SPOILER Magazine February 2021

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INSIDE OUR y UNIVERSE x a l a

by G Welcome to the new year!

We’re right here with you. The future is bright and there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Soon we’ll be able to meet you all in person at conventions and express our gratitude.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the colossal size of this latest issue. Well, it’s because we’re spotlighting a television show that’s very near and dear to us.

Warrior, which just made the move to HBO Max last month, is not only one of the most entertaining series in the world right now, but it’s very important as well. Initially conceived by Bruce Lee over 50 years ago, Warrior is an extension of his legacy in both the pop culture sphere and society as a whole. The fact that the show is this amazing and already this beloved is not only a testament to the action icon’s creative prowess (if there was ever any doubt), but to the evolved culture of our entertainment industry. As the show’s future is currently in limbo, we want to push Warrior not just because we love it, but as a way of doing our part to rally for a third season. The world needs it.

Yes, our magazine is finally going to print after a year of uncertainty (!), but as a limited edition. We’re also giving you TWO different collector edition posters to choose from, each representing one of the two main rivaling tongs in Warrior.

Details will come in the near future for where you can pick up a physical copy of both versions.

Within these pages we’ve also given you a lot of other great original content, jam packed with comic book and movie reviews, as well as other fun features from the minds of our incredibly talented team.

Our brand new website is (finally!) launching this month, so be on the lookout for that as well. We are very excited to share what we have in store with all of you.

We can’t wait for you to step back into our universe and hang out with us for a little while. Once again, thank you so much for your undying love and support, especially throughout these crazy times. We truly wouldn’t be here without each and every one of you.

I Love You All...

Galaxy Galaxy EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @ComicConRadio fabruary 2021|

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table of contents

FEATURES

32 WARRIOR World Exclusive INTERVIEWS WITH THE CAST and Executive Producer Shannon Lee

SPOILER MAGAZINE TABLE OF CONTENTS

the watch 18 ‘Hey, Mando’ Why The Mandalorian is The Show Television Desperately Needs

12 Bruce Lee The Man, The Myth, The Legend

200 From Karate Kid to Cobra Kai

26 Michael Bay’s Transformers A Closer Look

204 LightSabers as a Real Weapon

the base 172 At The Movies

208 Scrabble is Clark Kent’s Kryptonite

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH: 36 Andrew Koji 46 Dianne Doan 56 Dean Jagger 64 Olivia Cheng 78 Jason Tobin 90 Kieran Bew 106 Shannon Lee 114 Chen Tang 124 Dustin Nguyen 136 Perry Yung

216 Comic Book Review

148 Langley Kirkwood 158 Rich Ting

www.spoilermagazine.com | Follow us on Instagram: @SpoilerMedia

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Written by Robert Napolitano Concept by Galaxy

born way back in 1940, it took bruce lee less than 33 years on this planet to leave behind a legacy so impactful you’d be hard-pressed to find even a teenager these days who hasn’t heard of him. Respect to John Wayne’s old Westerns, but no actor in the history of cinema means as much to a genre as Bruce Lee. When it comes to Martial Arts/Kung Fu movies, Lee is the measure. He’s the OG of the genre and it’s not even up for debate. There’s been a fair share of greats over the years. Jet Li, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, it’s not a very long list, but it’s a strong list and one that wouldn’t exist if

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Bruce Lee/Shannon Lee/The Kid/The Big Boss/Fist of Fury/The Way of the Dragon/Enter the Dragon/Orange Sky Golden Harvest/Warner Bros.

These are the words of a man who faced more than his fair share of racism from both sides growing up. Some Chinese people looked down on him for having a white mother, while Hollywood thought he looked a bit too Chinese for their American audiences. I know it sounds cliché, but how many people out there would have just given up

and said, “Poor me”? Not him.

The power of positive thinking helped get him through his darkest of times. It didn’t matter if he was facing racism, going poor, or suffering a back injury so serious doctors thought he’d never practice martial arts again, he always resorted back to the way of thinking that ultimately shaped who he was. Here’s an incredible example of him putting that type of energy out into the world in his writings about the injury he suffered:

“

I mean who has the most insecure job AS I have? What do I live on?

My faith in my ability that I’ll make it. Sure my back screwed me up good for a year but with every adversity comes a blessing... Look at a rainstorm; after its departure everything grows.

“

“

I feel I have this great creative and spiritual force within me that is greater than faith, greater than ambition, greater than confidence...

Whether it is the Godhead or not, I feel this great force, this untapped power, this dynamic something within me.

“

not for Bruce.

Skill and on screen presence were two things Lee had in spades. He gave fans of all races reason to leave their house, go to the theater and pay good money to watch a badass Asian man portrayed in a fashion they had never seen before. He was knocking down barriers and making audiences cheer one ass kicking at a time.

There aren’t enough pages in this magazine to fully explain the impact Lee made in the world.

His influence spans far outside the world of Kung Fu films. The appeal of an entertainer, the body of an athlete, the heart of an artist, and the mind of a philosopher, Bruce Lee is an icon in every sense of the word.

Known as a profound thinker, his writings on things like Eastern Philosophy, Taoism, quantum physics, psychotherapy and the power of positivity are all as important to his legacy as any film. From athletes and entertainers to real estate agents and

business owners, tons of successful people today in all walks of life credit Bruce Lee’s way of thinking as a major influence on them. He emphasized the power of positivity and lived by example. His psychological and spiritual beliefs were for him, all he could do was put out that energy and be the person he wanted to be, not preach or force his beliefs on others the way Hollywood has sadly become known for in recent years.

One particular now-popular type of positive energy Lee believed in is known as “chi.” Lee once described what it felt like to summon this energy within himself:

Bruce Lee lived his life in a way we all should aspire to. His ability to overcome every obstacle thrown in front of him is unparalleled. Because of that, and in honor of him, I put together a top 5 list of Bruce Lee films you need to watch. Now if you’re already a fan you’ve definitely seen at least a few of these, so you know just how damn good they are. But if you’re a new to the world of Bruce Lee, then these are where I suggest you start. fabruary 2021|

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TOP 5 MUST SEE

BRUCE LEE FILMS

the big boss (1971)

“When the new man shows his combat skills during a fight in the factory, the managers make him a foreman, promising him a meeting with the big boss. But when he discovers the factory’s covert criminal operations, he takes the law into his own hands.”

Already a star in Hong Kong this could be considered the performance that made Bruce Lee famous to the rest of the world. The film banked $50 million in box office returns (over $300 million adjusted for inflation) on a $100,000 budget, and proved that Lee could very well be a marquee name in Hollywood.

the kid (1950)

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fist of fury (1972)

(1972)

“An Asian (Bruce Lee) in Rome uses whirling ‘nunchakus’ on a gang and fights a karate champ (Chuck Norris) in the coliseum.” Don’t let this simplified synopsis deter you. Lee’s only directorial effort is a comedic, action-packed classic. It popularized a move now known as the oblique kick, and features an absolutely iconic fight sequence between Lee and a young Chuck Norris. If those aren’t reasons enough to check this one out, then let its record-breaking box office run prove that this movie is well worth the price of admission.

“A young martial arts student returns home for the funeral of his martial arts teacher who died under mysterious circumstances.

A rival Japanese academy are suspected but there is no proof.”

Another box office hit, this film spawned three sequels, including one starring Jackie Chan, and a loose remake starring Jet Li. Each installment is respected in its own right, but none come anywhere close to the original and the way the period piece blends Lee’s charms with heavy themes of patriotism.

Bruce Lee/Shannon Lee/The Kid/The Big Boss/Fist of Fury/The Way of the Dragon/Enter the Dragon/Orange Sky Golden Harvest/Warner Bros.

“A 10 year-old orphan is raised by his uncle, groomed by a skilled thief, and becomes involved in trouble around a factory.” Bruce was only 9-yearsold when he took on his first starring role, but his raw talents were still on full display. This was also the second film of which he worked alongside his father. A successful run at the box office led to plans for a sequel, however Bruce’s parents wanted him out of the spotlight for a while, making him pass on the opportunity.

WAY OF THE DRAGON

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ENTER THE DRAGON (1973)

“

A martial-arts expert determined to help capture the narcotics dealer whose gang was responsible for the death of his SISTER, Lee enters a kung fu competition in an attempt to fight his way to the dealer’s headquarters with the help of some friends.

“

Everybody has their opinion, and movies are one of the most debatable topics there is, but few cinema buffs would deny that this is the greatest Kung Fu movie ever made. From criminal activity to an abundance of memorable fight sequences, Enter the Dragon defines what a great Kung Fu movie should be. It pulls no punches and delivers all the blows. There are a lot of good Bruce Lee films, but over the years this has become THE Bruce Lee film.

Sadly Lee never lived long enough to see the culmination of all of his work. Days before the American release of Enter the Dragon in 1973, Lee died in Hong Kong from an allergic reaction to pain medication he had taken. He was 32.

