Aleks Paunovic on Marvel, Reacher & His Journey from Boxing to Hollywood

On this episode we have a marvelous guest! We have the multi-talented Hollywood actor, producer and former boxer: Aleks Paunovic! Aleks, is well known for his roles in: 

- Marvel’s Hawkeye 

- Kindergarten Cop 2 

- Snowpiercer 

- The Olympians 

- Reacher 

- Percy Jackson and Suits: LA and many more! 

Aleks’ journey, from the boxing ring to Hollywood is nothing short of inspiring! Aleks, is returning to his boxing roots in the upcoming incredible Amazon and Michael B. Jordan Muhammad Ali series: “The Greatest”, which is scheduled to be released in 2026! Aleks has co-founded: LEGEND Water, a brand pushing wellness and mental-health advocacy forward into the future! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Thanks for tuning in this episode of Nick Eagan Times. On this episode, we have a marvellous guest. We have the multi-talented actor, producer, and former boxer Alex Ponevic. Alex is known for his roles in Marvel's Hawkeye Kindergarten Cop 2, Snowpiercer, the Olympians, Reacher, Percy Jackson, Suits LA, and many more. Alex's journey from the boxing ring to Hollywood is truly inspiring, and he's now uh returning to his roots in the upcoming Amazon and Michael B. Jordan Muhammad Ali series The Greatest, which is set for release next year in 2026. Alex is also the co-founder of Legend Water, a brand championing wellness and mental health advocacy for the future. Welcome to the Multi-Talented Alex, and thanks for coming on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Thanks, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

You're very welcome. All right, let's jump straight into it. Take us back. Tell us about your background growing up. You're from Canada and everything relating to that.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Yeah, I uh I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, my hometown. Uh most of my family's still there. And uh, you know, I uh I grew up uh playing music. I grew up, I guess, started at 15 years old playing in a metal band with most of my friends, and and that was my passion, and that's what I that was my thing to be the rock star and and write songs and and perform them live. Um and and it was a it was one of those switches into acting later on where I understood that you know I love playing live and I loved the the idea of telling stories through music, and now you know I found my way into acting and I'm telling stories through film. So it's kind of a parallel there. Um and even even with boxing, I had like three generations of boxers in my family. So boxing was a big part of it, but I also uh treated boxing as an art. Um you know, you can't get emotional with it, you have to you have to keep your calm. And it's about repetition, just like learning a script and learning lines, it's about repetition. And, you know, you can you can have all the combinations in the book as a boxer, but going back to the simplest form, which is everything works off the jab, which is the easiest punch and the most effective punch. So you transfer that into acting. For me personally, was you know, always start simple, always start small, be okay with it being boring, because the jab can be boring when you're working on it. And like I remember my dad making me throw the jab 500 times on the heavy bag, and I'm like, oh my God, I just want to fight. But it all starts with the simplicity of that one punch, and then you work off of that. And same goes with acting, just you know, being the boredom, embrace the boredom and embrace the repetition. And then all of a sudden, it's in your bones when you get to set, and whatever's being thrown at you with what you imagined what the set would look like, you know, that what you thought the desk was over here, but now it's over here, and and how how the shots are going to be taking place. You go down to your route and it's in your body. So whatever is thrown at you, um, that's the immediate response that the lines are there. Same with boxing. Whatever happens in the ring, you can always throw the jab. So, and you know, and and with music to me is is is um again storytelling. So I was really fortunate to grow up with some amazing dudes that we record, we recorded, we we played live. That was our big thing, is playing live. Um and then um I think I was playing in in a bar in Winnipeg, and a casting director saw me and asked if I would audition for a film. And at the time I had no idea about acting. It was not not there, but I'm very much a yes guy. I love saying yes to opportunities, and and if I like it, great. If I don't, then I learn from it. And I said yes, and and I realized that I enjoyed it. And um, I didn't jump into it right away. Took me a little bit of time once the band broke up to really fall in love with the idea of acting. So I I got another job in my hometown of Winnipeg, and I got a was became a part of the stunt team there because they never, I'm 6'5, and so they never they didn't have any big dudes there. So I I was lucky enough that Rick Skeen, who was a stunt coordinator in Winnipeg, um, took me under his wing and taught me the ropes. And and then I got to the point where even though I have so much respect for stunt guys, I wanted to tell stories in film. Um, and it's hard to tell stories in film when you're a stunt guy, you don't get taken seriously as an actor. So uh the money that I was making, I decided to turn down just to start auditioning straight acting gigs. And then um I made, and I I I was doing some things. I decided to go to the National Institute of Broadcast, which was in Winnipeg, so I can learn everything behind the camera, also in front of the cam, how to edit, how to do all that stuff, how to how to how to build stories with a cameraman for some uh for the for the football team there. And and um and I had some really great experiences, and I just thought, I don't know, if I can't make it in front of the camera, maybe I'll learn something behind the camera. And I basically, I was pretty broke at the time, and I was playing in a cover band and doing the National Institute of Broadcasting during the day, and then I made the decision to go to Vancouver on my way to Los Angeles, and that was when 9-11 happened. So I ended up staying in Vancouver because I couldn't get to the States because of 9-11, and started building a career here. I you know didn't get gigs right away, so I was teaching boxing here, and then it just kind of evolved into you know getting a little bit of work. But then once when once I decided to do a play with a friend of mine, Jason Good directing, a play called Um Danny in the Deep Blue Sea, that that specific project, I've never done a play before, and it's a beast of a play. It's a two-hander, 90 minutes written by Shanley, a beast of a play. And I had some great um people around me helping me build a character. And I had the live experience of playing in a band, so I wasn't really scared of being in front of people. I was I was more nervous about the lines and telling the story the way it should be told. But I ended up I ended up really having a great time. And again, I had great support around me. I was nominated for that performance for my very first stage performance, and I realized that, you know, I think any actor needs to do a play of some sort to put themselves in a position of telling a story from a character's point of view for a full 90 minutes, not just the little pieces of an audition or you get to set and little pieces of, you know, okay, action cut, and that's it. You have to experience the gamut, which makes you dive into the characters so much more deeply. And once I did that, I started booking more. I think I think my body and my energy walking into the room was a lot more confident. And I didn't know that before I did the play. I thought I was on point, but when you when you raise the bar, you see that the bar can be raised. And I think the bars, bars for people should always be raised. So that that experience helped me basically start working, and I haven't really stopped working since. I've been very fortunate with it. Um, and so yeah, that just kind of took me into you know doing a bunch of projects all over the world. I shot in Antarctica, I shot in China. Um, you know, I I've just been very, very fortunate to shoot in some pretty unique places.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

