Donnie Yen Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

is your foot all right I was thrilled but at the same time I was kind of confused I might do demo to take that role I don't know so I actually asked my kids do you think Dad should your father should do a Star War I mean do you like it man better or or Star War better and they said Star Wars of course so that probably that changed my mind you know that's pretty much it [Music] broke one there is more than one sort of prison Captain I sense that you carry yours wherever you go one of the creative conversation before I agreed to do it and I said you know uh the role was a little bit too cliche and how he carried himself because in the beginning it was the character was a little bit more serious but then I said you know you have enough of these kind of Asian martial art Master right that's fine you know if you want me to play that be that Asian Master you want me to swing that stick a little bit that's perfectly fine but shouldn't he have a sense of humor you know and he liked the idea and so we're kind of adding lines and making this character a little bit more funny then I just kind of suggested it wouldn't be even better if he can't see where he can feel the force instead of not really attached to it but then somehow he have a grasp of that Universe the one with the force but one with the force that the forces with me well in all my films and all the characters that I've played in my entire career I always emphasized on the realism of the character no matter what genre I do I always emphasize on interpreting this character he has to be grounded whilst you'll be off the wall and no one understands where you're coming from so that's how I approached the whole character as not just the action side so maybe that worked maybe people really came to liken this character so much [Music] Once Upon A Time In China part two [Music] as a professional artist you gotta do your homework if you're Northern or Southern the accents the way you carry yourself the way you look the gesture and all the efficacy is very important if you really want to play the character properly accurately Once Upon A Time In China for example that was during the Qing Dynasty as in it an actor who's uh I guess specialize in action movies then you have to kind of connect the two play that character what type of style during that time how are you gonna fight how do you interpret that that's also takes a lot of not only research but also a lot of skill [Music] [Applause] [Music] s getting into character not only as an actor it's a more of a self-tuned in mentally or physically but also the environment helps you into that character and that world so when you are dressed in that wardrobes in that period and you walk into the set and you automatically put you in that environment that helps you to get into the setting I worked with jet three times in my entire career I remember I was in LA casting for Dragon uh the Bruce Lee Story I didn't get that role but I got a call from the producing director and Jet Li himself said hey you want to come back to Hong Kong and do this so I went back and we were both very young I think that we had that little ego going on you know in on the set so the choreographer was yumo ping now yumo ping was the person who discovered me 40 years ago very veteran action director choreographer you know he he did Kill Bills and Matrix and Crouching Tiger and did all that action well I want to make the long story short the way we work in Hong Kong for many many years is that with changes the choreography as we go along so we both very experienced obviously martial art actor and well no we walked on a set and we looked at the choreography we started changing bits and peace in there and it's kind of like happily sparring and following the structure of the choreography but then we went off and In freestyle basically it's like rapping contest you know what I'm saying it's like every both of us just kind of went on and we were going faster and faster and faster where the camera couldn't catch us we're going at it and the director was like looking at the Monitor and played back and said wow this is great you know just keep it rolling keep it rolling but yeah we had a really uh interesting time because a lot of those action choreography were improvised on the set that's how we shot films back back in the days now now is you know a little bit more civilized you know we're coming for the plan follow that plan and we do this and do that but back in the days there was Wild Wild West the way we make action movies we walk on the set and say oh this is the second this is the building let's jump down from this building let's crash this place you know oh let's not shoot it this way I remember there were many many movies is where we didn't have a script we came in and I was looking at the director and we asked what what are the lines he said oh I haven't figured out the lines yet let's just say just say one two three four seven six really and then we we dump it later the most significant experience working on CE Upon a Time was that I had an injury almost Blinded Me so what happened was there was the shot where Jet Li was wired up and we both had these pole these are bamboo pole about this this thick and they're quite heavy now if they hit you in the head they'll knock you out there was a move where he spun around 360 degree he swings at me and I block him after about 30 ticks he missed instead of coming across and I'm supposed to block it like this and it comes across horizontally so it whacked me right on my eyebrow right I mean I got knocked back about eight feet five seconds later I said wait drop my hands and blood was spilling I kid you not it was spilling like shower spray it was like it was like this like in the move like you built so I went to the ambulance about six seven stitches six stitches the day after they called me and said are you okay can you come in for a close-up on the right side I said close up you can see my stitches no I'm going to shoot you sideways so you can't see the