We’re now going on 48 years since his passing and yet still he’s delivering top level entertainment. Warrior, an hour long action series on HBO Max is executive produced by Shannon Lee (Bruce’s daughter) and filmmaker Justin Lin. This hit series which just finished up its second season is based on an original concept and treatment by Bruce himself. Warrior is “a crime drama set in the 19th century that follows martial arts prodigy Ah Sahm, a Chinese immigrant who arrives in the City By the Bay under mysterious circumstances. Once he proves his prowess as a fighter, Ah Sahm becomes a hit man for one of Chinatown’s most powerful organized crime families. As he is mentored by the son of the crime family’s leader, learning the ins and outs of gang warfare, Ah Sahm wins the confidence of brothel Madame Ah Toy, eventually revealing to her his true intentions.” Praised for its talented cast, ambitious style, well crafted fight choreography and ability to tackle major issues affecting society today like prejudice, racism, greed and good vs. evil, Warrior carries on the legacy of Bruce Lee in a beautifully authentic fashion. If you haven’t already, we suggest moving Warrior to the top of your must-binge list ASAP. In one last effort to honor Bruce, I want to end this article on a positive note. The best way I could think to do that was with a famous quote from the man, the myth, the legend himself:

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

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BY Vanessa Bellew

sci-fi/fantasy’s reign may be disputed, but the results are inarguable: For the past 20 years or so, geek has been chic and nerd is the word and, no, I will not apologize for those rhymes. Somewhere around The Fellowship of the Ring making absolute bank, Generation Potter, and Christopher Nolan’s gritty Batman reboot, the suits in charge of doling out budget money realized that being into superheroes, aliens, and wizards was no longer a campy fringe interest to be derided, but a legitimate and enthusiastic marketing demographic. For better or for worse, science fiction and fantasy moved mainstream. (For more on the studios’ tumultuous relationship with nerds, check out Imaginary Worlds podcast Episode 150: “The Once and Future Comic Con.”) It’s been a magical ride, one that’s lasted long enough to keep making nerd shows and films even when someone puts out a bad one or a flop and, yes, even long enough to finally start making shows and films in which the leads are not all straight white men (gasp!). We’ve had some truly incredible art, some audaciously ambitious projects, and some things that were a perfect Venn Diagram of the two (looking at you, MCU). By and large,

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getting the world to admit that everyone’s a little nerdy if the material is good enough has been liberating and inspiring, but as with all new and successful trends, not everyone who jumps on the bandwagon actually gets where that band and wagon are going.

People with MBAs who never read a comic or thought twice about Tolkien see what’s making money and charge some creatives they know with coming up with something “like that,” but trying to check off marketing boxes (Superhero? Check! Love triangle?

Check! Diverse, sassy sidekick?

Check!) without an artistic heart is like reanimating a corpse—you get something with legs enough to walk, with arms to catch a captive audience, but it’s empty, gruesome, and hungry. Without a soul, it cannot truly live.

These undead projects are usually highly polished and chromatically saturated, often with 30-year-old actors playing sexy, sexually active teens, who make bad decisions but, as leads, never

The Mandalorian/Disney/Lucasfilm

the actual start of this era of pop culture

experience lasting consequences.

The men are all shredded and the women are all waifishly thin, often in catsuits. The plots are fast and everything has a cliffhanger to keep you coming back for more.

The lighting is moody so you feel like you’re getting something dark and subversive and the CGI is shiny, aggressive, and obviously fake. All the women characters and characters of color know all the right lingo about feminism and gender identity and racial empowerment so you know the show is Woke even as those cha-

racters are sidelined and enacting the same tropes that lingo was designed to undo. They’re the junk food of nerd culture—flashy, sugary, processed, and lacking in nutrients. Fine in moderation, but deadly when they become your entire diet, and recommended by zero out of ten experts. (I’m sorry for mixing my zombie metaphors with my food metaphors.)

But when the people who love the material and want to create something with that love are in charge of the projects or have enough creative control to make most of the decisions, they can build something extraordinary, like Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen, like Misha Green’s Lovecraft Country, and, you guessed it, like Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian.

If you were to take a history of the epoch of mainstream geekery, you’d have to dedicate several chapters to the steady, unassuming presence of Jon Favreau.

Way back in the mid-aughts,

when Kevin Feige was first taking meetings to hear what various writers and directors would want to do with an Iron Man movie, Favreau suggested being faithful to the source material. The Tony Stark comics were great, he argued, and they really only needed to replace Vietnam with Afghanistan to update them.

In a time when superhero movies had to include a hot new take to get made, Favreau and Feige agreed on a fateful, fundamental idea: the stories were already enough.

Ultimately, isn’t that what all our best art, nerd or not, comes down to—telling a good story?

It’s why we love the source material in the first place: compelling characters, arresting art, and a good story.

By the time Feige and Favreau were done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they’d completely revolutionized the landscape of Hollywood, television, and superheroes, in addition to creating a stunning new market for multimedia, multiversal franchises. The Marvel movies are what happens when the people in charge give their creatives the money and room to take their time and do a thing right: the most

interesting plot lines from the comics, first rate actors with long-term contracts, passionate directors, great writing, innovative designers, cutting edge filmmaking techniques, and people generally having a good time doing their best work. The films strike a perfect tonal equilibrium between self-aware comedy, action/adventure, and sincere character journeys. They know exactly what they are and they never apologize for it or shrink from it.

That’s exactly the nuanced artistic understanding Jon Favreau imbued into The Mandalorian.

Favreau originally came up with the idea for a television show set in the expanded Star Wars universe while directing The Lion King remake for Disney. He would film during the day and then spend several hours every night developing the concept that eventually became The Mandalorian.

When he pitched the idea to Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, february 2021|

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the original trilogy they’d loved as kids. Favreau wanted to explore the Westerns and samurai themes that had influenced George Lucas and are so obvious in the first half of A New Hope. To find out what it feels like to live on Tatooine, to be a regular at the Mos Eisley cantina. To experience the stories of the freaky and the fringe, the side characters and the cultures mentioned in passing. They leaned on the 40 years of work done by the writers of all those Star Wars novels. They understood they didn’t need to reinvent the wheel; they could just turn it a little and see whe-

The Mandalorian/Disney/Lucasfilm

she pointed him to Dave Filoni, who was the supervising director of the Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars.

Dave Filoni is also a card-carrying, life-long nerd. He saw Revenge of the Sith in cosplay as the Jedi Plo Koon, whose paraphernalia also decorates his office. He considers himself a “Star Wars encyclopedia,” and that was long before he ever worked with George Lucas. His own career as animator, director, writer, producer, and voice actor is as influential and impressive as Favreau’s, though his wheelhouse is an animated one.

Before he was hired by Lucasfilm to create a Star Wars animated series, Filoni worked on classic Disney Channel and Nickelodeon fare like Kim Possible, and, yes, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Avatar, particularly, is one of the most significant animated series ever made, but subtly so, gaining speed and popularity mostly by word of mouth and its presence on streaming platforms. Like The Mandalorian, Avatar: The Last Airbender isn’t flashy or loud. It’s simply a story told well by people who care.

Likewise, the inspiration for The Mandalorian was a quiet, unassuming one. Rather than trying to break away from the source material in defiance like so many new series in classic franchises being made these days, Favreau and Filoni dug deep into what made Star Wars sing in the first place, the things about

re else it could take them. In this way, Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni created a masterwork.

Favreau and Filoni invested in some essential tools for the building of their new show. They tapped Legacy Effects to create a $5 million animatronic puppet of their secret child star and did everything possible to build aliens and creatures with practical effects, costuming, and makeup, only using CGI to polish things in post. Not only does this give The Mandalorian a classic Star Wars vibe, but it also feels more realistic to the audience, letting the characters and animals interact with the human actors in ways that have weight and follow the laws of physics. Then, to further the believability of the galaxy the characters inhabit, Jon Favreau actually commissioned the creation of a game-changing technology with the help of Industrial Light & Magic: using the Unreal Game Engine from the video game industry and LED displays to render and adjust real-ti-

me computer-generated displays as sets. He did this, of course, to aid the directors and the atmosphere of the show in general, but any actor will tell you that looking out on the planet Nevarro instead of a green curtain on a soundstage makes playing a space cowboy infinitely easier and more fun. It is the best of old school storytelling techniques being partnered with nascent technology, sort of like a lone bounty hunter who meets a baby with power and, in caring for him, comes literally out of his shell.

Finally, Favreau and Filoni, these two white dudes, did something truly extraordinary: they cast actors of all races, ages, and body types, and hired directors from traditionally underrepresented groups to steer each episode. The end result is a cast led by a Chilean, supported by co-stars of multiple ethnicities and nationalities, helmed by directors from diverse backgrounds and points of view. It is a rich tapestry of collaboration that results in a more

expansive, more imaginative universe. And don’t worry about whether or not The Mandalorian passes the Bechdel Test. The youngest recurring woman character in a show full of badass women characters is played by a 28-year-old actress. Everyone else is 35 and over, often muscular or athletically built instead of the usual nymphette body type. They are

always dressed practically, for whatever their jobs may be—mechanic’s coveralls or armor designed for comfort and combat rather than to make sure the enemy can see every curve of the fighter’s breasts. They exist in their own lives, in their own storylines, crossing paths with our hero but never only there to play sidekick or love interest to his narrative. The women are allowed, finally, their own agendas, and complexity that doesn’t rest solely on “She’s strong because she fights.” It’s a kind of nonchalant feminism that is a genuine revelation.