It's incredible. It's an amazing story, and thank you for sharing that. It's great insights. Um, all right, tell me about the upcoming series, uh, the Muhammad Ali the Greatest series. Tell me about that and the background behind it.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Well, like, you know, I mean honestly, my my whole career can end right now because of the show. Because, like I said, I come from three generations of boxers. My favorite boxer is Muhammad Ali. Um, and getting the opportunity to help tell his story in such a grand scale. Um, Ben Watkins is a showrunner, and uh Blaise Watkins, his son, is an amazing writer, and and um, and them being a part of it with you know some great directors coming in, a great cast. Uh Amari Hardwick is on this. Uh it it's it's one of it's one of those things where I think it was about four auditions before I got it. And what I didn't realize at the time, but I now go, oh, I need to remember this for almost everything that I do, was I was just happy to have an audition. So I was once I got the audition, I was never thinking what the next step would be. I was just, I was just excited that I could say I auditioned for this. And then when I got the second audition, I'm just excited that I could tell people I got two auditions for it. My brain never went into, oh, I'm gonna see me on the billboard or me on set. I was just very present, not not thinking that I should be present. I just was. I was just ecstatic that I had this opportunity. And it got to the point where I went to the screen test, and again, I was just excited just to be at the screen test to tell my friends and family that I went to the screen test for this. But then I ended up booking it. And and again, I'm so much so grateful to Ben Watkins and the team. And I got to be a part of something that I have been a part of basically since I was five years old, which was watching the life of Muhammad Ali. And, you know, the way he he conducted himself in the ring, how unorthodox he was compared to other boxers, but he he he made it work for him because of his confidence. And and you know, he he had all those poems of when he was going to do things in the ring and his word to himself outside of the ring and what he stood for, you know, when he when he decided not to take the step over for the Vietnam War, he basically lost three years of the prime boxing um life that he had. That was that was his prime. And and he and he could have easily stepped over and he would have been doing exhibitions for for the for morale in the army, but he just knew it wasn't right for him and it was wrong. That those are the convictions that I I really grew up with. And then getting this opportunity to tell this story, I play William Faverson Jr., who was his first manager coming out of the Olympics, leading him towards the heavyweight title of the world. And the relationship that the two characters have is uh very much a um built with a lot of respect, especially in a time in the 60s where um civil rights and and racism were a big part of it. They didn't believe in that. Um, and you could see that in their friendship. And so, yeah, the I'm just so ecstatic that I'm a part of this, and I can't wait for people to see it. It's gonna be phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

