McKay Stewart: Flips, fights and facts Seattle coffee, Manu Bennett, and Richter on Beta Test.

I Rehearsed With Manu Bennett on Beta Test

· McKay Stewart

November 2014. Seattle. Day 5 of rehearsals.

I posted it straight:

“Day 5 rehearsing, @manubennett doing a fine job with the action on this feature. Down to earth dude, great crew. But I #alreadymissLA!”

Same day I tagged Manu Bennett again from the original Starbucks in Seattle, and from a waterfront overlook with the Great Wheel in the distance. Hashtags: #betatester. #manubennett. #sunnyinseattle.

Twelve years later, that feature has a name on the poster and a slot on streaming lists: Beta Test (2016). I played Richter.

Here’s the trip, the co-star, and the movie that came out of those Seattle days.

McKay Stewart and Manu Bennett at the original Starbucks in Seattle With Manu Bennett at the original Starbucks in Seattle, November 2014. I’m in the Inosanto Academy shirt. Shared on X.

What is Beta Test?

Beta Test is an 88-minute American sci-fi action thriller. It hit theaters on July 22, 2016.

The pitch is wild and simple.

A gaming company builds a first-person shooter that does not stay on the screen. A champion tester named Max Troy finds out the “game” is mirroring real events in the city. The on-screen hero, Orson Creed, is a real person being remotely controlled. Virtual and real smash together. They have to stop the conspiracy before the missions spill into the streets.

Director Nicholas Gyeney (who also wrote and produced) called it a cross between Die Hard, Gamer, and The Firm. Production company: Mirror Images LTD. Shot in Seattle, Gyeney’s hometown.

You can look up the title on IMDb (tt4244162). Runtime there: 88 minutes. Release: 2016.

Who I worked next to

Manu Bennett plays Orson Creed — the man inside the game who will not stay a puppet.

If you know him from elsewhere, you already know the physical presence. Spartacus. The Hobbit trilogy (Azog). Arrow (Deathstroke / Slade Wilson). On this set he was the action center of gravity. My Day 5 note was not polite fluff. He was putting in the work, and he was cool about it.

Other names on the board:

  • Larenz Tate as Max Troy (also a producer)
  • Linden Ashby as Andrew Kincaid
  • Yuji Okumoto as The Surgeon
  • Kevon Stover, Sara Coates, and a deep Seattle fight cast

I am listed as Richter in cast databases including Plex, Listal, and Filmweb.

McKay Stewart overlooking the Seattle waterfront Seattle waterfront view the same day — Great Wheel, harbor, that #livinthedream light. Shared on X.

Seattle, November 2014

Principal photography ran about 19 days. It started November 7, 2014 and wrapped November 26, 2014.

That start date is the same calendar day as my Starbucks and waterfront posts.

My earlier post that morning said Day 5 of rehearsals. So the fight work did not begin when the camera rolled. It started before. That matches what the production talked about in public: a long, choreographed fight sequence that took weeks to rehearse. Gyeney wanted a single-shot fight that would smash the old record (he pointed at the famous Oldboy hallway take). The finished film is known for a fight stretch of more than 6 minutes in one continuous shot.

Seattle was not a random backdrop. Gyeney picked his hometown on purpose. He wanted more action work in a local scene that usually leans drama. Locations included spots around the city — the climactic fight was even filmed at Seattle City Hall, per The Seattle Times.

Budget reports put the film under $2 million. For that money they still got national theatrical play in 2016 (Seattle premiere, then cities including New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco).

Coffee, creed, and an Inosanto shirt

The Starbucks photo is one of my favorites from that week.

Manu’s arm over my shoulder. Me in a black Inosanto Academy, Los Angeles shirt. Industrial lights. The classic Starbucks seal on the wall behind us. Cool filter. Zero Hollywood stiffness.

That shirt is not random merch. I train martial arts hard — Wushu, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Kali, Jiu-Jitsu — and the Inosanto Academy is part of that world. Showing up to a Manu Bennett action rehearsal in that shirt felt right.

Hashtag on the post: #inosantoreps. Representation and training in one frame.

The second shot is quieter. Me on a railing above the old waterfront highway, looking out at Elliott Bay and the Great Wheel. Sepia. Still. After days of fight rehearsal, you take the breath when you get it.

The trailer vibe

When the trailer dropped in 2016, it sold the same promise: a man turned into a human drone, a tester who realizes the missions are real, and Manu Bennett moving like the fight was personal.

Official trailer (YouTube):

Beta Test official trailer still Trailer still for Beta Test (2016). Watch: youtube.com/watch?v=XHmAr4CrT6g.

I was already back in the L.A. hustle by then. But those November posts are the time stamp. Rehearsal day 5. Coffee with Creed. Seattle sun when it showed up.

Why this stretch of 2014 still hits

2014 stacked jobs.

  • April: stunt doubling Scott Wolf on TNT’s Perception (that post)
  • August: wrapped For Blood as Dead Card Danny (that post)
  • November: Seattle with Manu Bennett on Beta Test
  • Later that same November: I booked Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (next up in this series)

Stunt day. Fantasy Western short. Sci-fi feature with a Spartacus-level action lead. Then Marvel. That is the working actor / stunt life. You fly north. You rehearse until your body knows the hit. You grab a coffee photo because the moment is real. Then you go home and take the next call.

Beta Test is not a quiet indie drama. It is loud on purpose. Controllers. Implants. Street fights. A long take that makes your shoulders ache just watching it.

I got to stand next to the guy carrying that fight — and get credited as Richter when the movie landed.

The record

Check it yourself:

That’s the story. Day 5. Manu Bennett. Original Starbucks. An Inosanto shirt. And a sci-fi action feature that turned a Seattle rehearsal week into Richter on the cast list.

← All stories