Interviews

Keith (The Dean of Mean) Jardine wore many hats before making his name as a mixed martial arts fighter in the UFC, where he registered wins over future Hall of Famers Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Forrest Griffin.

The former wildland firefighter, miner and bounty hunter has since found a new career, progressing from acting to writing and directing his first feature film. “Kill Me Again,” starring Canadian Brendan Fehr, opens Friday and is available to stream on a variety of platforms.

As the 49-year-old Jardine describes it, the film is “Groundhog Day” featuring a serial killer. Fehr plays Charlie, also known as the Midnight Mangler, who finds himself trapped in a time loop in a diner.

Bloody mayhem ensues — with a twist — as Charlie attempts, unsuccessfully, to reassert control over his life.

“I was always fascinated with the time loop genre, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ and ‘Groundhog Day’ and all that. Like what can I do? What’s interesting? What’s my flavour on this thing?” Jardine said in an interview.

“What if the protagonist is a serial killer? That’s super-interesting. What if we had to walk in the steps of a serial killer through one of his most notorious crimes, and we have to live that over and over and over with him? That was fascinating to me. I knew I had something magical, and I started raising money from then on.”

Enough money for a 12-night shoot in New Mexico, where both Jardine and Fehr make their homes, from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. It was a gruelling schedule complicated by the fact that the plot features time repeating itself.

“Everything had to match up … That was a hell of an undertaking,” said Jardine.

Fehr, who said he kept copious notes to keep track of when and where he was emotionally in each scene, said he was taken aback when he first read the script.

“I just went ‘Oh, that’s scary.’ And that’s not in the serial killer/horror sense but in the ‘Do I have the ability to pull this off?'” he said. “And those are generally the roles that you should be doing, that you should gravitate towards … it’s the ones where you question yourself and doubt yourself that you’re going to grow as an actor, grow as a person.”

Jardine, who also acts in the film, got what he wanted from Fehr playing “a really really bad guy.”

“There’s not too many actors who can pull off what he did on such a tight schedule. He’s in every scene … And only he is charismatic enough to get the audience actually pulling for him. All of a sudden, you start rooting for him in a way. What a strange thing that is. And that was my goal when I wrote the movie.”

Jardine credits his cast and crew, including cinematographer Juergen Heinemann, for helping bring his vision to life. Fehr, meanwhile, praises Jardine for being open and collaborative during the condensed shoot.

Jardine’s pro MMA career stretched from 2001 to 2012, ending in a decision loss to Brazil’s Roger Gracie in the Strikeforce promotion. He retired with a 17-11-2 record, including a 6-7-0 stretch in the UFC.

A cast member of Season 2 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show in 2005, Jardine started acting while still fighting.

Initially typecast — his credits include roles as a bouncer, Russian thug and burly doorman — Jardine branched out into stunt work and earned meatier roles. He has some 61 entries on his IMDb filmography, including credits for such films as “John Wick,” “Crank,” “Inherent Vice,” and the TV mini-series “Godless.”

Jardine says he turned down a lot of roles in a bid to escape the UFC fighter tag.

“It has been a journey,” he said.

In 2022, he wrote and directed the short film “El Paso 11:55” which also featured Fehr and former fighters Donald (Cowboy) Cerrone and Tait Fletcher. Cerrone and Fletcher are both in “Kill Me Again,” as are fellow fighters Maurice (The Crochet Boss) Greene and Michelle (The Karate Hottie) Waterson.

The success of the short, in which Fehr plays a man with a bag of cash waiting for the night bus to El Paso, helped him put together “Kill Me Again.”

“It was a learning process,” Jardine said. “Every step of the way, from the financing to writing, casting actors to the actual shoot and editing … And now getting the movie sold and set for release.”

“My fingerprints are on everything in this movie.”

Jardine’s film company is called Broken Ear Productions, a nod to his MMA background.

The former fighter got to know Fehr while the two filmed the NBC series “The Night Shift” and offered him the role in “El Paso 11:55” when the original lead dropped out.

“He’s Canadian, so that obviously means he’s an MMA fan,” said Jardine. “So we hit it off.”

Fehr was born in B.C., growing up in the Lower Mainland before moving to Winnipeg with his family when he was 12. He initially started modelling and kind of fell into acting while planning to become a math teacher.

“They didn’t think I was going to make it as a model, which I couldn’t argue with. But they said, ‘You’ve got an interesting enough look to be an actor.'”

Good call. Now 47 and a father of three, Fehr’s extensive resume includes starring on “Roswell” and “CSI: Miami.”

“Kill Me Again” reunites him with female lead Majandra Delfino, whom he dated while working on “Roswell,” which aired from 1999 to 2002.

Jardine, meanwhile, leaves later this month for Morocco to wrap up filming Season 2 of “The Terminal List.”