Exclusive Interview: Cung Le Talks PANDORUM, TEKKEN, And More

Last week I had the chance to interview the awesome mixed martial art fighter turned actor, Cung Le. He is a familiar face if you’ve followed MMA religiously, but he was also seen earlier this year in FIGHTING with Channing Tatum and he has a movie that opens next Friday, September 25th, 2009 titled PANDORUM, (check out the trailer) a sci-fi horror from producer Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Resident Evil, Death Race)
He’s worked with the late great David Carradine before and he talked to me also about TEKKEN in which he plays the character Marshall Law, BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS starring Donny Yen and also some more future projects. So read the complete interview after this jump…

RS: It’s an honor to be chattin’ with you today. As an Asian myself, I very much admire your career. So how did you get PANDORUM gig?

CL: Actually my manager introduced me to producer Jeremy Bolt at Universal Studios and that’s where his office was at and basically I went there and I met him around May and he said he’s getting ready go prep the set for PANDORUM and there’s a part there that they had not cast yet and they’re casting right now and they want to find the perfect Asian guy and ‘O I’d love to read the script’ he got the script over to my manager. I read the script, I was blown away by the script, I told my manager ‘do whatever it takes to get me the chance to read for the part’ and ya know, a week later I got the chance to do that and I was cast for the part, I read to another producer Robert Kulzer because they were having a hard time finding the right Asian actor for the movie, they were looking to cast a Japanese actor but it wasn’t working out so they opened it up for everyone so a lot of top name Asian actors came to the audition and I came out on top and I got the part

RS: Correct me if I’m wrong but is it true that your character doesn’t get to speak much in this movie

CL: I have plenty of dialogue in the movie, I don’t speak the whole time. But there’s a big language barrier, I played a Viatnemese Character who only speaks Vietnamese, so me and Ben, we have a lot of dialogue, not the whole time cause I don’t understand them I have a major dialogue scene with Ben Foster when my character is introduced and after that I have some comedic stuff, it’s not meaning to be comedic but it’s just the way Ben reacts and the way he talks to me and I react

RS: I met Ben Foster briefly at the Comic-Con, he seemed like a really cool guy but he also strikes me as an intense actor. Did you find it intimidating working with a class act like Foster, how was it working with him?

CL: It was fantastic to work with him, he’s a down to earth guy he’s intense though. He takes his job very seriously and if you’re not prepared, he will steal the screen from you

RS: I’m sure you’ve been asked this a lot but which is more challenging, fighting in the ring or acting fighting for a scene in a movie

CL: Of course, real fighting is tougher and there’s a lot more to it, but fighting on screen, if you mess up you can do it again

RS: Did you do your own stunts?

CL: I do all my own stunts and I give a lot of input on the fight choreograph. I haven’t got a chance to direct the fight scene completely as the fight coordinator but I think it’ll head to that point because on every set I work on they always ask my opinion so think I will use my talent also there

RS: I haven’t had the chance to screen PANDORUM yet but from what I can gather so far, it seems like a very elaborate set, with lots of possible claustrophobic spaces, how did it feel entering a place like that?

CL: Usually something like that there’s a lot of green screener and CGI but I say 70% of everything that you saw was real, the interior. It wasn’t all claustrophobic, the whole thing, the ship is like a small city.  Basically you got so many different elements, You got claustrophobic scenes, and then you got huge.. like never ending spaces on a ship. It’s pretty amazing.

RS: How was Christian Alvart’s directing? And was producer Paul W.S. Anderson hands-on or was he more on the back seat and just let Alvart do his thing?

