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The Big Jet Li Interview
Author: Martha Burr
Last spring I visited Jet Li on the set of The One. They were shooting nights, in an old abandoned factory south of Los Angeles. Rusty water dripped, paint was peeling off the ancient pipes. I even had to wear a hardhat. Not a good hair day. When I came in Jet and Corey Yuen, his action choreographer, and a handful of other Hong Kong stuntmen, were busy blocking out a complex wirework stunt. After many long hours of grueling work, Jet sat down in his trailer with his usual smile and enthusiasm to discuss the movie. I also caught up with him later at the Four Seasons Hotel to discuss his summer film, Kiss of the Dragon.
Between these conversations, as youÕll see, Jet had a great deal to say about his films, the martial art movie genre, and his philosophy of filmmaking and life. It was perhaps this philosophy that adds a moral dimension to his work that makes it so distinctive, setting him apart from his peers. Whether heÕs talking about his Buddhism, concepts of circularity and balance, or responsibility to oneÕs family (and fans), Jet strikes you as someone who, despite having accomplished so much, still has enormous potential for greatness. WeÕll undoubtedly see some of this in JetÕs next film that he is currently shooting in China, called Hero, directed by Zhang Yimou. The movie also stars Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Zhang Ziyi. Talk about a dream cast! And a $17 million budget will stretch a long way in China, so move over, Crouching Tiger...
Meanwhile, it's time to frolic around the universe with not one, but two Jets Ñ one heroically good, the other deliciously evil. Always an innovator, Jet has, not surprisingly, brought the kungfu movie genre to a new level by using the internal arts of bagua and xingyi as his characters face off. So without further ado, here's the man to tell you in his own words.
The Jet Li Interview
Q: In The One you play two characters, good and bad, and use different styles of martial arts to differentiate them. How did you develop this?the ONE on DVD
Jet Li: The writer is a friend of mine who helped me write The Kiss of the Dragon. He knows martial arts, so when I first got the script for The One, we don't have details about the characters, or what kind of martial arts they used. So, we tried to look at the character. Like I've said before, with an action movie, the most important thing is how you describe the character. And use martial arts to make this more clear. What are they thinking, what are they fighting? So I play two characters in this film, one is good, one is bad.
The bad guy, he uses Xingyi. Not exactly 100% xingyi. But straightforward. Because he wants to destroy everything. He wants to kills all of himself in different universes. So he tries to reach that goal. He wants to become the One. If you know xingyi it uses a very straight line.
But the other character is the good guy, Gabe, he doesn't know whatÕs going on. But suddenly the power is going through his body. His philosophy is more circular. He has a wonderful family, a beautiful wife, sweet dog, so he just wants to make a circle. Everything is balance. That's what I always talk about in my philosophy, that life needs to be balanced. If you think about the world, only man and no woman, then the world sooner or later is destroyed. Only woman, no man, doesn't work either. So, it's why he tries to protect his family. He believes in the circle. Bagua is the circle.
So we decide with these two characters, and we talked to Corey, and also James (Wong, the director), and everyone agreed that these two characters will work this way. It's unique, weÕve never seen it in an American film. Maybe a little bit in the HK films. Because, that kind of fight I think is three times harder than normal martial arts movement.
Some kinds of action movies, the actors, if they practice a few months they can do it. Use technology to help, use cables, practice with a good teacher. But this kind of martial art, xingyi and bagua, you really need to learn, a few years, maybe ten years, then you can control your body. Not just making your arm move straight forward, you really need your whole body, from inside to outside. Everything is working together.
Q: When you started trained bagua and xingyi you must have been very young...
Jet Li: Yes, when I was young, you know my background, I learned all kinds of wushu from internal to external, weapons, everything. Movies are quite different from real gungfu, real martial art, because when we're shooting, the angles are different, you need one movement to match the other guy's movement, so we cannot use 100% bagua or 100% xingyi, we just try to create something based on xingyi, based on bagua.
