Meet Aaron-Jon North

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aaron-Jon North. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aaron-Jon below.

Hi Aaron-Jon, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

Ah honestly my resilience has been built, like many, from a lot of set backs and some tough life moments. They may not feel good for us at the time, but in the long run they are essential to success.
Of course it’s not about focusing on the failing when these moments occur, but its about nurturing the ability to refocus on adapting and overcoming when these things invariably happen.

My top 3 favourite go to quotes I like to remind myself of in tough moments are these;
‘In every adversity, there is opportunity’
‘You’re not being tested, your being trained’.
‘Its always tough, right before its about to become great’

Those quotes help me to see past those difficult moment, find something to learn from in them and then move forward. Constantly using failures as opportunities to rewire my thought processes. To keep building a pool of unlimited tenacity to draw upon when things don’t go the way I expect them to.
Sometimes that can come from external help, such as a motivational talk, listening to an inspiring podcast with someone I look up to or even just a good physical training session to wash out any negativity that may be lingering.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Well my personal story is definitely not a straight line, nor a traditional one. I had what many would call a bit of a ‘tough upbringing’.
I was born into a working class family and grew up in the UK during the 80’s and 90’s. My mum and I lived on various council estates (some worse than others) until my brother came along some years later, then we were lucky enough to get moved into a little more modest state council housing.
We struggled, but got by, especially with help from social security safety nets and local council support. Free school meals and second hand shops where the norm to me growing up. But I was fortunate my grandparents also helped us out where they could.

I have a lot of gratitude for my grandparents who where very hardworking. They’d managed to make a better life for them selves, getting themselves out of the drudgery of working class and into a more secure middle class lifestyle by means of working their way up to owning a pub in the height of the British pub days. A successful business in South West London at the time.
A lot of characters used to come in, some notorious and from time to time even a few famous faces. The pub (called The White Horse) was well known in the area at the time. I ended up spending a lot of my time around my grandparents, especially my nan, as my mum at the time (being a young single mum) still wanted to live her life. I’d say my mum wasn’t the most maternal, I often felt like a burden to her, and the fact I was definitely not planned, it was clear she took any chance she could to leave me under my grandparents watch. My mother very much subscribed to the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ way of parenting.
My nan however was very maternal. And in many ways was more like a mother to me growing up.

She ran a very busy household, living in the flat above the pub, along with three of my uncles who still lived at home at the time, she also took responsibility of the financial side of the pub, while my grandad ran front of house. Despite her business she and my uncles alway made me feel welcome. My grandad not so much… I think he looked at me being there as my mother shirking her responsibilities. He often was very vocal about the fact he didn’t like how often my mum left me in the care of my nan.
But as a result I became very close to my nan, finding myself staying with her at the pub most weekends or anytime I wasn’t at school.
She loved having me around, taking me her there an everywhere with her, people and friends who knew her would often say to her “he’s more like your son, than your daughters”. My uncles too over time started treating me like a younger sibling, becoming a mix of feeling like older brothers and father figures.
My favourite part of spending all that time with my nan growing up however was the amount of movies she liked to watch. And more than anything, she loved action films! I’d defiantly go so far as to say she was an action junkie, haha!
Every weekend without fail we’d watch 2-3 films together. All the latest and greatest. And if there was nothing new, then we’d rewatch one of the greats! She loved all movies, but I’d say she really had an affinity for popcorn entertainment style films the most.
Luckily for us we were never short of films to watch. At the back of the pub, in a near by street, was a small independent movie rental business, called ‘Moonlight Movies’. Without fail every weekend we’d pop over and check out what was new together. And in the golden era of the VHS straight to video releases, there was always something great to watch!
Films by the great action stars of the time like Bruce Willis, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kurt Russell, Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise.

