dr. Leonard McCoy, but director Justin Lin managed to persuade him. In 2017, Karl Urban appeared in three films. In October, the superhero movie Thor: Ragnarok premiered, where the actor played Skurge the Executioner. Karl mentioned that the main reason he joined the project was the opportunity to work with Cate Blanchett and director Taika Waititi. Urban immediately agreed to shave his head, and, by the way, it was the director who did the shaving. Waititi even halted the filming process to do that. The main star of the film was, of course, Chris Hemsworth, but New Zealanders Karl and Taika didn’t miss the chance to remind the Australian that he was a descendant of convicts. Speaking of convicts, the next film was the crime thriller Acts of Vengeance, but Karl played Police Officer Hank Strode. In November, the dark crime thriller Hangman, starring Al Pacino, was released, where Urban also played a detective. The streak of crime films in Karl Urban’s filmography continued in 2018 when he played a former police officer in the action thriller film Bent. That year also marked the end of Karl’s relationship with Katee Sackhoff. They didn’t announce it: she simply posted Instagram photos with her new boyfriend. Only a year later, Urban admitted in an interview that they were no longer together. In 2019, Karl appeared in the space opera Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, although he wasn’t mentioned in the credits, but his main project was the series The Boys, based on the eponymous comic book series. The actor played Billy Butcher, a Brit, so he had to work on his accent. However, in the first season, it didn’t turn out very well: Urban is a New Zealander, the dialogues were written by American screenwriters, and the coach was professional in the Canadian dialect. For the second season, the actor found one of the leading dialogue coaches, Andrew Jack, who added more colloquial expressions to the character. However, their collaboration had to end because Jack switched to The Batman with Robert Pattinson. In the second season, released in 2020, there was a scene where The Deep hunted The Boys, and Karl personally piloted the boat. That day was very windy, so the speeding boat literally bounced on the waves. In case of emergency, the actors had a safe word they could shout for Urban to stop, but due to the loud noise (there was a helicopter with a cameraman flying above) the actor never heard Jack Quaid’s desperate screams. Quaid, sitting right in front of the helm, was pale by the end of the first take. In the next take, he was replaced by a stunt double, who, according to Urban, had a great time. In 2020, the star also voiced a character in the animated film Batman: Death in the Family and starred in the short film Butcher, released between the first and second seasons of The Boys. In 2022, Karl voiced a character in the animated film The Sea Beast, and in 2023, he appeared in the spin-off of The Boys, Gen V. That year, the third season of the original series was also released. In 2024, Karl returned to voice acting in Ark: The Animated Series and to his role as Butcher in the fourth season of The Boys. His upcoming projects include the fantasy action film Mortal Kombat 2 and the animated film I, Object about a boy who talks to objects surrounding him after his father’s death. Additionally, two films are in the pre-production stage now: the adventure action film The Bluff, where the actor will be joined by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and the fourth Star Trek film. The sequel to Judge Dredd is still on the table. According to Urban, it’s all in the hands of the fans of this character, as the power of fandom can revive projects. This is exactly what happened with Star Trek: fans sent letters to the creators of the franchise. As for Karl, he is a fan of Quentin Tarantino’s films, admiring the director’s unique storytelling style and iconic characters. In the film industry, Karl Urban is known for dedication to his work. He tries to play each take differently to feed his interest in the role. Moreover, he fully immerses himself in the role and strives to make his characters authentic. He always needs to grow as an actor and learn something new. Otherwise, someone else will be more prepared and will take his place. Among the skills Karl has acquired over his career are martial arts. He even earned a judo black belt. Additionally, the actor plays the piano and guitar and likes surfing, golf, rock climbing, gardening, and fishing. When he doesn’t work or train, he enjoys watching the New Zealand rugby team’s games. Since his breakup with Katee Sackhoff, Karl prefers to keep his personal life private, but it is known that he has a black Labrador Retriever named Ire. A significant part of our hero’s life is charity work. For many years he has been collaborating with KidsCan, an organization that supports underprivileged children by providing food, clothing, and footwear. The celebrity not only donates money and participates in promotional campaigns but also helps hands-on. For instance, in 2015, he found time in his busy work schedule to plant a fruit garden in the yard of a New Zealand school. The goal of the initiative was to teach children about proper nutrition and provide them with a source of healthy snacks. Urban greatly values his fans and always thanks them for their support. He also loves his motherland, New Zealand, and takes part in the movement to save the Māori language. Karl himself speaks this language and also knows German. Urban keeps secret not only his personal life but also his finances. His net worth is estimated at $20 million, but his paychecks are not officially disclosed. It is believed that he earned $350,000 per episode for the fourth season of The Boys. Additionally, the celebrity also earns from brand collaborations. Recently, he appeared in a promo for the video game Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, and in 2000, he played a vampire in a Sony DVD player commercial. Despite his success in Hollywood, New Zealand remains Karl’s home. He once owned a property with a stunning view of the harbor in the prestigious Auckland suburb of Herne Bay. He described it as a wonderful family home but never allowed photographers inside. In 2012, he and his wife sold the property for 2.3 million New Zealand dollars and bought a neighboring villa for 5.3 million. This 4000-square-foot house was built in the 60s and is located on one of the most expensive streets in the suburb, with a total area of 13,500 square feet. Just two years after the purchase, Karl divorced his wife, and they sold the villa for 6.65 million New Zealand dollars. After the divorce, Urban remained in Auckland, Herne Bay. He loves living there. “It’s got a great school, awesome cafes, and really lovely, interesting people," he explained. It is known that in 2018 Karl bought a luxurious house on an elevated 13,000-square-foot plot with a stunning view of the bay. The kitchen and living room open onto an inner courtyard with an 80-foot pool, spa, and a perfect lawn. The house is currently valued at 11 million New Zealand dollars. Karl has a passion for motorcycles and loves traveling on two wheels. His car collection is not very large and includes an Aston Martin DB9 worth about $200,000, a Mercedes Maybach S-Class for $170,000, and a BMW X5 valued at $60,000. In which role do you like Karl Urban best? Before we move on with the video, I have some great news. As requested by our subscribers, we’ve launched membership. If you become a channel member, you will get exclusive stickers, the chance to choose the next video, your nickname will be in the credits and many other cool things. Subscribe, become a member, we’d be grateful! Also you can support us by donating. Links under the video. This will allow us to make more exciting episodes for you more often. Now let’s get back to the video!
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Can you please do how Miley Cyrus lives??