close-ups so what happened was the day after I have patches on right and he shot like close up on the other side where you can't see the patches that's how Wild it was [Music] The Hitman series [Music] foreign I was already a very successful action director and and won quite a few Awards in fact pretty much every movies that I was doing was nominated and then ended up winning the award so I was quite in demand in the market as an action director but like you said what's the next level how am I going to elevate myself oh then I have to really have even better performance as an actor because at the end of the day it's the acting it's the drama right the story right and as a result it was a very good decision and you know I gave all the credit to Mr Samuel Hong for the first app Iman one two and then Iman 3-4 I call him sifu the one that discovered me you more ping he was responsible for part three and four when I found out I was going to make a movie with Mike Tyson I was ecstatic I was always been a fan of Mike Tyson aside from Bruce Lee Mike Tyson was my idol you know I was looking at Mike Tyson wow you know I mean imitate him in fact how he moves I said well can I use something that Mike Tyson moves in my movies so when I realized oh he's gonna be in Ant-Man three so I was both excited at the same time a little bit a little bit nervous I was like you know what if he actually knocked me out knocking me out is fine but I gotta finish the movie right it was kind of that kind of excitement and and that nervousness working with him because I was such a fan and he's in front of me and he's coming at me with his famous left hook and I was like oh Mike Tyson's coming over with a left hook and I told you I'm paying I said I'm not gonna be exactly like how we shoot the traditional way of kung fu movies where we always Dodge at a very Split Second I'm gonna move when I feel dangerous whether it is I'm not gonna wait until his his fist is here you know I want to move there was a shotway he he came up with a left hook and it was supposed to hit a big heavy bag so all right ready close up you know the camera rolling all right I felt that punch was coming and I felt his forearm brushed my hair I said whoa but it was great fun working with Mike and it was totally chill and respectful I had more of a great time working in that film talking to him then that scene itself like we'll be between shots and I would ask him questions I'm a fan you know you got to remember so it was a very memorable experience working with Mike Tyson it was an accident he was coming at me with flurry of punches right and the choreography was I was supposed to block all his punches with Wing Chun techniques now as the winching techniques use your elbow sometimes the elbow goes so I go at it maybe I have a little power behind it and I just I guess accidentally hit hit one of his fingers like I didn't even know about he didn't he didn't mention anything and then next day he came in and he said oh and he had he got banned something wrapped around his fingers and we were jokingly oh you know Donnie broke my pinkies or whatever it was an accident you know get up [Music] everybody in the world some way or the other is at least inspired by Bruce Lee not solely on his physical Province but his philosophy and how he saw things it's kind of like a Muhammad Ali the way he feels this is the future and I think that's what I was drawn to him the most with that elements we're no different you know only the skin colors you know I mean that kind of uh very liberal and free thinking right the way he made martial art movies was also impactful and influence in all my films if you look at all my films the temple the the certain details it uh still have a lot of Bruce Lee shadows in it right so but of course at that time when I was young watching Bruce Lee film I never thought of how can an Asian person be a lead in American movies and English-speaking movies like I'm glad it finally is here but it took a while it took a lot of people like Bruce to really kick down doors and making that kind of difference pave the way for someone like me who can have that kind of opportunities to really express myself hero [Music] foreign foreign experience as well I reunited with Jet Li and I went to to Mainland China one of those one of the set that they built a courtyard of a temple we spent 21 days shooting just two of us fighting 21 days sometimes for Hollywood producers they wouldn't understand why why doesn't why do you take so many days to shoot action scenes where because I shot some a couple of American films where everything's all the we have shot lists and everything is on schedule I'll finish the scene uh in two days or three days you know getting the pieces getting in coverage but that's not how we shoot action over here we shoot action by each shot and getting that shot to specific lighting camera camera angles choreography to the precisions to the teeth so we spent 21 days sometimes three four shots a day everything was going smooth we united we both wanted top Once Upon a Time part uh part two that scene became a classic so 10 years later we want to do another classic so we both of us each shot we look back the playback and look at each shot and said oh you know wait a minute that that your fingers is a little bit to the left that's not precise enough all your your eyes you know you're not looking at me so we're both kind of going back and forth trying to make the best piece a lot right for each shot because I remember there was one another choreography where he was also wired up with a sword now although these are prop swords but they are still quite pointy this whole shots was one take about 50 moves or something so at the end of the 50 moves maybe the 48 49 moves he strikes downward his sword he went Boop and I back up jet said Donny there's blood spilling out of your face I said really let me take a look he whacked me on one side and 10 years later he whacked me on the other side I started laughing I said oh this is gonna be great this movie is gonna make so much money because the