But it was also down to watching so many action flicks with my nan that I really got exposed to so many of the great martial arts action movies of the time. She was a huge fan of martial arts legends like Jean-Claude Van Vamme, Cynthia Rothrock, Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Wesley Snipes, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Seven Seagal and Michael Dudikoff!
You could say that many of these doubled up as surrogate father figures, and definitely watching them on screen had a positive impact on my life.

And this was where my martial arts journey started, it was thanks to my nan that I even started martial arts at the young age of 4!
She could tell how inspired I was by those legends and what an influence they had. Often getting up mid movie in attempts to imitate their moves and poses, energised by what I saw. Seeing my passion she encouraged my mum to take me to karate… but my mum didn’t want the financial burden, so my nan offered to pay for my training in exchange for my mum to transport me there and take me along. This left my mum no excuse, so she gave in and took me, much to her dismay. Something that would cause many arguments between them both later on.

At first my mum despised taking me along, seeing it as a waste of her personal time, that was until she realised it could basically double as place to leave me while she went off and did whatever she wanted to do. Martial arts daycare!
And because I loved martial arts so much I’d often do double classes, giving her even more time to herself to socialise. A win win.
From there I never stopped studying martial arts, having trained in it to this point pretty much my entire life.
My nan would often tell me she was living her life though me, enjoying my journey and that if she was 20 years younger, or my age she’d of been doing the exact same thing. She’d often tell me this while throwing a couple of punches or karate kicks in the air then laughing as if to suggest that was a preposterous idea. But I always would reply with ‘come on nan, you should do it too!’. Sadly she never did.

I’m extremely grateful for the impact my nan had on me and the support she showed me, growing up on council estates wasn’t easy at times, but having martial arts and my nan in my life kept me on the straight and narrow, helping me stay away from trouble, the kind so many people I grew up with fell into and become victims of. Add to that my grandparents work ethic which also defiantly had a positive effect me, being around them so often, seeing what hard work could achieve.

Jumping forward and having spent a large portion of my life growing up as a martial artist, this eventually lead me to as a younger man, becoming a pro MMA fighter at the age of 17 (although under a different name for those interested in digging deeper). My only goal being I wanted to be a championship level winning fighter.

Chasing the fighters ‘Cinderella story’ however came at a cost, my family saw it as a stupid idea and a big risk (arguably they were right long term). That a stable job would provide a more suitable and safe lifestyle. Even my nan at the time didn’t like me putting myself at risk of serious harm or injury and would constantly try to put me off the idea.
It was something they never really came to terms with over my fight career. Despite my modest success.

So without any meaningful support from my family, this meant supporting myself through numerous jobs in various low paying industries (often having to maintain two jobs at the same time), while attempting to train twice a day, five days a week.
Add to that while doing whatever it took to get by (largely due to earning very little from fighting), I’d also decided in that time it was a good idea to start a family! However having two boys and maintaining keeping a roof over my head as a fighter was quite a financial and mental strain that defiantly took its toll on me and my relationship at the time.

I did however go on to achieve my goal and become a British championship holder, while also managing to go undefeated on one of the UK’s most prolific MMA shows in my career. With a fight journey that spanned some 15 years in the UK and internationally, it had ups and downs like many fighters. I never made it to the UFC unfortunately, always falling short, but if fightings taught me anything, its that I believe in the saying ‘sometimes the things never to happen to you are the best things to happen to you’.

Those years of competitive fighting gave me a lot of gifts I’d of never of got elsewhere. Least of all was the physical and mental toughness gained, but one of the most valuable being developing a fighters mindset (truly a hard earned and valuable thing).
And with that comes bucket loads of tenacity in life (because nothing I feel is as hard as getting punched in the face for a living!), something I feel that is highly useful in my career now as an actor in the film industry, especially when putting things into perspective.

I guess you could say the last seven to eight years of my life, I’ve been focussed on recreating myself. A kind of ‘renaissance man’ if you will.
Now with the humble goal of becoming a great respected actor some day, someone who seen as a creative force in the film industry across various disciplines.