The whole ending we worked on four weeks. We have one part traditional action movie style, when the good character becomes angry, loses control, and wants to kill the bad guy. He loses his form. So, then he must calm down, relax, because he knows he can't win if he's so angry, if emotion isnÕt calmed down, relaxed. So then the internal martial art comes out.
In all taiji or bagua is the energy, the qi, is calm, fluid, not excited. Or it doesn't work. So, the bad guy tries to kill him, but after awhile, he cannot kill him. He goes from being calm to being excited, and that's what causes him to lose. The personality in the character changes, the martial arts changes.
Q: So as the character develops, the martial arts must have to develop too?
THE ONE Jet Li: Yes, IÕve made a lot of films, but this is the hardest. Usually I play the good guy, and I fight, with the bad guy. Now, I need to fight with the stuntman, and when I finish my part I have to turn back to be the bad guy, and fight the stuntman again. Sometimes you hit the bad guy, and the stuntman turns around and hits you. So, it's quite hard (laughing) to do everything.
Q: Which do you enjoy playing more, good guy or bad guy?
Jet Li: Both have their character. You need to love both. If you don't love both characters it doesn't work. Everything comes from your heart. If you don't like the character, you can't play the character. You must enjoy what the character is thinking. I just, in a few months, try to become that person. Even the bad guy. He thought everything was clear, where he wants to go, what he wants to do. Very clear.
Then you need to forget the bad guy. The good guy's philosophy, you need to believe that, you need to love the character, then you can become the character. If it's not from here (he taps his heart) it doesn't stick.
Q: You've worked with Corey Yuen on 3 American movies now, Lethal Weapon 4, Romeo Must Die, and now The One. And one French movie, Kiss of the Dragon. How is your creative relationship, has it gotten to another level in this one since itÕs more complex?
Jet Li: I've worked with Corey in many films for the past 10 years. It really depends on the story. Romeo Must Die is one kind of story. Also, we donÕt know what an American audience wants to see, what do they like? Traditional Chinese martial art fighting style, or a modern style? I don't think it's very successful, really (laughs). So we did Kiss of the Dragon in Paris, and use streetfighting, hardcore fighting. Very straightforward, no cable, just hand to hand to hand, or gungfu to gungfu. We found a lot of good champions in Europe. In one scene I fight with 25 people.
But The One has more room for us to create new stuff because the character has the ability, he's not a normal person. He can jump higher, he can run faster, so that's why we can have more creative action for the character. Do something special. You have a reason, the audience understands. They're not just a normal person, normal cop. They can jump 10 feet high, suddenly.
It depends on the story, how you can create martial arts sequences. Of course, we try to create something new, and the audience is very smart. They've seen a lot of Hong Kong action movies, and in the past few years some HK action movies have become popular in the States. But if we don't create something new, I think they will tire soon.
We always want to do something we've never done before.
Q: Can you talk about some of the fight scenes?
Jet Li: I think in this whole movie, of course the best scene is the ending. Usually American action movies spend 2 weeks, at most, on the ending scene. We spent 4 weeks, not including green screen. It's maybe a ten minute, twelve minute fight. There's a different kind of style for the first part of the fight, and for the second and third parts. I think itÕs unusual. So you can really see for the first time, Jet Li fights Jet Li on the big screen.
Q: Let's talk about this year's earlier movie. How did you come up with the idea for Kiss of the Dragon?
Jet Li: After Romeo Must Die a lot of hardcore Jet Li fans told me on my website they donÕt like the action sequences, they thought it was too choppy, not clear. Not as good as my older films. I saw the Matrix and I knew how exactly the same way, ten years ago, the Hong Kong movie industry, after I did one movie flying around, suddenly you saw a hundred movies; everybody flying around! I knew that in the States the same thing would happen. So, I thought it would be the right time for me to do some hardcore fighting, with a strong character, that kind of action movie.
We (Luc Besson, the producer and Robert Kamen, writer) discussed it, and created it from the beginning, and then I think, three weeks later we have a script. Six weeks later we're shooting in Paris. Very quick. Because, we were talking about how different it is making movies in Asia and Europe and the States. When I saw how it was in Europe, it was very close to Asia. Like a small family, shake hands, do it. Everything has a lot of energy. Very quick.