Then there’s the fan service, because there will always be fan service in a franchise like Star Wars, especially when the people making it grew up watching and reading about that galaxy far, far away. It’s once again about finding balance—neither making it so full of inside knowledge that the layman audience is lost nor making it so expository that the other nerds are rolling their eyes.

Favreau and Filoni do this subtly, in design choices, in the characters they

let slip in and out of the story, in a name dropped here or a particular helmet there. They hide Easter eggs for the loyal to find and pore over together without distracting from a story that unfolds for everyone at the same pace.

That pace, by the way, is perhaps the most important aspect of The Mandalorian. It takes its time. It’s in no hurry and it has nothing to prove to anyone. We get the sense that while they’re happy for us to go on the journey with them, the story would still happen if we stayed home on Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru’s moisture farm. It is a show that respects its audience’s intelligence and our innate human love of a tale told well.

In a television landscape that looks more and more like long-form cinema, where all episodes must drive the action of the season- and series-long arcs forward and plot twists are more important than characters, where all that action must be dramatic and there can be no silence or fabruary 2021|

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stillness, in a streaming milieu where a full season will drop at midnight and is built to be as crushable as a can of summer ale, where the audience is targeted, hooked, and held hostage by a formula built for binging, The Mandalorian feels like breaking free, like finally coming up for air.

That’s not to say it isn’t crushable, that there aren’t explosions and blaster fights, that no thought was given to merchandising or marketability.

Of course it’s all those things—this is Disney, after all, and “Baby Yoda” follows in the time-honored, adorable footsteps of Yoda, Ewoks, Porgs, R2D2 and BB-8 before him. Of course its creators want us to like it, watch it, and buy it. That’s how they keep it going. But The Mandalorian isn’t only—or even mainly—concerned with popularity, which, given it was the very first original series available on Disney+, is nothing short of a miracle.

Set five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, the story is about a Mandalorian bounty hunter named Din Djarin who travels primarily between impoverished fringe planets to track down and turn in anyone with a price on their heads. A loner whose beliefs require he never let another living being see his face, Din has a relatively ambiguous moral compass, a very particular set of skills, and a soft spot for the helpless and hurting.

The locations he frequents are often forgotten backwaters, communities trapped between the New Republic and the fallen Empire, simple folk trying to eke out an existence with what little resources are left when the armies, marauders, oligarchs, and temperamental wildlife get done with them. It is an atmosphere based on old Westerns in which our hero (or anti-hero) roams the outskirts of civilization, having adventures and helping desperate villagers.

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The formula is timeless. It is the knight errant, the noble samurai, the dime novel gunslinger. Each episode, the Mandalorian encounters a new place, a new group of characters, sometimes because he’s passing through and sometimes because he needs supplies, repairs, information, or help. These new characters also need something from him—usually help or protection, but sometimes some unsavory errands—and he either agrees to assist or strikes a deal.

He completes his end or he doesn’t and then they complete their end or they don’t. He can either move on or he can’t. Sometimes he rides a speeder into the sunset like a cyberpunk Paladin or the Hulk.

The catch is, of course, that on one of those bounty hunting jobs across the galaxy, the Mandalorian discovers that his target...is a child. The Child, actually—the now-infamous Baby Yoda, a little green moppet (and Muppet) with Force powers and an Empire after him.

Did I mention the Mandalorian has a

soft spot for the helpless?

Without giving anything else away, suffice it to say our hero blows up (sometimes literally) his own life and livelihood to protect this child, and ends up on a dangerous quest to ensure the safety and happiness of his new ward.

Outside of the occasional Monster of the Week romp in shows like Supernatural, the now-retro episodic television style of the Western that The Mandalorian most resembles was largely left behind in the ‘90s outside

The Mandalorian/Disney/Lucasfilm

of prime time procedurals. It was a necessity when syndication and a lack of recording ability meant shows avoided major character growth or lasting plot twists so that an audience member could miss several episodes and then jump in again at any point. But as with their combination of practical effects and new tech, Favreau and Filoni once again found equilibrium by cherry picking the best of the classic formats and marrying them with the plot-driven season arcs that make up the marrow of the modern TV series.

Yes, each episode is sort of a standalone adventure—a heist this time, a jailbreak next, a spaceship chase after that—but each hour we spend with Din Djarin and The Child is one that reveals more to us of their mysterious backstories, of the machinations of the galaxy around them, and of the ways in which their beautiful father/ son relationship is changing them

both.

As with The Force, The Mandalorian seems to be finding success in balance.

What The Mandalorian is doing is by no means new. Artists—especially artists in television and film—often conflate novelty with quality and get caught up looking for The Next Big Thing. This is not the way.

A thing doesn’t have to be new to be good, but a thing done well will always feel new.

This is the way.

In the credits of the second season finale of The Mandalorian, it was revealed that there are six—six!—new Star Wars Expanded Universe shows coming to Disney+, including shows about fan favorite characters Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka Tano. With so much television being pumped out at once, it would be easy for the quality to suffer. We can only hope that Jon Favreau leaned how to manage a multiverse from his time with the MCU, and that Disney keeps trusting in their artists. february 2021|

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BY Robert Napolitano BY ethan brehm

the last decade-and-a-half defending the undeniable quality of Michael Bay’s 2007 epic action film Transformers. The director’s style has since come under fire, but unfairly so. While he may favor action and explosions over characters and depth much of the time, he also lets his on-screen talents breathe and their innate charismata supply the depth and audience investment as those qualities seep into the film surrounding them.

Likewise, his knack for kinetic camerawork and careful choreography has elevated his movies beyond mere paint-by-numbers shoot-’em-ups.

These are where style and substance meet, albeit unbalanced at times.

But it’s those very sensibilities that enabled him to give the Hasbro franchise the push it needed to be fun and frisky, defying all odds that this project was going to be terrible. It’s anything but.

With previous projects that may have been larger in scope than they needed to be, Bay was the perfect

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man for the job and would finally have a production whose scale could keep up with the director’s own colossal ambitions.

Transformers follows a quirky high schooler, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), who discovers that his great-great-grandfather, an Arctic explorer, had stumbled upon one of Earth’s biggest secrets, an artifact known as the AllSpark, which could be used to exterminate mankind if it got into the hands of an evil alien race called Decepticons—a faction of Transformers who can turn into everyday machinery here on our

planet. Their counterpoint, the Autobots—also Transformers—are serving as the protectors of the humans.

With the help of his classmate and love interest, Mikaela (Megan Fox), Sam must help the Autobots retrieve the AllSpark before the Decepticons track it down first, but their efforts may be halted by the US government who turns out to know a lot about this conflict as well.

Bay divides his story up into sec-

Transformers/Hasbro/Paramount/ DreamWorks/Michael Bay

It’s absolutely absurd to me that i’ve spent nearly

tions. There’s the main plot with Sam and Mikaela. Then there is another subplot following a group of army soldiers who get caught up in all this mess overseas. Then there are the government hackers who try to track down the Decepticons themselves.

The characters in each section are separately learning about the classified information (and of course will come together eventually in the end), but the director also approaches each subplot with the mindset that they must be able to stand on their own.

And he succeeds, keeping each one engaging by sprinkling talent across his film into each section. Transformers is filled with actors who are refreshingly and collectively able to bring their individual A-games while never outshining one another. Anthony Anderson plays one of the hac-

Transformers is a movie so flashy that you forget how much humanity it actually has.

kers, getting his time to shine as we get to see his absurd living situation, and then later on as he gets a chance to ad-lib in an interrogation room. Jon Voight plays the Secretary of Defense who must maintain stoicism in the face of outrageous conspiracies at the risk of possibly needing to eventually swallow his pride. Tyrese Gibson and Josh Duhamel are the soldiers fighting Decepticons in Qatar and we become invested in their stories as well. Gibson as the comedic relief and Duhamel as the father who longs to meet his newborn daughter for the first time.

You could argue that these subplots detract from LaBeouf and his character’s plot, but they also help build this massive universe and give Sam’s accomplishments a greater perspective, creating depth without having to explicitly state any of it.

Sam is deemed insignificant, but has impacted this immense world around him in a way only we, the audience— an outsider—can fully witness and appreciate. It’s then when we realize that Bay has fully achieved his cinematic power, conveying this story in a way that’s totally separate and unique from any other medium, making it clear why the audience’s role in film is so specific and unique and, dare I say, important.

Transformers is a movie so flashy that you forget how much humanity it actually has. The themes aren’t overbearing and the depth is able to occur without being spelled out.

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and we’re able to enjoy the journey without stressing about the drama.

This dynamic cast, which also includes John Turturro as a bumbling government agent, and Kevin Dunn and Julie White as Sam’s adorably goofy parents, helps with the perfectly blended comedy that’s able to have fun all while allowing us to still feel the weight of the events. The humor is peppy, but never flippant or undermining of the task at hand.

Despite all of the grandeur, somehow Transformers still lives and dies by LaBeouf, who gets lost in his admittedly simple role and makes the should-be tropism of Sam feel completely and totally lived in. His ability to balance his convincing everyman with the skills of a comedic prodigy takes this film from a very good action movie with snappy dialogue to a downright classic with performances that transcend the words on the page. The actor lifts up every other character he encounters and, like Sam himself, gets little notice for the small, yet significant role he’s playing in making this giant movie a success.