When I moved into acting back in 2017 (after retiring from fighting), it really felt like the thing I was always meant to do! That somewhere along the way I’d got lost down a rabbit hole, and now I’d found my calling! Connecting my past with my future. Probably a familiar theme and feeling amongst people finding acting later in life I suspect.
But starting acting as a mature actor was never going to be easy. At least by that point in my life, I was used to taking the harder paths to get where I wanted, and not afraid to put in the work to get there.

Given the things I’ve accomplished and semi-successful career so far, I am pretty proud of myself (though I have a long way to go). Especially as I never went to drama school, and I’ve largely learned to act though what I call the apprenticeship method. Acting coaches, courses, books, peers and self development.

To date as an actor appearing in The Conjuring franchise’s ‘The Nun II’ has definitely been a highlight, as welling as appearing in the hit series ‘The Burning Girls’ on Netflix. Add to that some hit independent films, I feel like I’m on the right path. Especially with some cool opportunities that I’m currently involved in.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I’d say the skills and areas of knowledge that were most impactful for me where definitely in combing acting, physical performance skills and film making.

Something of a niche for me personally (and a powerful weapon in my arsenal) has always been combining acting with being a stunt performer and a fight / action choreographer.
Something I realised early on is I had the potential to enjoying doing more in the film industry, given my physical skillsets. I feel the ability to work as a stunt / action performer has made me a better actor and given me appreciation for how great action is made. Given my love for action as a genre, I’ve had my most enjoyment as an actor from being able to combine my passions, action with acting.
Hanging out with and working with stunt / action and martial arts performers is incredibly rewarding. It helps me feel more authentic as an actor when appearing in action roles (walking the walk and not just talking the talk), throwing back to the role models who I grew up with watching, who often did both back then, I want to feel as they did. That I’ve earned my place and the respect of my peers when playing action or physical based roles.

Combined with that over the last few years I’ve been fortunate to action direct and fight choreograph for a number of productions. This has further led me to truly falling in love with all parts of the film industry and filmmaking, influencing me to set my sights on starting now to go deeper, into making more of my own films and productions in the future.

Currently I’m obsessing over learning as much about the craft of filmmaking as possible (currently learning to write and having even written my first feature film). Gaining more and more passion to make my own productions. Building deeper understanding and empathy for all involved. Finding reward in each new skill learned, or bit of wisdom unlocked. Understanding how it complements something I already have, but also how it improves it and long term improves everything else I do or make.

I believe the film industry is one of the few industries where having multiple disciplines and capabilities really only improves everything you do, I’ve found success in one area often opens new doors in another. Helping to avoid the pitfall of becoming desperate for opportunities in an industry where everyone is trying to ‘make it’, and a lot of external factors influence whether you do or don’t. Including a huge amount of luck to boot.

I’d end with the advice that the only sure fire way I’ve found to date on increasing luck in the film industry comes from combining your various strengths, empowering yourself to make more of your own. Creating the roles you’ve always aspired to be in yourself or make though your own stories.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?

For me my acting is always the area I feel year on year improves, and matures a little more like a wine of sorts.

I’ve always believed this: Acting is 70% confidence and 30% trained skill.
The 70% can come from many places and is relatively easy to grow and develop.
For example previous careers or skills related to performance. Like being a musician, singer or athlete.
It can even come naturally to many people depending on their upbringing or jobs in life, especially if you spend a lot of time around people.

But the real kicker is the 30%, now that really takes time in the craft to develop. I believe that this part takes ten years or the traditional ten thousand hours of practice as a minimum to hone and get better at, or for some, it might even take a lifetime. Thats where I believe the real acting mastery is at.
And that only comes from studying, practicing, reading great scripts, applying techniques, understanding and learning about yourself and opening yourself up constantly to new ways of doing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rule10action.com
• Instagram: @aj__north
• Linkedin: aaron-jon-aj-north-703549210/

Image Credits

Hettie Pearson and Nicholas Dawks