CL: You know what, Christian Alvart is an amazing director. He is more famous for Antibodies if you get a chance, you gotta watch that. I didn’t get the chance to meet Mr. Anderson until at Comic-Con but mainly I got to work hands on with Jeremy bolt and Robert Kulzer who were very hands on when they were there almost every day. I had to lose 15 lbs for the movie, 15 lbs for me is easy to cut, but the hard part was keeping it off for 2 months. Jeremy Bolt was always there every day making sure when lunch came around, he looked at my plate, what am I eating. One time I had a chef who made something that was light and lean for me so I can maintain my weight

RS: What do you say to folks who think PANDORUM is just another version of Event Horizon?

CL: Like a lot of people think ‘o it looks like Event Horizon’ well, first I wanna specifically thank people like you but to some of the bloggers out there that watch the trailers and think they got the story down. I say they should just wait before they even get on the keyboard and become the keyboard warrior that they want to be and stop talking like they know ‘o this movie’s gonna be like Event Horizon’. It’s nothing like Event Horizon, it has so many different elements in there, so many twists and turns, if you’re very detailed when you watch the movie, you’ll understand the story and when the movie’s over, their mouths will be open, I guarantee it and they will realize how deep this movie is.

RS: Hollywood nowadays is about prequels, sequels and remakes. Will there be a PANDORUM 2?

CL: You know what. That I don’t wanna give away, but every movie there always could be a prequel but there’s always a story that started somewhere, there always could be a sequel also unless everyone dies and so you just gotta go out and watch the movie and then demand for prequel or sequel after the movie’s done

RS: So how did you get into your character, Manh, for this movie? Did you study somebody?

CL: For me, learning from people like Ben Foster and other actors that I’ve worked with like David Carradine, Channing Tatum, Terrence Howard and even Dennis Quaid.  How everyone works. It’s not about who you’re trying to be like. It’s your own personality. How you would be in this environment. And what you would do. And not trying to imitate someone else, it’s about what you would do in the situation and make it as believable as possible for you as an actor so you can really be in the scene.
How I prepared for this, I basically knew that my character has been awake a lot longer than the other two cast members. A month before I got there, I really didn’t go out much, I just stayed with my family, spent as much with my family because I knew when I was gone, I was gonna be this person who hasn’t had a chance to talk to anyone for God knows how long. Basically I meet up with Ben and my first interaction with somebody and how that would be.

So when I got to Berlin, I didn’t go out, I just stayed in my hotel room and didn’t talk much to people and the only time I talked was if I had to order some food. I talked to the stunt coordinator. That was basically it. The rest of the time, I was just in my own world, acting like there was no one else around, and there’s crazy things running out there. I just got into the character. When you walk on set, you walk inside the hall of a ship, you’re like ‘damn, you don’t really need to act out like you’re in it’, you’re like actually in a ship.

RS: Let me ask you about TEKKEN, it still doesn’t have a release date, when will we get to see the movie in theaters? When will the trailer hit the web?

CL: I don’t know, hopefully first quarter of next year. TEKKEN, I had a small part in it, even though I played Marshall Law who’s a pretty popular character. I was preparing the Frank Shamrock fight, and they kept pushing the date, it was a month out before my fight and I got on set and I said ‘if this is the day I’m gonna start, this is the day I’m gonna be done and if you don’t get my shot done, I have to go’ because I brought my trainer out and we worked as much as we could. Everything was cramped and rushed for me. We’ll see when it comes out, I have no idea, I’m not even following TEKKEN right now. PANDORUM was the movie that my character really came alive for me.

RS: One of your upcoming projects that’s currently listed is UNCOMMON HONOUR, what can you tell us about it?

CL: Ya know what, right now it’s still being written. In a script format. It’s action movie, right now I’m into action. I have another project CERTAIN JUSTICE; it’s not on IMDb yet. I’m hoping that would be my next project, there’s still a couple of things to polish up on that before we get it going, it’s not on IMDb yet but UNCOMMON HONOUR, I just met with the producers, they really want me as the character, we got a verbal agreement, right now it’s being written. Most likely I will be the main lead, most likely I would do all the fight choreograph in there.