Set in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas, the film utilizes its various locations and settings to really help build this world and establish an intent and craft that goes beyond thoughtless storyboarding. Somehow Bay is even able to make something as mundane as an aqueduct or an underpass become so memorable and iconic.

Some of the minute details can be convoluted when we really stop to think about them, especially at the tail end of the second act, but they also never get dumbed down for the audience. I’m not sure if it’s more disappointing that the intricacies become confusing, or impressive that it barely bothers us. George Lucas achieved a similar kind of result with the first Star Wars film. We don’t care

Despite all of the grandeur, somehow Transformers still lives and dies by LaBeouf.

about what the Old Republic was or why Obi-Wan needs to take the Death Star schematics to Alderaan, but boy do these flashlight-sword things look cool!

Unlike even his most famous descendants, Bay wasn’t using his now-staple action conventions for aesthetic alone, but out of necessity, first and foremost. He was not only creating an ultimate hybrid of

bay’s Career Highlights Interned for George Lucas on Raiders of the Lost Ark at Age 15

Music Video Debut with Donny Osmond’s “Soldier of Love” |february 2021

Got Milk? Launches Ad Campaign with Bay’s Aaron Burr Commercial (Clio Award for Commercial of the Year)

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the best elements from every great action film that had come out before, but inventing techniques and perpetuating his chosen style for reasons that fit the scope of his characters and the size of the Transformers themselves. The first Iron Man movie in 2008, just one year later, was able to be effective without an overabundance of helicopter shots and building smashing (although it definitely took some notes from Transformers for Tony Stark’s suit structuring). And I’m sure 2012’s The Avengers

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could have done so as well. Instead, it couldn’t avoid trying out these tricks utilized by Bay and playing around with his blueprint, which was laid out several years earlier.

Relentlessly fun, Transformers made 30+ minute action sequences acceptable and also seems to have a better understanding of the physics behind its effects than many films that followed.

With the superhero genre seeming to dictate the pop culture zeitgeist these days, it would be hard to imagine it without Bay’s influence, particularly with Transformers. He pushed the boundaries of the action genre in ways that have been copied hundreds of times since.

Anyone who admires the MCU, yet pokes fun at the first live-action Transformers, needs to understand how Bay’s accomplishments changed the cinematic landscape and pop culture as a whole. Whether you like it or not, Michael Bay is one of the most influential directors of his generation. His trademarked style has now become the

Nike Commercial feat.

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norm for the modern blockbuster. If you compare the early Fast and Furious films to those that have come out post-Transformers, you’ll see a big difference in how the action sequences are dispersed throughout the narratives. It’s now okay to sacrifice some character depth for crafty action instead of pandering to an audience by forcing pathos.

Bay hasn’t always been able to strike that proper balance, but Transformers gets pretty close to where he likes it when it comes to his brand of populist filmmaking.

I implore you to take a closer look at 2007’s Transformers with an open mind and see for yourself why it’s actually quite amazing.

Feature Film Debut with Bad Boys

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Won DGA Award for Commercial Director of the Year

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13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

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Transformers

2007

Armageddon

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Pain & Gain

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DC Comics’ Lobo film?

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CONCEPT BY GALAXY

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D In the early-’70s, Bruce Lee wrote a treatment for a television series

that would blend martial arts action with Western sensibilities. He felt a show with a plethora of physical violence wouldn’t make sense in a modern setting. And he was right.

So he took these eight pages of notes and pitched them to Paramount and Warner Bros.

However, the action icon had some trouble getting his vision to fruition. His series, tentatively titled Ah Sahm and later changed to The Warrior, was denied by the studios and allegedly retooled to become the hit series Kung Fu starring David Carradine. Carradine, himself, has gone on record saying that Lee was passed over for the starring role. Lee, still anticipating the release of his first big kung fu movie, The Big Boss, decided to abandon his plans to make it in television and focus on film instead.

Fast forward some 40 years later. Bruce’s daughter, Shannon, got a call from Justin Lin inquiring about rumors of her late father’s kung fu Western series that never came to be.

She had Bruce’s notes in a box and the pairing decided to put his ideas to the test, but only if it could be done right. Lo and behold, almost five decades after her father first put his pen to the paper, Shannon was seeing his vision played out on TV for millions of people to witness.

Warrior originally broadcasted its first season on Cinemax in 2019, and has recently moved to HBO Max after Cinemax ceased their production of all original content. With the jump made to the thriving streaming service, Warrior now has millions of more eyes on it.

And with season 2 having been released at the end of 2020, the series’ growing number of fans are now clamoring for a third season.

Warrior is an important show in many ways.

First and foremost, it’s telling a particular in a medium that’s never told it before—at least never on this massive scale. Set in San Fran-

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cisco in the 1870s, the series revolves around the Tong Wars that were going on back then in the Chinatown district, along with the relationship between the Chinese and American people at the time, just a few years prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited Chinese immigration into the country.

While Warrior is a fictionalized show, it’s definitely based on a real history. The Tong Wars and the complex sociopolitical dynamics were very real and the series depicts them with the proper weight. A lesser show wouldn’t be able to help itself from bringing a cheesiness to a martial arts/Western fusion. But these matters are serious, even when the viewing experience is fun and thrilling. And for a series rooted in truth, it helps to be entertained to better absorb the doses of wisdom it’s trying to impart.

Some of the characters are even based on real people. Brothel Madame Ah Toy was a very real person who was actually pretty ruthless. Others are simply inspired by people from history, even though the names might be changed.

There’s just something different about Warrior. You can feel the unbelievable symbiosis of the cast and crew jumping off the screen. Everybody involved loves this project and you get a sense of its importance to each person individually.

Our head honcho, Galaxy, is a HUGE fan of Warrior. In fact, he makes watching the series a criteria for new hires (I’m only half joking).

The show itself features some familiar faces and some new ones as well. The talents of the diverse cast are crucial to the show’s success, and here Galaxy gets to sit down and chat with quite a few of them about what Warrior means to them as well as their history with Bruce Lee. There are some TV shows that last for many seasons but don’t deserve that longevity nearly as much as Warrior does. Ever since our cast panel back in November, we’ve been receiving so many messages from fans, both old and new, wondering what’s in store for the future of Warrior. As of right now, it’s still up in the air, but our faith in a season 3 is very high and, as you will see, the people involved have that same level of hope and enthusiasm.

Bruce Lee/Shannon Lee/The Kid/The Big Boss/Fist of Fury/The Way of the Dragon/Enter the Dragon/Orange Sky Golden Harvest/Warner Bros.

INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

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Prior to landing the starring role on Warrior, Andrew Koji

was getting ready to say goodbye to acting. He had given himself until he turned 30 to make it in the industry or else he would call it quits. Luckily he landed the job right before his deadline, and the rest is history. Now, he’s never been more in demand. Starring in the upcoming David Leitch film Bullet Train alongside Brad Pitt, it’s safe to say that Andrew doesn’t need to worry about his career anymore.

In Warrior, the actor gives us some of the best performances, playing his character, Ah Sahm, with a force and energy that’s unparalleled, becoming our own audience surrogate. Ah Sahm is a confident alpha with unbelievable martial arts abilities, but also displays a real vulnerability underneath his tough exterior. With a determination to get his sister to go back to China with him, he winds up becoming im-

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mersed in this crime-filled underbelly of San Francisco’s Chinatown back in the 1870s.

Andrew pins himself as an introvert, but the dude is such a sweetheart. He claims that he’s not cool, but don’t take his word for it. Andrew is insanely cool, equipped with this sort of James Dean mystique, coincidentally possessing the late icon’s same unbridled passion for his craft as well. The English-born actor isn’t in this game for the fame and glory, but for his earnest love for the art of acting. Although, that fame and glory is definitely coming in nicely these days.

Despite being a man of few words, Andrew is incredibly incisive. He means every word he says and gives us one of the most open and honest interviews we’ve ever done.

Andrew Koji/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

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interview interview

andrew koji SPOILER: You do a phenomenal job in the series. How was it working on Warrior?

Andrew Koji: It was life changing, man.

For 10 years or more I was struggling to make ends meet as an actor. Right before I did the audition, it was pretty dark times. [The opportunity] came along and I didn’t think I was gonna be right for it, but I just thought it would be my swan song audition. I was really thinking about quitting. I gave myself until 30. If I couldn’t make a living as an actor by the time I hit 30, I was considering a career change. And I think it was the most fulfilling and challenging, but amazing thing that I’ve done. One of the highlights of my life for sure.

Just the people and the story and the meaning of it, and the acting you get to do in it. The collaboration aspect of it as well. So many things on screen are from discussions we had.

It’s kind of surreal sometimes. This project I’m doing now, I never thought I’d be doing these things. This just gave me faith and hope, and made me practice my craft and reinstated the love I’ve got for acting.

SPOILER: And now, look at you! You have phenomenal projects coming up.

You must be so busy these days.

Andrew Koji: The past couple years have been a huge adjustment period.

Life’s gotten very busy, which takes away from your home base—friends and family. And then you’ve got all these other things—life stuff, which is hard to manage as it is. So with all these projects coming up, and then trying to delve deep and do my best for each job, it’s just a big adjustment period for sure.

SPOILER: It must be so surreal for you right now.

