George Finn on Becoming Tommy in Atlas King: “You Leave Every Character Knowing Yourself Better”

George Finn still remembers the moment acting stopped being a hobby.

At 12 years old, he gave it a try after his mother suggested it, but it wasn’t until four years later when his brother cast him as the lead in a short film, that he realized he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing it.

“I remember falling in love with it then and there,” Finn says. “I was happy to act for the rest of my life.”

More than two decades later, that excitement hasn’t faded but has evolved into a philosophy that has guided every role he’s taken on, from LOL and Time Lapse to his latest film, Atlas King. For Finn, every role begins with finding the connection between himself and the character

“Each character teaches you something about yourself,” he says. “When you do the work, it’s important to find out what you have in common with the character, and it almost always tends to be surprising.”

That search for common ground became the foundation of his performance as Tommy, the fiercely loyal fighter at the center of Atlas King. The upcoming action thriller follows a young man trying to honor his late father’s legacy while navigating a dangerous criminal underworld, but for Finn, Tommy’s greatest battles aren’t fought in the ring.

But Tommy wasn’t simply another action role. On paper, he is a fighter driven by grief, loyalty, and justice, but Finn recognized something more personal beneath the surface. The character’s struggle to honor his late father while refusing to be defined by loss echoed experiences from his own life.

“I know what it means to lose a father,” Finn says. “Figuring out how to live with it without letting yourself become a victim to fate.”

That emotional connection shaped everything that followed. Before filming began, Finn spent three months training twice a day, five days a week in mixed martial arts, Muay Thai, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, stunt work, and strength training. Surrounded by professional fighters, he immersed himself in a world that was entirely new to him, learning not just how they moved, but how they thought.

“Everyone in the movie other than me has fought professionally,” he says. “I tried to soak up as much as I could from the proper warriors I got to work with.”

What surprised him most was that the physical preparation unlocked the emotional one.

“The grueling physical work allowed me to figure out a deeper emotional connection to Tommy,” Finn explains. “Tommy bears a heavy burden, but his release is fighting.”

Finn’s perspective on the production also changed as he helped bring Atlas King to life as a producer. Watching director Nika Agiashvili collaborate across every department gave him a broader appreciation for filmmaking as a collective effort rather than an actor’s showcase.

“It gave me a more full understanding of the production,” he says. “I got to have an honest relationship with the crew and help each other, as opposed to just focusing on my acting.”

That spirit of collaboration mirrors one of the film’s central ideas. While Atlas King is filled with underground fights, crime, and high-stakes action, Finn believes its emotional core is loyalty, the willingness to keep showing up for the people who matter.

“Loyalty has always been important to me,” he says. “I’m lucky to have a very loyal group of family and friends.”

It’s also why he hopes audiences see more than an action film when they watch Tommy’s journey.

“The thing I want most is for the audience to be entertained,” Finn says. “The movie has action, drama, intensity, but overall I want them to enjoy the ride.”

Beneath the spectacle, however, Atlas King is about a man learning that strength isn’t measured by how hard he can fight, but by the people he chooses to fight for. Tommy begins the film trying to make sense of the world with his fists. By the end, he discovers that moving forward means trusting the people beside him as much as himself.

For Finn, that’s one more lesson added to a career built on discovering something new in every character.

“The more I’ve acted,” he says, “the better I’ve been able to learn who I really am.”