last time we did this you know it was a huge box success so you know you see in red because in in Chinese red bag during Chinese New Year we give each other red bag so when you see blood it's like this is gonna be a successful film six stitches again two times both sides close to my eyeballs I could have been blind [Music] Wing Chun [Music] [Applause] let me begin with my mother being a Pioneer especially during the 1970s she opened a martial arts school in Boston as a new immigrant at the time she was able to break through barriers of teaching all walks of different race and culture so that made a lot of impact on me to understanding the whole woman empowering especially during back in days in more of a male predominant type of a world my mother is like four feet eight or four by ten you know a little woman so you have hundreds of students like six foot five you know following her and respecting her and bowing down to her so you know that gave me a different perspective so working with Michelle that movie was about a female lead in a martial art movie which happened before but it's not not often I was the supporting actor and just let her do her job and and Let Her Shine [Music] I thought of the fire scene so I didn't have any CGI there was no CGI scenes in fact there was no CGI at all and there was no not really a safety team or whatsoever I said how do I love the fight I really light up the fire I used these kind of uh put some gasoline in there I remember there was funny part where I would let up the whole fire except the shots and the fire would go to go out so I have to call the people on the side they said oh that that went off you know pour some gasoline and then burn up that fire it isn't like what's today you can there's a there's a pipeline there's you know all types of modern technology where you just turn up the buttons and the Fly goes up and or you do it impose the CGI fire back in the old old days we just have to do whatever like if you want to crash that window you crash the rear window you jump off the building you jump off the building you know so the same with these fire props that I was doing literally pour some gasoline and lift that fire triple X return of Santa cage I became pretty cool with the director and he understand my background I remember there was a scene where I was fighting a bunch of henchmen inside an airplane and I came up with a different choreography to work with that camera angle without telling them so a lot of these choreographies that I did was working with where they placed the camera imagine the cameras over there oh and I would look at the stimulographer or the cameraman I said oh you know how what's the size of the camera the lenses right now look at the monitor oh he's gonna have a medium shot or whatever different lenses oh okay I I know how you're gonna want to shoot this this space do you want me to do this maybe it's better like this maybe like this I'll say oh that's pretty cool so start changing all this stuff around and after that scene and I told DJ the director I said you know DJ listen how about give me the footage let me edit this stuff overnight and I'll give it to you tomorrow if you don't like it throw it away You're the directive with all the respect so I went back used the computer put them all the shots together and show him my vision I said this is how I'm gonna fight like the temple it's like music right a couple of bars here and then you know put it together and hey do you like it and they loved it and what you saw on the on the plane I edited that scene [Music] Sackler [Music] I wanted to make a movie that appears to the whole world where even if you don't understand any culture of Chinese martial art novels or jinyoung's particular you still appreciate this movie so I came up the story and then started bringing these pieces together like how am I going to do something that is different from what's done in the past from wardrobes again music and comes down to the action now this can easily be over the top where what's going on no one can understand you know why is this guy's flying around here and he doesn't come down to the ground you know and then I came out this concept of you know what what is the most successful franchise of these type of films right Marvel's movies right X-Men's movies right we believe in that world why do we believe that what are the successful elements so I use that as a study case to oh okay I understand so basically this is my version of the Chinese Marvels but of course I don't have that kind of budget you know I mean it's under a very string of very tight budget I didn't have any any money at all I just thought that with my experience and my team was so strong Hong Kong film Award winners they're all like acclaimed cinematographer editor wardrobes and art directions so my whole entire cast from actors to behind the camera the crew they were really supportive they really believe in my vision they said you know Donnie we trust you we believe you we want to go on a journey with you even everybody's getting cut no one is getting paid that much honestly but we enjoyed it everybody were in a ride together with me and wanted to make make a difference we wanted to to make something special for the world a couple of elements is really important in my movies number one I say positive energy it's very important to in my movies I don't like to big movies where if there's a role that is offered to me or price is offered to me and it's against my morals my principle of how I want to live my life I don't care how much money they give me I don't want to do it my movie has to contain some core values as a human being righteousness family love that is really important for me as and also a very commercial movies I like my movies to be entertaining because at the end of the day what are we making this for for yourself or for the for the best and what I like to do is make movies for everybody

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Id: OIj55iotnS8

Length: 20min 42sec (1242 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023