Andrew Koji: It is. The week that I just had on Bullet Train was one of the most amazing, surreal weeks, working with David Leitch and these great actors, who are just lovely human beings as well. And then we’re getting to explore and try out different things. It feels like we’re a family and really trying to push each other to do our best. I was just thinking, “Holy sh*t.” I remember coming to Sony Studios just doing the general meetings you do as an actor,

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Andrew Koji: A little bit [nervous], honestly. Conventions, like big groups of people, I get a little bit of social anxiety. The large events, I won’t not go to, but it does make me go, “Ohhh” [laughs]. I’m normally quite introverted and keep to myself. I’m not that much of a social media presence and all that stuff [laughs], so there’s a bit of anxiety when I think about it.

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just over a year before COVID, and I wasn’t getting gigs. And now I’m shooting a film with these great people. I’ve been having a lot of “pinch me” moments lately [laughs].

SPOILER: You’ve been drawing a lot of comparisons to Bruce Lee. Did you feel that it was difficult to separate from being like Bruce and still bring your own flare to the role?

Andrew Koji: Yeah, I think the first half of the first season, there was a lot of discussion. In the script, initially on the pages, there was a lot more Bruce Lee in it. And I think Shannon [Lee] was even saying, “Okay, let’s hold it back a little bit.” If it was a Bruce Lee biopic, I wouldn’t be the right guy for the job. But it’s Ah Sahm and it felt like there was a different character there. I think a lot of it was the role finding itself and going, “Okay, how do we do this justice? How do we pay homage instead of becoming an imitation of Bruce Lee.” Because I think that would have been a huge pitfall with a character like this. I remember when they started filming season 1, everyone was saying, “It’s Bruce Lee.” I’m like, “No, it’s Ah Sahm, they’re different.” It alleviated it [to say] that we’re going to pay homage and tribute. They’re different characters. Even dialogue and philosophies are different throughout the whole show. It was a huge balancing act

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always thinking about what’s too much; what’s my own flare that I can bring to it? But that was beautiful, man—that whole finding it and exploring that was beautiful to figure out.

As soon as it came out on HBO Max, I was half expecting, since there’s more eyes on it, that there’s gonna be way more criticism, going to town on their comments about me [laughs]. But I think we found the right balance I hope.

SPOILER: You’ve been a big reason why there’s this massive following around the show. Imagine when you go to conventions—you’re gonna be swamped! Are you excited or nervous about your experience at fan meetups?

SPOILER: They’ll tear your shirt off you, man [laughs].

Andrew Koji: Well they’ll find a bit of a belly now because I’m not in shape [laughs].

SPOILER: I feel that Warrior deserves so much more than the attention it’s gotten so far.

Andrew Koji: I’ve got a kind of philosophy that everything happens for a reason. But there’s so much work and amazing people behind it.

The whole team does such amazing work. It feels like it’s more than just a TV show. Firstly, it’s got the historical storytelling, which is a part of history that most people [don’t know about]—I didn’t even know about it before I started Warrior. Chinatown in San Francisco and the Chinese Exclusion Act, it’s just a rich time in history to tell a story and it’s hardly ever [told]. Most of the time we just see the Chinese railroad workers in

andrew koji

Andrew Koji/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

during these isolation times, there’s been a lot of time to self-reflect on what’s been going on these last couple years of our lives. And even he said, “Andrew, you’re a real tough nut to crack,” [laughs] and I’ve heard that throughout my life. There’s that saying, I think it’s from Lucky Number Slevin, Ben Kingsley says, “The first time someone calls you a horse, you slap him. The second time he calls you a horse, you whack him on the head. The third time someone calls you a horse, you buy a saddle because it’s probably true” [laughs].

But I’m not tryna be that way.

the background in most films. We don’t get to see them highlighted, or their experience that happened then.

And then obviously the Asian representation aspect. There’s hardly any TV shows out there with this kind of representation of Asian people playing these kinds of characters, which are all in the gray, and nuanced and layered, and the performances of the actors in the cast, who do such a great job.

I feel a huge affinity to Bruce Lee, himself, because beyond the grave, he turned my life around. He wrote down notes on 8 pieces of paper that Shannon managed to keep. And I learned so much playing Ah Sahm and having to transform my body. I’m not really like Ah Sahm—that confident, cocky dude on the outside. But for the legacy of Bruce Lee, it needs

to conclude on its own terms.

SPOILER: How much of Andrew comes out in Ah Sahm? And do you ever use any of Ah Sahm’s tactics in the real world?

Andrew Koji: I wish I did, man! I’d probably be having a little better dating life [laughs]. I’m not putting on a funny voice or walking differently [for the role]. Every actor, even the greats, there’s always an aspect of the character within them that they explore and they heighten it. But I think Ah Sahm’s way cooler than me [laughs]. I’m a bit of a nerd, quiet, introvert, weird dude.

SPOILER: Do you feel that people view you as mysterious?

Andrew Koji: Dean Jagger’s a good friend, like a brother to me. And

SPOILER: Is martial arts a big part of your life?

Andrew Koji: Yeah, up until about 20 or 21. I think anyone who pursues or gets good at something in some way, there’s an obsessive nature there to it. All the people on Warrior— Brett [Chan]’s very obsessed about his work. That guy worked around the clock getting three, four hours of sleep every night. Johnny Yang, all these guys, they’re on it all the time.

So growing up, I definitely obsessed over martial arts, and was trying to make films as well. I’d get my own camcorder and make my own films— get my reluctant friends to be in these little homemade films. I grew up more with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. We had that boom of Jackie Chan when I was growing up with Rumble in the Bronx. That’s amazing, that film. I haven’t said the title of that film for years, so I’m getting nostalgic now [laughs]. But growing up, I was kinda obsessed.

I kinda went to tricking, which is an acrobatic side to it because I had a huge injury growing up, like about 16 or 17—I tore my ass in half, so I had to change. I tore my glute. I was doing Tae Kwon Do a lot up to that point, because that takes up a lot of your legs, so I had to figure that out. So I started doing kung fu, and I started doing tricks once my leg got a little bit better. That injury changed me so much because I couldn’t walk. It screwed up my hips and my spine, because it healed strangely and all that stuff. Then after that period,

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where I could no longer push myself as hard as I could because the injury would come up, my interest would start to go to acting and film. But it was a big part of my life growing up. And now it’s less, but because of Warrior, I still train. I don’t train as intensely if it’s not needed for the character. I wanted to really get back into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, because I find it so fascinating. But obviously this pandemic happened, so you can’t roll around with people on the floor.

SPOILER: So everyone should thank your Ass for getting you into acting [laughs].

Andrew Koji: [laughs] That’s my origin story. [documentary voice], “Andrew Koji got his ass torn in half at the age of 17…”

SPOILER: Does it ever cross your mind that you could’ve missed all of these wonderful opportunities offered to you if you had quit?

Andrew Koji: Yeah, it’s weird. When you have to give up on a dream it feels like a part of you dies. And it feels like, to me, all this—Warrior and post-Warrior—it all kinda feels like a dream. It was almost like I died earlier. It’s that surreal. I really kinda gave up, and then all this stuff is happening, and it’s like, “What the hell is goin’ on here?” It’s surreal as hell. That saying of “pinching myself,” it doesn’t quite capture how surreal life feels now. Because I really, really was going, “Okay, I’m done with this,” and I let go of it. And then I’m on set, like this week, David Leitch encouraging me to try this and do this, and figuring things out—it’s crazy.

SPOILER: What a duo: David Leitch and Brad Pitt.

Andrew Koji: Yeah, yeah, then we got Aaron Taylor-Johnson, I think he’s a phenomenal actor. And Brian Tyree Henry.

Man, this film is gonna be this crazy, wacky, colorful—it feels like it could really be something else.

SPOILER: When does it release?

Andrew Koji: I’ve got no idea! That’s why the last couple months have been

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kinda crazy. This is one of the few big film projects that started during COVID—a lot of them were halfway through shooting. So literally you have to play it everyday as it comes. Some days you’ll get your schedule, but then you’ll find out at 10 o’clock the night before that you’re actually gonna be filming the next day, and then you have to quickly prepare and adapt. So there’s a lot of that. I think everyone right now is going, “I just hope we get through it and finish it.”

SPOILER: What was your favorite fight scene during Warrior?

Andrew Koji: Can I choose a few?

SPOILER: Of course!

Andrew Koji: The first one is fighting with Joe Taslim, because I think he’s a phenomenal screen fighter and talent.

If Hollywood doesn’t turn him into a big star I think something’s wrong. He’s got this charisma and this Jet Li kinda style.

So I learned so much working with him in season 1 that I implemented so much in season 2. Seeing him and working with him—dancing with him—and seeing what he was doing during season 1 made me wanna up my game, going, “How is he doing that? Let me figure out how to do that and implement bits of that.”

The second one I’d say is the fight with Dean, in both season 1, but season 2 it was such a hard, intense schedule and I almost collapsed and all that stuff.

A lot of what you saw on the screen wasn’t on the page. We had to figure it out. And [showrunner] Jonathan [Tropper] trusted us. He kinda gave us the blueprint for what he wanted and then we kinda filled it out with all the acting beats and tried to find the moments here and there. And that was really amazing. If everyone wasn’t on the same page, it wouldn’t have been able to be shot because there was so much to do in the schedule that we had. It was really a huge team effort.