CERTAIN JUSTICE is going to be hot, it’s an amazing script. We got some people looking at it, we don’t have a director yet. It’s like First Blood meets No Country For Old Men. Amazing script. Next to PANDORUM, it’s a one-two punch, it’s either CERTAIN JUSTICE or PANDORUM that caught my attention when I read it, I could not put the script down, I was like ‘I need to do this’. The script was written for me, my manager manages the writer, I can’t wait til that project gets going

RS: So is it fair to say that Hollywood is prepping you to become the next lead action star like Jason Statham? Or is acting just like a side job for you?

CL: Ya know what, I don’t know. I’m just doing the best I could. I still miss the fight; I’m planning to do a couple of more fights. It’s in the blood; I want to get it all out of the system before I really retire. I’m excited about my new career; I wanna be the next action star. I think the best way to find out is the time, the hard work, and being at the right place at the right time. Having the team that I have will most likely get me there.  I don’t wanna be just the next action star but I feel like I can elevate a fight in the movie to another level with whatever project I get attached to or I play, I’m definitely gonna ask if I can choreograph all the fight because there’s a lot of cutting edge stuff that I’ve been practicing and I’ve been waiting for that opportunity and when that opportunity comes, I think I’m gonna blow some minds when they see what I put on screen

RS: Are you going to knock on Marvel or DC doors to audition for any of their superhero movies?

CL: The one thing about Marvel and any kind of comic book, there’s really a limited part for any Asian. Until there’s more Asian parts, it’s always going to be a tough world for any Asian actors, just Asians in general, there’s not enough roles, not enough parts, not enough scripts out there that could help the Asian and find the next star. You actually go out there, that’s why CERTAIN JUSTICE was written, I got a good team behind me, and we’re finding the right projects, we’re meeting the right people, we’re going to all the studios, we’re exploring what we could do with them, what we could bring to them, so not only will we wait around for the right project to come around but we’ll make that project whether we have a writer write it or have the producers be involved and put it together. If there’s a right part, well we’re going to make the right part. That’s how we gotta do it. When there’s limited work, limited roles, you just gotta make it happen for yourself.

RS: I’m Asian and I grew up in Asia watching all kinds of kung fu, martial art movies, watching Jet Li, Jackie Chan and all those guys and of course Donny Yen. I understand that you worked with him on BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS. He always seems serious on screen, was he like that in person?

CL: Donny Yen to me was a very kind, generous but intense person. I didn’t have any problem with him because when I got on set, I’m just as intense, if not, more. I was just as focused and I brought just as many ideas to BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS. We filmed for like 13-14 days straight and a couple of more days after. And I told Donny ‘Hey Donny, this fight scene that you and I are in, this is old school stuff, you’re Donny Yen, how come you don’t take charge in choreographing this?’ and he’s like ‘I don’t wanna say anything and I don’t want the guy to lose his job’, there’s so many other fight scenes that they could use his expertise on those scenes
We actually wrapped our scene and I was really unhappy, I told Donny and Donny felt the same way. Two months later I came back, they brought me back, Donny and I collaborated to shoot that scene that we did.. in 4 days. We shot and the last day Donny was ‘hey Cung, we can do a lot better but we need you a couple of more days’ but I already needed to fulfill the agreement I had with Overture Films to be at Comic-Con to promote PANDORUM and Comic-Con is a big stage to promote PANDORUM and I said ‘I can’t do it bro, what we’re going to have to do is shoot straight’ so Donny and I both shot for 24 hours straight to get the final shot and what we did in 15-16 days with that other fight coordinator, between Donny and I and his expertise cause I never wanna step on Donny’s foot, we did what we had to do to get it done in 4 days, amazing.

RS: Wow, now that must’ve been quite an experience!

CL: Yeah. I mean it was.. I did all my.. everything. Taking the hit, running the rooftop of course they got some guy for the real dangerous stuff because if I get injured, that’s it. But I did about 80% of everything.