{"data":{"id":"c7d1d16c-6cee-4199-8da5-21b3f2e96432","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Edmonton Expo: Actor Ernie Reyes Jr. talks Ninja Turtles, thumbs up from Spielberg","summary":"He’s played a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, traded blows with Harrison Ford and The Rock, run away from Jackie Chan, shared an adventure with Arnold, and caught a thumbs-up from Spielberg while being killed by Indiana Jones.\n\nAnd now, Ernie Reyes Jr. is heading to Edmonton.\n\nSpeaking to Postmedia on Wednesday, Ernie Reyes Jr. admitted martial arts have always been in his genes.\n\nStarring in The Last Dragon with his father, Ernie Reyes Sr., brought him front and centre in Hollywood. His second role as Prince Tarn of Hablock in Red Sonja saw him at 12 years old sword-swashbuckling with Schwarzenegger.\n\nSidekicks on ABC television with Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) and more roles led to a phone call in 1989.\n\n“I got a call from the stunt coordinator. ‘We need a guy with the skills. Not acting, pure stunts’,” he said. “Since the production company Golden Harvest was responsible for launching the careers of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, I said ‘absolutely, this sounds awesome’. Plus, I was then going to London to meet Jim Henson.”\n\nAfter performing all the stunts in the turtle suit as Donatello in the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Reyes was out of the suit, not doing stunts and back to acting in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. He said the anniversary of the first and second movies this year has been all about celebration. He will panel with other TMNT actors and performers this weekend at Edmonton Expo.\n\n“Sharing the love and having a moment to connect with kids is great,” he said of the upcoming event.\n\n“With the 35th anniversaries of the first and second movies, we’ve been able to tell a lot of the stories about making movies, behind the scenes. Both films (were) a great time. People have a lot of questions about being in the suit.\n\n“Kids that grew up with the original films, their kids seeing the original films and the newer ones. (A) whole new fan base of 10, 20-year-olds – fans who weren’t around when we made these first movies.\n\n“The Ninja Turtles (was) an amazing franchise to be a part of. I hear so many stories from kids how the turtles helped them out.”\n\nWhen performing with action icons like Harrison Ford, Schwarzenegger, and The Rock, Reyes said it is about being in the moment.\n\n“It’s really more about being part of the experience, see how they behave and move on set, and the honor of working with all these great people,” he said.\n\nAfter working with Rob Schneider and Leslie Nielsen, and one-on-one with The Rock in The Rundown, a call to the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull perhaps brought Reyes’ career full circle.\n\n“Honestly, (I) don’t think about those things, but Spielberg is probably the highlight of my whole career in terms of single moments,” he admitted.\n\n“Sometimes maybe people don’t know you’re even in these movies, but having watched the original (Indiana Jones) movies in my local theatre in California, then for me to be on set with Steven Spielberg.”\n\nHe recalled one time when he was on “a massive, magnificent set (with) winds (and) leaves blowing”, when he was “fighting Indiana Jones”. And how, at the end of a take, he looked up to see Spielberg give him a thumbs up from on top of a piece of scaffolding.\n\nThis experience was followed by a couple more massive sets — Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and James Cameron’s Avatar.\n\nIn addition to training and martial arts instruction, these days Reyes keeps in the action by jumping into the world of independent filmmaking with his own Ninjaverse project.\n\n“With Ninjaverse I’ve been plugging away on it … strategizing what is the best way to launch stuff, and of course, (because) this is independent filmmaking, fundraising for it,” he said, describing Ninjaverse as a “large universe designed to play across film, TV, games and vertical content.”\n\nReyes said after more than 40 years of working with people and seeing the entire filmmaking process, creativity tends to grow “inside.”\n\n“Watching the whole machine work, and the filmmaking process, one starts thinking about making films that reflect my aesthetic and themes that I’m thinking about,” he said.\n\n“Independent filmmaking is not about pitching to studios. It’s about raising the money, making things on tight budgets and putting them out there for audiences to decide.\n\nHe added independent filmmaking also allows fans to be involved before the movie starts.\n\n“Independent filmmakers have less gatekeepers between them and audience,” Reyes said.\n\n“It is about building the audience more — going from script done to trying to raise money, going to comic cons, building the project — really before you’ve rolled camera.”\n\nRelated Under the Mandalorian helmet: Brendan Wayne, The Duke's grandson\n\nThe Odyssey actor arrives in northern Alberta for GrandeCon\n\nRBrown@postmedia.com\n\nBookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add DailyHeraldTribune.com, EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.\n\nSign up for the Daily Herald Tribune newsletter here\n\nYou can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/edmonton-expo-actor-ernie-reyes-jr-talks-ninja-turtles-spielberg","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/ERnie-and-Indiana.png","publishedAt":"2026-09-17T22:06:05.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Movies","News"],"authorName":"Rob Brown","contentHtml":"\"Dr.