That was one of the highlights I’ve ever had filming. Because we were all on the same page, we were all figuring it out, we were all blasting off each take, one

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andrew koji by one. And then I’d also say it was really fun doing the nunchuck fight.

SPOILER: Are you bummed that filming season 3 is kinda up in the air right now? Or are you satisfied with where it’s left off?

Andrew Koji: A bit of both. Maybe if I climb the Hollywood ladder a bit more I’ll have the power to greenlight a season 3 or mini-series finale or whatever, but right now I don’t have that kind of leverage. I think there’s a bit of sadness. The film industry is constantly evolving and changing with streaming services and digital stuff. It’s gonna be tough to get a season 3, to be honest, because everyone else is on different contracts now. And I think the only way you can do it properly is to have the same team involved. I think if you have a different team involved, it won’t be the same and will change the heart of what it was. I don’t think it’s impossible, but I think it’s difficult. It’s sad because I think it’s a show that deserves to finish on its own terms. There’s so many other shows that have life continue for longer and they don’t say as much as Warrior does. But at the same time I

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Andrew Koji/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

SPOILER: Do you tap into your inner warrior on set?

Andrew Koji: Yeah, I mean that was the most Bruce Lee kinda aspect we had. And then it was, “How do I put my own spin on it?” [Recently], it’s weird, I’ve been looking at the Bruce Lee things that are coming up on my feed. And I see his fight scenes. To take them to modern day context, they wouldn’t transition because the style was so different back then. So we used bits of the choreography that he did, and made it work with blood and the grittier aspect to it.

To me, Ah Sahm finds himself, and he’s like this draft version of what Bruce Lee embodied. He was the hot fighter in the town that he came from, but in this big world he still has lots to learn. And that fight is kinda where he starts to really come into his own and use everything that he learned. That was the moment, I think, Ah Sahm was born.

do know that I did my best.

If I’d known more then, at the beginning of season 1, than I know now, the acting’s gotten better. I think that’s the journey of the artist, man. You keep pushing and trying to do your best. I always think that I’m gonna be happy and proud of some work that I did, but then I go, “I know I can do better now.” I’d love to do Ah Sahm again, especially towards the end of season 2 when he really starts to come into his own, I’d really love to show that aspect of him—the real dragon. So there’s a bit of a mix of both because I’m going through this transitional time in my life as well. But I will do what I can to push for a finale. I know everyone wants to come back, but there are so many things outside of our control.

I remember I made a short film a long time ago that I wrote and produced, and it wasn’t seen by that many people, but 3 or 4 people came up to me after we screened it and

said, “That movie meant so much to me.” Certain things, it will find its audience and will affect people in a way. You create a piece of art and tens of thousands of people might see it, but it may change one person’s life. I think Warrior, there’s a similar philosophy. If we don’t manage to come back and finish it, as long as it’s given hope for other people and inspired others and entertained them and they see themselves represented, then it’s done its job as well.

SPOILER:Andrew, what’s your message to the Warrior fans around the globe?

Andrew Koji: “Please watch Warrior on HBO Max and thank you all very much for the support. See you all soon.

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posters for season two of HBO Max’s latest acquisition, Warrior. The series details the landscape of San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1870s as it pertains to the rivaling tongs of that era.

Dianne’s character Mai Ling becomes a tong leader and the most powerful woman in Chinatown. Jaded from her own hardships in life, the drug lord is street smart, surreptitious, and extremely ruthless, to say the least.

The actress talks about all that goes into preparing for a role like this and the toll that playing someone as complex and sordid as Mai Ling takes on you emotionally.

In real life, Doan is amazingly personable, and we hear she’s the ultimate cast mate. Loving and supportive of her show family, the actress comes to sets on her days off–a rarity in this industry. She’s been on her fair share of successful TV shows in the past, but this is truly Dianne’s time to shine–and she does.

Galaxy was able to sit down with Dianne and talk about life and her breakthrough role, which cannot be overstated.

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Dianne Doan/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia/ Bryan Carr (photographer)/Richie Lubaton (photographer)

DIANNE DOAN’S FACE GRACES THE PROMOTIONAL

erview erview SPOILER: I watched season two in one sitting and I was like, “Wow. Season two is wonderful.”

Dianne Doan: Right?!

SPOILER: How was your experience with Warrior?

Dianne Doan: That experience I’m going to carry on with me for a very long time. That show has given us lifelong friends. To work with people such as [executive producers] Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin and Shannon Lee, it’s a pretty incredible project to be a part of.

Right now, I gotta say, the fans, we feel it even more this season than last season–that more people are tuning in. There are a lot more conversations on Twitter and Instagram, and it feels amazing.

SPOILER: I love Warrior, it’s one of my favorite shows. But for those who don’t know, can you explain a little bit about your character, Mai Ling?

Dianne Doan: Originally in season one, you’re introduced to Mai Ling as the sister to the lead character, Ah Sahm, who comes over from mainland China to find his sister.

We find out a little bit of backstory. She escaped China. She was married to a warlord. We’d assume the backstory is she’s been through a lot of emotional and physical

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traumas. But when we land on Mai Ling in San francisco’s Chinatown, she has married one of the most powerful tong leaders. And throughout season one, I rise in power and ranks and I become the leader of the Long Zii Tong. And then season two is picking up on trying to reunite brother and sister, and that conflict that happened throughout season one that leads us to where we are in season two, which is basically rivals.

SPOILER: Has your life changed since you’ve been on Warrior?

Dianne Doan: Before going into that question, Galaxy, I wanna thank you for really plugging our show and supporting Warrior, and shouting out and having us on your show. To be a show on Cinemax, you know that there’s not as many subscribers. And going to HBO Max, that platform, last time we checked, has something like 36 million subscribers. I’m grateful for the opportunity to reach more homes and viewers. And it’s people like you who really help push the show. Season two, I think, has been a huge change. Throughout season one, as we aired, we were currently shooting season two. And when we announced that we got a season two, we were actually almost done wrapping, so it felt like we couldn’t

be in the thick of fan messaging and interacting with people. So to be able to kinda sit back and enjoy people’s reactions and interact any way that we can, it feels very different to me. I wouldn’t say that my life has necessarily changed because we’re locked inside during a pandemic, but to feel the love from the viewers on a project that we hold so dear to our hearts means a lot.

SPOILER: The sets and the costumes are amazing. Have you ever been on set and just felt like you’re in the 1800s?

Dianne Doan: That set was truly special because we built the whole of Chinatown on the backlot of a studio in Cape Town. I think there are four or five streets. And they fully built all the buildings and the backdrops. The far background is really CGI, but everything you see in person, that’s real. We really got to be immersed in that time period with the costumes. There were days where I would just come on set on my days off and just watch everyone in their element. The background artists that they had on, to really fill that atmosphere, you could feel it–it really was magic.

SPOILER: I’ve spoken to a bunch of the cast from the show, and the love and passion you have for this series and each other is palpable.

Dianne Doan: With everything going on right now, the good, the bad, I know a lot of people are suffering, are down. It’s a crazy unknown time that we never could have imagined. All I know is that it’s a show we love so much that we were able to give comfort and entertainment, and get you away from your everyday life for a couple hours. It was a good time to have Warrior come out right now, oddly, ironically. But we’re definitely feeling the love.

SPOILER: I know you’ve been on some shows and projects in the past, but how does it feel being on the main marketing promos for Warrior?

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SPOILER: You’re a sort of antagonistic character on the series. You have all these secret plans and you’re into some shady stuff. Your scripts must be really wild. How do you get into character when you’re preparing for someone like Mai Ling?

Dianne Doan: When I landed the role of Mai Ling, and even before when I was prepping for the audition, my main focus was what era it took place in. I looked up women’s rights and their education level and what they were allowed to do, and not allowed to do. And for Asian women coming into America, almost all of them went into the sex trade. They became prostitutes at somewhere like Ah Toy’s house. And so I built this character around–speaking a lot to Jonathan about, again, her backstory, what she went through, how she got to San Francisco, on a boat, whatever could’ve happened on that boat–we went into really big detail just to kind of [figure out] why she became the person she became. And then throughout season one, you hear her say it again and again, whether it’s to Li Yong or Ah Sahm, of, “I will never be

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Dianne Doan/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia/ Bryan Carr (photographer)/Richie Lubaton (photographer)

Dianne Doan: Galaxy, I was shocked! You just never know which way PR is gonna take a show for season two. I think they’re really running with the sister-brother conflict. Do I think that’s what the main show is all about? No. You know, there are incredible characters on our show. It’s a huge cast. But it was insane to see that when they started sending us the PR packages, and you see that poster. I dunno. Season one was even weird, when Ah Sahm had a poster and then I had the blue poster, but everyone was in it, so it was a little bit of a shock for me.

where I was,” which means that need for power is instilled in her to never be the bottom of the bottom–abused, whatever happened to her. And you see that trickle in and stay throughout season two, of needing that power.

So I just did a lot of research on the Chinese experience coming into America, there’s a lot of documentaries, articles. I just read as much as I could find before we started shooting and throughout, and then asking questions to the writers and other actors and seeing their backstories. There is

a lot of research that goes into it.

