AJ North of London on Life, Lessons & Legacy

AJ North shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

AJ, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Definitely integrity. Energy comes and goes, it can be created and found. Intelligence is relative, there are many forms and not all forms are useful. But integrity is tied to who you are. I strongly believe you are your reputation and how others perceive you. Without integrity you’ll never have others respect and you’ll never truly respect yourself without strong integrity.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi, I’m AJ. I consider myself first and foremost a creative. On the journey to becoming or aspiring to be a master creative. Within this I’m blessed to be an actor, stuntman, writer, action & fight director for film. As well as being a life long martial artist.

I’m not your typical type in the industry, hailing from a underprivileged working class background, really having scraped and forged everything I have, from the bottom to the top. With a lot of help along the way from mentors, friends and allies in the industry, but never given anything on a silver platter.

What ties life all together for me is at my heart I’m a film maker. A story teller. And specifically I have a deep love for all things action! Always have. From a very young age.

All of my chosen crafts supports and grows the other, I think of it as kinda cyclical creative ecosystem. Each craft supporting the other, helping me constantly move in the right direction, and takes steps forward, in what I believe right now is the most competitive industry in the world.

In addition to this I also have my brand business Rule#10 Action, which has a number of facets to it.
Firstly it serves as my front of house to my action design and production company, we’re also working on an upcoming clothing line and other plans to expand in the future to other ventures. It helps me scratch my entrepreneurial side.

My main focus however is and always be (for the foreseeable future) my acting career. Everything I do funnels upstream into that direction. My rule is, if it doesn’t serve or draws away from my ultimate direction and goals, I don’t pursue it.

Though I’ve been fortunate to have a hit a few smaller home runs as an actor (though still firmly have a long way to go), I’ve also been really lucky to work at the highest level on amazing productions as a stuntman. Which has given me invaluable insight into my main passion area, the world of action.
I want to keep being a stuntman alongside acting as long as I can (which is my main drive for why I try to stay in the best shape possible), and where possible I love to combine my arts, an action actor if you will. It’s the biggest thrill to be able to do both when I can.

But that’s not to say I don’t love ‘pure’ acting roles. The buzz I get from those roles is in stepping into characters people don’t expect from me. I get a real kick out of people saying ‘damn, I didn’t know that was you!’ or ‘wow I didn’t know you had that in you’.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Well to be honest I feel like I’ve lived a thousand life times at this point..
From my first real job being a personal trainer, to an apprentice electrician, to working in a bunch of boring sales jobs, and then finally a long stint in the games industry as a games tester. These were just some of the many jobs I had before I started to find my way into the film industry.
It took a long time before I was able to support myself as an artist, especially being from a working class background. With many ups and downs, side hustles, losing it all then gaining it all back again multiple times! Its been a very tough, demanding road at times both physically and mentally, doing what ever I’ve had to do to survive (sometimes leading to some questionably bad decisions). Really only having myself most of the time to rely on in life. Even now it feels like things are just starting to tentatively align. But I never take anything for granted in this biz, as success and people can be so fleeting. I remain cautiously optimistic, and I really try hard to keep gratitude at the front of everything I do.

Outside of that for nearly 15 years I was a professional MMA fighter, chasing another Cinderella story (alongside holding down multiple careers and trying to bring up a family). And although I loved to win competitively, I always knew deep down that wasn’t going to be the thing that made me, despite some modest successes in my career.
It was really seeing so many great fighters not be able to put down the gloves that made me realise I wanted more than that life could give me. The life of a fighter can be seriously lonely and depressing despite the glamour of the events or wins. It definitely gave me a mental toughness and tenacity that irreplaceable, making me more resilient to more normal every day stresses (I mean nothing really compares to staring at someone across the ring who wants to punch your head off your shoulders haha!). But it also cost me some of my humanity and humility for a while (which took time to regain post retiring from the fight game). It actually personally I think made me more introverted for a time too, I feared peoples judgement of me so stopped wanting ‘put myself out there’ so to speak.
On top of that, I just wasn’t fulfilled fighting, despite the wins. In some ways I’d of liked to of made it to the level of the UFC, but as the saying goes, some things are just not meant for you, and whats meant for you will find you…
And I’ve also like this saying before, that I thing really sums up my time competing eloquently; ‘Sometimes the best things not to happen to you, are sometimes the best things to happen to you’. Despite that I’m still proud of what I achieved.

But one thing I’m proud I’ve always been, is being a life long martial artist. Which has been the one staple thing that always kept me grounded and brought me back to balance. The martial way has given back to me in more ways than anything else in life could.
It’s a huge part of who I am, and has continued to be a big part of who I am now in the film industry too.

I’m sure many artists in various crafts feel the same way, but at this point I can’t imagine life outside of the entertainment industries. Once you’ve tasted even moderate success, its very hard to go back to anything else. For me it just feels like all roads were leading to where I am in life now all along. The trails and tribulations have all been worth it (though hard to feel that way at the time). And somehow everything I’ve done before seems to be of benefit to me now more than before.

It’s kind of like I’ve graduated from some kind of life apprenticeship.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Yep, many many times! And honestly I feel I’ve been given up after failure on so many things in life, so many times across my past. Some for good reasons, some for not. Jobs, careers, relationships, friendships, family.
But for some reason no matter the failings, no matter how many times I gave up or gave in, when I really wanted something, I built the ability to get back up and go at it again.
Maybe its the fighter in me. Maybe its the stubborn SOB haha. What ever it is, I realised that giving up has always been temporary.
I sometimes feel the soundtrack or at least the song to my life would be If You’re Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough by Roger Alan Wad.

For me now, all those times I failed in my past, gave up, packed it in… however you wanna call it, have given me the gift of a million important life lessons. A rich tapestry of history and experience to pull from. After knowing what feels like a millions ways to fail, you only have left the ways to succeed.
I still fail, I still give up on things I know arn’t worth my energy, but through experience I now know the battles worth having and the ones that will end up getting me nowhere. It’s these failings that gave me the wisdom on where to spend my energy and where to not.

And the beautiful thing is, it’s helped me better understand what I want in life. Because I wasn’t for some reason afraid to give up, start over or try again as many times as I needed to, to find the right thing or the thing that felt right. Sticking it out is overrated, especially if you know deep down its not the thing you really want to be doing.

Once you find your thing, like really deep down know, you’ll never give up on it, because you’ll only know it’s value to you in context to whats come before and what you’ve had to sacrifice.

It’s not the giving up that matters. It’s the going at it again. Each time learning how to move forward. Because you never really give up if you get back up.

So if I can impart any wisdom to those reading this, don’t be afraid to give up on the things holding you back, burn the bridges, go forward and take the damn hill!

Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yep. Honest to a fault! Haha!

I don’t have a facade, I prefer to be authentic.

Gets me in trouble sometimes but hey, I prefer this way. Honesty might hurt, but in the long run its the best policy,

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
Honestly, and most performers will get this. It’s when I’m performing.

There’s peace in the doing. All the stress is in the build up. But the doing is the enjoyable part. It’s when you are at your most free.

A great quote I live by. ‘Fear and stress only lasts until you do it’. Whenever I’m stressed or fearful, I remind myself of this quote.

Of course we all need ways to find peace and balance outside of the doing however.
Some examples of the kinds of things I use to find peace while I’m building up to the doings;

Its probably an understatement but I train a hell of a lot physically. Meditation, long hot showers and breath work (Wim Hoff technique) when needed too.

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Image Credits
Laura Lake – Kim Hardy

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