It's incredible. I'm excited to watch it, it sounds amazing. Um, tell me about your um water legend. Tell me about that and the background behind that.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Sure, yeah. I I got together with some friends. Um, actually, one of I'm gonna I'm gonna drop a name here. Uh Jason Momoa, a good good friend of mine, started his water company. And that's when I really kind of took notice of how bad plastics were in the environment, and and it was always on set, and how he wanted to replace that on set and just do do do the little bit for the environment that he could. And um, and it wasn't like I was searching for this opportunity. The opportunity just came to me with some friends, and they were thinking about doing something like this, and I'm like, dude, like I'm I'm I'm on set all the time, and all there is is plastic and how bad plastic is for you. Um, you know, you can drink a week's worth of plastic on set, and that equates to the size of a credit card that enters your bloodstream of plastic, and it's just insane to me. So as we were talking about it, I really wanted to uh I really wanted to do something special with it to, you know, to obviously get it on sets, but also have we have a QR code that says Legends supporting legends, which goes to a suicide crisis hotline and rehab facilities across Canada. So we really wanted to do something for mental health and and um and take the stigma out of that it's that it's not okay to talk about things that are troubling you, that that it's not a tough guy thing. Well, I think like I've had my my bouts with depression in the world, and I think a lot of people have gone through some sort of mental issue. Um, so I really want to make that a staple point within our product, and and you know, and it doesn't hurt that we have probably one of the best tasting waters out there, um, alkaline at eight. And um, yeah, it's called Legend Water, and I'm just super excited to be a part of that.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

That's amazing. Um tell me about when you look back at your career today, what's something you look back at and go, well, that's incredible. And you know, it's like a pinch me moment.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Oh man, there's so many, there's so many of those. I think one of the biggest ones is just being able to shoot in Antarctica with some great friends. And um, you know, the film, the film uh hasn't gotten made yet, but we had the experience to go and shoot in Antarctica. Uh Rick Dugdale, good friend of mine, an amazing producer. Um, and just the just basically landing on the ice, living in tents, getting through a storm, and being able to take in that part of the world. That's probably one of the most special moments that I had in my career. Um, and be being a part of a job like this that led me to that. Um just that's really special. And, you know, doing a couple films with Anthony Hopkins is another another reason why, you know, I just pinch myself all the time because he's one of my faves. So those are the things that really stand out for me. It's always it always has to deal with relationships. To me, you know, it's it's rare you can be part of like like a historic movie or a classic. Those are so far and few to come between. And what I really see is, you know, you take the jobs where you can, you hopefully love the material, you find a piece of the material that you can go to work every day and and enjoy it and help tell that story, which I love, but it's really about relationships and building friendships and and hoping to work with those people again, and then actually seeking those people out to work on different projects again. So, yeah, relationships is a big thing for me.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Incredible. Thank you for sharing. What inspires you daily?

SPEAKER_00 15:12

People, man. I just I just uh you know, not not not just not just um the wins. I love seeing people go through adversity and come out the other side and learn from something. And and I think the struggles is what makes life beautiful. If it was all one note of wins, you're not really gonna go through the gamut of what what really matters and and what what you would walk through fire for. So those kind of experiences um with people and how they persevere, those are the ones that kind of push me over the edge of of that of inspiration and and walking through the fires.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Okay, great. And what's the best piece of advice anyone's ever given you?

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Um I I think I've told this story before. I think it has to be Hopkins. I remember asking Hopkins on set, and I had my hand gestures up in the air when I was asking this. Plus, I was nervous because I'm asking him some advice. And I was like, So, what did you do? And my hand gestures are up, and I'm like, What did you do, or what do you do that sets you aside from everybody else with the performance that you do? Like, what is it that you do? And he just looked at me and said, You'll never get there in the nicest voice, just very kind, you'll never get there, which kind of shocked me. But then he said, because he says, You're making this gesture, which you've already put me on a pedestal. But what we just did in this film, it was just you and I playing and prepared and being open to improv and then being open to collaborate. What we just did, that's that's that's what I do. But when you when you put your arms like this, you've already put yourself on a pedestal, no matter what I say. Um, I'm never gonna reach that. And he was like, I didn't even put me there, you put me there. So if you take that away and just talk to talk face to face, then you can reach whatever whatever um pinnacle you want to reach with with the advice that you get. But when you're already putting me above up a level, you just you're just never gonna get there. And I thought that was some of the best advice that I ever got.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

That's amazing. Well, how do you stay grounded working with Achans?