SPOILER: These kinds of characters take a huge toll on you physically and mentally. Were there any days where you felt frustrated, or you felt you’re not pulling the message across a certain way? Because you’re playing this character who has to be ruthless, yet caring. You have to wear sympathy and empathy on your face, but also be a “Don’t cross me” type of person.

That’s pretty difficult and you do it so well.

Dianne Doan: Thank you! I think going into every day, I can prep as much as I wanna prep, but it really lands on your acting partner for that day, your scene partner for that day, the director and what they envision.

Because it’s definitely a collaboration of how ever many people are involved in that scene. So there can be moments where I can walk away from a day and be like, “Did that scene work out the way that I imagined it?” It could’ve gone a totally different direction. That happened in season two–that scene between [Andrew] Koji and myself in the bar– we rehearsed one thing. There was a lot of head butting, it was almost aggressive in a way when we reunited for the first time in season two.

And by the end of it, I’m balling my eyes out. And I think it was a shock to me, Koji, and Loni [Peristere], who directed us, of just, you never know where it’s gonna go basically. So I’ve had days, but ultimately, you can question yourself as an artist, but there are people behind the camera who aren’t gonna stop until they get what they want, so you feel taken care of on the show–and hopefully on every show you work on. But it’s hard–getting in her mindset. Being in Cape Town, away from family.

I wasn’t with my partner. You can feel very alone. And playing Mai Ling, because she’s at the top, it’s very isolating. So whenever there’s a heavy day or heavy episode, oh,

Galaxy, it can be a couple weeks of just feeling down and out, really. You get affected by everything. You don’t have to be a method actor, but you still get affected by everything you’re playing. That scene in season one where–huge spoiler!–I kill Long Zii, leading up to that day–it was a two or three day shoot–and even after, you feel the effects of the heaviness, the burden, the guilt, the anger, the fear, all of it. It just embodies your whole frame; your whole being. The shift in Mai Ling–I had a lot of help in that. And you can tell. As soon as that incident happened, the next scene, the shift in her posture, the way she presents herself in the wardrobe, in the makeup. I went from very feminine, regal wife to military–the

suits, the jackets, the pants, the boots. There’s no more dresses. My hair is pulled back. It’s a shift in both the actor and performance, but also in all the surroundings as well.

SPOILER: Your partner on the show is Joe Taslim, who’s a great martial artist. How was it working with him?

Dianne Doan: He’s the best. I mean, the funny thing is, I feel like he’s the only person I worked with [laughs].

Every day I was on set, I knew Joe would be there, and vice versa. If he had a fight scene I wasn’t in, again, I would come and hang out and watch Brett [Chan], our stunt coordinator, work, and Joe fight. We were always together. I’m very grateful for the relationship, because for me it’s important to kind of have one person to become close with, just so you have that support on set. Joe and I were kinda placed together because we were partners on the show, but he’s an incredibly giving actor. Working with him, there’s so many actors on the show who I feel lucky to work opposite against–whether it’s Joe, Koji, any of the guys, it’s just a talented and generous group of people.

SPOILER: Mai Ling cares for Li Yong, but you don’t agree with each other most of the time. I’m like, “Okay, she’s gonna murder him now…No, no, no, she’s not.” Viewers might think he may backstab you, but I sense that he’ll never do that.

Dianne Doan: He would never. That’s the thing. Li Yong is Mai Ling’s only constant thing throughout the

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SPOILER: How cool would that be to have someone like Li Yong by your side; someone that hard core who would do your bidding 24/7?

Dianne Doan: [laughs] Again, to have any of the warriors on your team have your back–I mean, those guys are badass. We see it week in and week out with all the stunt scenes they do.

It’s incredible. And they do most of their stuff–I won’t say all 100%, but most of their stuff is them doing it themselves. That’s the crazy thing. If they weren’t shooting or doing makeup tests or wardrobe tests or prosthetics because of their black eyes and puffy cheeks or whatever, they would be in that stunt tent with Brett and the boys going again and again. There’s so many battles. Every episode, we kinda wait to see what’s next, and they have to get started on that. This show is a big test, not only as an actor, but as a performer, a stunt person, everything was tested on this show.

SPOILER: I want people who haven’t seen the series to understand that it’s not just about martial arts and Chinatown. There are so many moving parts– such intricacy. Your character deals with everyone. You have a handshake with every single person. It displays a really powerful message. Do you feel you’re giving a great message to people watching this show?

Dianne Doan: Yes, Olivia [Cheng] and

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I have gotten countless messages on Twitter and Instagram from women who watch the show, and how refreshing it is to see another Asian woman on screen in a position of power. We just don’t see it often. As Asian performers, a lot of the time our roles are deduced to the damsel in distress or someone’s partner. But to see this show, all three women in season one are leaders in their own right. With Mai Ling kinda the head of the drug trade and the tongs, Ah Toy with the sex trade, and Penny is head of steel and that industry. It was interesting to see all three women at the top of their game, and we joked about how amazing it would be to get all three women in one room, in one scene. In season two, the introduction of Vega, she is the head of all the boat belly fights and Céline Buckens’ character comes in and she’s this feisty, kinda speaks her own mind, highly opinionated woman who gets involved with Leary. So this show is full of surprising characters–especially in the women, we’re given so much power.

And the fans see it.

SPOILER: The entire cast is sending a powerful message. Do you think that’s what Shannon Lee and Justin Lin intended to happen?

Dianne Doan: I think it was a message that everyone wanted to bring across.

Jonathan was very aware of that. In a show full of a lot of men and testosterone, there was room for us few women, and to make sure that we were in those positions of power, and so that we have substance to the characters that we’re creating. We had Shannon Lee on our side, and season one, we had another female executive who works with Justin Lin, so we had a lot of people backing us. It was a collective, I feel. Every writer and executive on that end wanted that for the women.

SPOILER: What do you feel about the possibilities for a season three?

Dianne Doan: [sighs] We wish it will happen. We all are still on text threads and we FaceTime one another. However it will look like, whether it’s a movie or

Dianne Doan/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia/ Bryan Carr (photographer)/Richie Lubaton (photographer)

whole show. In season two we see that relationship and that trust being tested, but ultimately that is the solid guy who Li Yong is. He loves her through and through, not only as a leader but as a woman. They are partners together. It was interesting seeing how the writers took our relationship because we’ve only seen it as a very supportive, loving one, and season two when Dustin Nguyen’s character is introduced and things get kinda tested, yeah… But Li Yong is and will always, be, in my opinion, by her side. He will do things against her, but it’s for her own good. I think that’s what he tells himself. But it’s always for the good of Long Zii and Mai Ling.

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SPOILER: What’s in the future for you, aside from Warrior?

Dianne Doan: Ugh, right now, Galaxy, it’s a lot of life. Work’s comin’ and I can’t talk about that, but I’m just dealing with what’s in front of me.

And blessed to have what time I have with my family, and making sure everyone’s healthy and trying to keep sane during this. But like I said before, there’s just so much unknown and it’s scary. It’s a little worrisome. But taking it day by day. That’s all you can do.

SPOILER: We appreciate you taking the time to chat with us, is there anything special you want to tell your fans?

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Dianne Doan/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia/Bryan Carr (photographer)/Richie Lubaton (photographer)

a limited series–it doesn’t have to be a full season. There’s a lot of cliffhangers at the end. There’s a lot of loose ties and a lot of questions. And beyond that, I don’t think we’ve seen enough of each character. Again, there’s so many storylines. There’s so many relationships. With 20 episodes throughout two seasons, I don’t think we’ve seen it all. We haven’t gone through all the possible connections yet. So, I hope there’s a season three. I really, truly do. Whether that’s next year, whether that’s in five years, who knows what it will look like. I think with this new HBO Max availability, that will help a lot with visibility. But we, as a cast, we’re just tryna promote this show as best we can. As much as we can, just to get some eyes on it. Because it’s such a labor of love for us. It means so much to us, this show. We’re holding our breath a little bit in terms of, you never know what will happen. None of us feel like this show is over. When we filmed going into it, I don’t think the cast knew that we might not be coming back for a season three. We talked to the writers, they had stories about where we would go come season three, maybe season four. I know Shannon has always wanted, and saw this show, to go on for a very long time. So there’s a lot more to be told and we don’t know in what capacity, but never say never.

Dianne Doan: I just wanna say, “All of you who have come along for the ride, this whole time, week by week, I see your tweets, I see your messages, I see your incredible fan art, and I just want to thank you from

the bottom of my heart for taking us in as a show and enjoying it. I feel the love you have for us, so thank you so much. You’ve definitely made this past year a lot more special because of that, so thank you guys.”

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Dean Jagger/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

Let’s not mince words, Dylan Leary is not a great guy.

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The Irishman is a major antagonist on Warrior and a very important part of the series, serving as a sort of counterpoint to our hero, Ah Sahm.

The actor who plays Leary, on the other hand, is a very cool dude. Dean Jagger, previously known for his acclaimed work on Game of Thrones, portrays the racist leader of the Irish Mob on the HBO Max series.

The actor pins himself as an optimistic sort—a good person to be around during these times. Dean is hopeful of a better future. A future that sees the reality of a season 3. A future where he and the cast can finally meet up with fans at conventions, where they can thank them in person for their undeniable loyalty.