Q: How did you come up with the story?
Jet Li: I like to talk to the audience, I like to ask them their opinion about my movie, so I get some information. They like Fist of Legend, that kind of action sequences, that style, so we try to mix Fist of Legend and The Professional, that kind of story. That's one kind of action movie. Another kind of action movie is the typical American action movie, you see the hero, they get in trouble, they try to solve the problem, then they save the day. Big hero.
This story focuses on a normal man, trying to do his job, he doesn't know how to deal with the girl. He gives the promise to the girl. Later on the character develops, because he has to do something to keep his word. Even if that something is against his job, his country. But he still needs to keep his word. It's a unique story. I like it very much.
It's a drama, really, everything has a reason to develop in the story, the character.
Q: So you're making a Hong Kong style movie with primarily as French cast, in Paris, but in English for the American market, how was that culturally?
Jet Li: I think that's why we want to do it this way. I think Hong Kong makes a lot of good action movies, but their production quality is not as good as American films. America has a lot of special talent, and creative people. They know the quality so well, then they put the Asian martial art in it, and make American action films. But we know the market has a lot of those kinds of films, that use cables, computer generated effects, that can make the actor and actresses trained in a few months do martial arts. We've seen this, so now maybe itÕs time to do something different.
Luc Besson, he's quite creative as a producer, from his angle he sees things differently. Also, I think the Warchowsi brothers are very amazing, talented. They see a Hong Kong action move that's done a hundred times, but they use the other angle to see it. Tell it. And we think it's brand new. Amazing. But we know the movement is the same thing. But they see things differently. So that's what we want, to do something different, see something different.
Jet's KoD
Q: The action in this movie is very violent, maybe darker than a lot of your Hong Kong movies, how did you feel about that?
Jet Li: I think it is more real. In Hong Kong, we make a lot of action movies; usually we see that this character is a hero, he comes out the hero, fights from beginning to end, he's the hero. He never loses. That's why I think Luc is unique to create this character in the beginning. We don't want a superhero to save the day. Why not do something where this man is not perfect, a little bit selfish, who only works on what he's doing, doesnÕt know how to deal with girls. Suddenly when the situation changes he's scared, he runs away, tries to figure out what's going on. You can see the movement from the beginning. He's very confident to fight inside the hotel. But after awhile, on the bateau-mouche, in the train station, he's afraid, he thinks that everybody is an enemy, he's nervous. More like a real person. Then, at the ending, he finds that a man's promise is very important. He needs to keep his promise. So he goes to the police station and he regains his confidence, when he needs to fight.
Q: What were the challenging scenes in Kiss of the Dragon?
Jet Li: It was hard fighting with all the fighters. We found around fifty fighters in Europe, from all over Europe. I feel very comfortable with the whole tone of the movie, the character, and the changing situations. When the situation changes, the fighting changes. The feeling is real. That's what we aimed for.
I always think that martial art, for an action movie, is not the most important point. The most important point is the story. And the character. When you like the character and the story, you use martial art to bring out the character.
Q: Can you talk a little about working with Bridget Fonda?
Jet Li: SheÕs a wonderful actress, and I'm glad Luc Besson decided to use her in this film. Usually, for action movies, the actress is a beautiful flower. They put the flower there, and then they fight. When they need the flower to come in, they bring her in. But this film, Bridget is the key. Between the good guy and he bad guy. She's in the middle, and makes the character make sense, the whole situation changes, and it's not just focused on fighting. Also, my character learns a lot of things from her, because I only work, work, work, never cares about the other person or what women think. In her life the most important thing is her baby, but I don't think about that because I'm quite selfish, I'm doing my job. But finally: the thought is very important - you need to take the responsibility to another person. So the character grew up.
Q: Can you discuss the acupuncture theme?
Jet Li: The writer came up with the name, Kiss of the Dragon. And when I was working two months later, in the middle of the shooting, I was thinking abo ...