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Oh man, that's you know, most of the time they're grounded. I mean, the ones that I really that I really connect with are ones that, you know, you they're just normal people. And, you know, and I have newer actors that see me and go, like, oh my god, like you've made it. But you know, everyone's got a different level where they go, I wish I could have that career or that career and and enjoying your journey. I think that's the biggest thing. And I'm just I just feel like I'm really fortunate to make a living in a job like this that I enjoy so much. And that really humbles me because anybody can take my position with all these movies that we do. Um anybody can tell a different type of story for a film and a character. And I just I'm just fortunate when I get a job and I treat that job as seriously as I can and respect everyone on the team as much as I can and and the people that I'm working with. And I just I think I think that's what kind of grounds me is that I I know this isn't it's a hard gig, but I also know there's a lot of people that can do it. And I want to be one of the guys that they pick, that they like to work with, and that I bring a different nuance to the character than anybody else. So yeah, that's what that's how I kind of try to go go through life.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

You can tell you're very grounded and humble. So really, you know, you show is the way you're talking. So yeah, you're a really cool guy. Um, what's the best compliment? What's the best compliment you've ever received?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Best compliment I ever received. Man. I just think when when people come up and that I've affected them in a role that I've done. I did a film called Um Personal Effects. And even when I did the play, um Danny and Deep Blue C, um when they come up to me and they they thank me for the performance, and then I've shown them a little piece of themselves within my performance. That's that's the best compliment. When people can sit back and see a little piece of themselves and connect to that, and and it's an emotional, it's an emotional journey for them that that we just went through, like in Danny the Deeply C or the character I played in Personal Effects. Those those those are the moments where I feel like it's it's one of the greatest compliments that I can get that I've affected somebody.

SPEAKER_01 20:03

Yeah, that's terrific. Um again, you could change anything. This can be personally or professionally, what would you change?

SPEAKER_00 20:12

Oh man, I bet you everyone goes, I wouldn't change a thing. Um but but it it's it's interesting. Like for me, I think when I was younger, um even though I love trying different things and I love going after different things, I I wish I would have been um I wish I didn't have as much fear of trying something. Because there were opportunities that I missed because I felt like I wasn't good enough. And I wish it's one of those things where you sit back and you go, I wish I knew then what I know now, that that saying that everyone says, I wish I knew then what I knew now. And I think it's one of those moments where the experience and wisdom that I had have now, if I had back then of just just saying, just saying, I hope I can swear, but just saying, fuck it. And just going for what you want to do, um, be brave. And at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you're not gonna die making a decision, even though it may feel like it in your chest and in your head, that if you try to go after something, it feels like death. It's not. It's just it just may not work out. And I think I I wish I would have changed some of those decisions early in my in my career and early in my early in my life to really stick with things a little bit more, um, and not just not be afraid to fail. And now I love failing. I think failing is like one of the best things that you can do. Um, but and learning from those failures, but in the beginning, just kind of get frozen of failing or disappointing others. And I just I I think that's what I would change is just to go for it more, more uh No fucks given kind of attitude.

SPEAKER_01 22:02

Yeah, I love that. And you know, the way I say it too is none of us are getting out of here alive, so why not? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 22:08

Exactly. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you wish, don't you wish you would have known that when you're like 15? Like it's one of those moments, right? Yeah, I get it.

SPEAKER_01 22:17

Cool. Um, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I do appreciate it. All your appreciate.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

I also I need to let you know that um December 10th, um, Percy Jackson's new season is coming out on um on Apple, I think it is. I think it's Apple. Um, Apple or Prime. And um, so I'm I'm going to the premiere, which I'm really excited about, beginning of December. And um I've got a pretty uh amazing character that I'm doing on this season called uh Polyphemus, uh Cyclops. He's depicted as like 15 feet tall, 900 pounds. So I had had to put on some prosthetics and and get into some you know heavy wardrobe, five hours in the chair to to get um everything on point, another hour to take off. So it was a it was an extremely tough gig, but one of the most rewarding gigs I've had in a long time. And the cast of Percy Jackson are just phenomenal. Those kids are I can't wait to see what they do in their lives. So I think tune in December, December 10th for Percy Jackson.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

That sounds incredible, but definitely watching cool. Um, thank you again. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Amazing. Thanks so much, man. I appreciate it.