He’s played a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, traded blows with Harrison Ford and The Rock, run away from Jackie Chan, shared an adventure with Arnold, and caught a thumbs-up from Spielberg while being killed by Indiana Jones.

And now, Ernie Reyes Jr. is heading to Edmonton.

Speaking to Postmedia on Wednesday, Ernie Reyes Jr. admitted martial arts have always been in his genes.

Starring in The Last Dragon with his father, Ernie Reyes Sr., brought him front and centre in Hollywood. His second role as Prince Tarn of Hablock in Red Sonja saw him at 12 years old sword-swashbuckling with Schwarzenegger.

Sidekicks on ABC television with Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers) and more roles led to a phone call in 1989.

\"

“I got a call from the stunt coordinator. ‘We need a guy with the skills. Not acting, pure stunts’,” he said. “Since the production company Golden Harvest was responsible for launching the careers of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, I said ‘absolutely, this sounds awesome’. Plus, I was then going to London to meet Jim Henson.”

After performing all the stunts in the turtle suit as Donatello in the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , Reyes was out of the suit, not doing stunts and back to acting in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. He said the anniversary of the first and second movies this year has been all about celebration. He will panel with other TMNT actors and performers this weekend at Edmonton Expo.

“Sharing the love and having a moment to connect with kids is great,” he said of the upcoming event.

“With the 35th anniversaries of the first and second movies, we’ve been able to tell a lot of the stories about making movies, behind the scenes. Both films (were) a great time. People have a lot of questions about being in the suit.

“Kids that grew up with the original films, their kids seeing the original films and the newer ones. (A) whole new fan base of 10, 20-year-olds – fans who weren’t around when we made these first movies.

“The Ninja Turtles (was) an amazing franchise to be a part of. I hear so many stories from kids how the turtles helped them out.”

When performing with action icons like Harrison Ford, Schwarzenegger, and The Rock, Reyes said it is about being in the moment.

“It’s really more about being part of the experience, see how they behave and move on set, and the honor of working with all these great people,” he said.

After working with Rob Schneider and Leslie Nielsen, and one-on-one with The Rock in The Rundown, a call to the set of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull perhaps brought Reyes’ career full circle.

“Honestly, (I) don’t think about those things, but Spielberg is probably the highlight of my whole career in terms of single moments,” he admitted.

“Sometimes maybe people don’t know you’re even in these movies, but having watched the original (Indiana Jones) movies in my local theatre in California, then for me to be on set with Steven Spielberg.”

He recalled one time when he was on “a massive, magnificent set (with) winds (and) leaves blowing”, when he was “fighting Indiana Jones”. And how, at the end of a take, he looked up to see Spielberg give him a thumbs up from on top of a piece of scaffolding.

This experience was followed by a couple more massive sets — Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and James Cameron’s Avatar .

\"

In addition to training and martial arts instruction, these days Reyes keeps in the action by jumping into the world of independent filmmaking with his own Ninjaverse project.

“With Ninjaverse I’ve been plugging away on it … strategizing what is the best way to launch stuff, and of course, (because) this is independent filmmaking, fundraising for it,” he said, describing Ninjaverse as a “large universe designed to play across film, TV, games and vertical content.”

Reyes said after more than 40 years of working with people and seeing the entire filmmaking process, creativity tends to grow “inside.”

“Watching the whole machine work, and the filmmaking process, one starts thinking about making films that reflect my aesthetic and themes that I’m thinking about,” he said.

“Independent filmmaking is not about pitching to studios. It’s about raising the money, making things on tight budgets and putting them out there for audiences to decide.

He added independent filmmaking also allows fans to be involved before the movie starts.

“Independent filmmakers have less gatekeepers between them and audience,” Reyes said.

“It is about building the audience more — going from script done to trying to raise money, going to comic cons, building the project — really before you’ve rolled camera.”

Related

RBrown@postmedia.com

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add DailyHeraldTribune.com, EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.

Sign up for the Daily Herald Tribune newsletter here

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.

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