And he just might get the chance. Dean is incredibly proud of the series he’s been able to represent, and fills us in on some of his favorite moments on Warrior, as well as his feelings on the Maroon 5 song “Moves Like Jagger.”

interview interview

SPOILER: How has your experience been working on Warrior?

Dean Jagger: Listen, I can remember when this audition came through.

It was a Thursday morning, I was in Los Angeles and I was due to go to England. I got these breakdowns for this character, and the fact that it was inspired by Bruce Lee, who’s everybody’s legend, I gave it my best shot. I was very nervous because I wanted it so bad. It really has been life changing.

SPOILER: Everyone’s heard of Bruce Lee. He’s a legend. What does that name mean to you?

Dean Jagger: It takes me back. I remember my father once being ecstatic and he was imitating Bruce Lee, and I didn’t know who he was at the time. I was just traumatized [laughs] watching my father in the kitchen going, “Whooahh!” punching and stuff, and screaming like Bruce Lee, and that’s how I came to know who he was. From there, at a young age, I bought his book, Jeet Kune Do. My

brother, who’s a director in the industry now, had a nice big canvas made of Bruce Lee in his bedroom. So we were fans of Bruce Lee—all of us were. He meant a lot to me growing up, he’s given me motivation. I would constantly read his book, it stayed beside my bed, and I would just breathe him in, you know?

SPOILER: Who is the most fascinating character on Warrior to you?

Dean Jagger: That’s a really tough question. I find Father Jun very fascinating. He’s from such a beautiful code, this great honor. I feel that he has a philosophy about him.

And [actor] Perry [Yung] is just so stoic. He’s so good at playing that character. Father Jun is a very wise individual and I love that dichotomy that he has with Young Jun, because you have that dynamic, that tilt shift happening between father and son.

Honestly, I could speak about all of them. I dunno, that’s a really hard question. I shouldn’t have answered that question actually [laughs], I

Dean jagger should’ve just said I didn’t know. Take it back [laughs].

SPOILER: Warrior is on HBO Max now and a lot of eyes are on it. Have you noticed a change since the move?

Dean Jagger: I absolutely have.

Especially on social media, you can tell that there’s been a huge [group] of brand new viewers. It’s funny because I keep getting tagged on these messages and forums, getting screenshots from fans, bless ‘em. I can tell and I can feel that. I was out running the other morning. I’m in the countryside at the minute. I’m in a small, idyllic village on top of this grassy hill. So I’m out running, trying to keep fit, and then I got sent this message, it was a screenshot of a fan saying, “Guess who I just saw running past my car? He had a black hoodie on with black shorts and black leggings, and he looked great!

It’s Dylan Leary!” [laughs] It was just so descriptive and I’m like, “Wow! That actually happens now sometimes.” You really feel the loyalty of the fanbase and it’s so special. I think these fans are just phenomenal.

SPOILER: I’m sure that feels amazing.

Dean Jagger: Of course. I’m stoked for everybody. I’m so stoked that it’s being received the way it is. I always had the highest hopes for it, going into it. I’m really proud, and so is everybody else.

SPOILER: Would you come back to reprise your role if a season 3 gets greenlit?

Dean Jagger: Absolutely I would. I think there’s longevity in this show and telling this story. Me, personally, I’d be really interested to see what we actually do from here. In terms of my character, I think we all have an idea of where he might be going [laughs], and I guess Dylan does now as well. So I would absolutely love the idea to explore it further. This is a fantastic show and it’s a phenomenal family, so it’s a 100% “yes.”

SPOILER: There’s a ton of fan camaraderie. Fans are going to be devas-

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tated if season 3 doesn’t happen.

Dean Jagger: I’m going to be devastated as well. Each and every one of us on the show, we always really felt from the getgo that it would go all the way. The fact that the show turned out the way it did, we are a family, it’s a really special group. We have a lot of stuff to tell, and we’ve got a lot of great story left in it.

To not be able to do that would be a great shame. Obviously, just to loosely touch on it as well, it’s a really entertaining show, but the show does tackle a lot of social issues and the ramifications of those issues. There’s messages: racism, classism, discrimination—all these things are all very intrinsic to the story that we tell, and really mirroring what’s going on today. There’s very few shows that come around where there’s that much entertainment and carries that much of a strong message as well. To be a part of that, I’m very proud. To be able to continue that will be very, very rewarding. And we’ll all be very happy to have the opportunity.

SPOILER: Leary is a tough, straight-up dude. But every now and then we get a glimpse of his heart. He’s compassionate and has empathy, but in a tough love type of way. What kind of mindset do you have to get into to play Leary?

Dean Jagger: When we shot season 1, I had many discussions with [showrunner] Jonathan Tropper, and we talked about Leary’s values and how he feels like. He does a lot of crazy sh*t, we know this. For me, I really got to fully understand the reason why in season 2, because you know, after watching episode 1, you realize that Dylan fights so hard and does what he does because he really doesn’t have any family. His wife and his two boys are dead. His family from Ireland died. And I think to be able to get into that place, you have to think about those things. He’s a family man, and he’ll do anything to protect his family. It comes from that kind of place.

It has to come from a real place. I don’t know how to really explain that. I feel like myself, as an actor, I lean into my intuition a bit, and 9 times out of 10 I end up surprising myself in the search for

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something. As much as I like to break things down, I really like to surprise myself and try to find something.

SPOILER: Was there anyone like Leary that you found in your historical research?

Dean Jagger: There was. A few people actually, but one in particular named Denis Kearney. He was an Irishman from Cork, and he sea vesseled over to Calfironia, but before he hit the land, he worked on the ocean. He actually became a labor leader, an activist, and was a known racist against Chinese immigrants, and actually founded the WPC, which was the Workman’s Party of California. So clearly Leary was modeled from Denis Kearney.

SPOILER: Did you do a lot of the research on your own? Or did the producers give you plenty?

Dean Jagger: A mixture of both, really.

Jonathan was there on hand all the time and gave me a few things to look at from the period. But mainly, the character inspiration is my main focus. You’ve got to understand, it’s set in 1878, but it’s a much more stylized version of the period, like a graphic novel. Obviously we know it’s not historically true. There are some things that are, but a lot of it isn’t. The story comes from the way that the characters are interpreted. And that’s what I found really interesting about it, and I feel like that’s why it’s become so [popular]. It doesn’t give a sh*t, and I think that’s so cool [laughs].

SPOILER: Leary loves to have these boxing matches where he beats up all his opponents, and we’re never quite sure if it’s to relieve his stress or a way to assert his dominance. Do you have any boxing background?

Dean Jagger: I’ve got a bit of a past, myself. I used to fight a lot actually, to be honest with you. I went down the wrong road a little bit. If people knew the truth they wouldn’t believe it [laughs]. I’m not really proud of that at all.

It’s a big learning curve for me in my life.

And that’s a long time ago, but did that help? Absolutely. Art is life. That’s what

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to the future? Do we dare? [laughs] Listen, I know it’s a little bit crazy out there at the minute, but I’m one of those people who’s always gonna hold the hope that good will come and that people will always try and do the right thing, because people generally are good.

Can I go twice? I’ll go to the future first, check that out, and then my second trip, I’ll go to the past. Can I do that?

W

SPOILER: We’ll give you two round trip tickets [laughs].

Dean Jagger: Okay, perfect.

we do. We tap into those things— those parts of our past; those memories. Then we change them and distort them. But there’s a certain part of my life where I lived and breathed a little bit of that. I always had a good heart and respected my elders, but every now and then I got into a little bit of trouble [laughs].

SPOILER: You’re 6 feet tall. Do you think your stature helps with the character, or do you think it creates more of a disadvantage?

Dean Jagger: I feel like the character Leary is, it wouldn’t matter if he was short and round. You could meet some of the most unassuming people and they could really [catch you off guard]. It’s really the ones you don’t see coming who end up being the biggest shocker and the biggest problem to deal with. In terms of my character, I looked at Leary as a man of natural authority. He’s this ex-bare knuckle fighter who still dabbles in a good ‘ol fight or two. So I think it lends into how I look. I’ve always been quite athletic, and I grew up boxing as well. For me, I stepped into the shoes from a physical aspect quite easily. That being said, I trained really hard for this show. I’ve trained harder than I ever have in my life for this show. I think back in the day, you were either one of two things, muscular or bone—unless you were

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wealthy enough and you could afford to eat enough to have a little blubber on you. It was hard times back then.

SPOILER: If you had a time machine, would you go to the past or the future?

Dean Jagger: Wow, man, that is a good question, Galaxy. Where we’re at right now, do we really wanna go

SPOILER: Warrior has become a fan favorite and everyone in the media has their eyes on the show now.

They’ve been comparing it to Cobra Kai, which I also love, but can you tell everyone out there that Warrior is not like Cobra Kai? Dean Jagger: Cobra Kai is like hammy, fun entertainment. It’s replicating what we all felt back in the ‘80s, but Warrior is not like that. It’s an action period drama that’s set in a real history, but obviously embellished

Dean jagger

Dean Jagger/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

rawness that I actually liked. I feel that it paid off really well in the finale of this season—these two guys just absolutely trading and just doing it on pure heart and adrenaline [laughs]. I just don’t think it gets any better than that. But in terms of just action and entertainment, episode 9 is a real contender for me. Joe Taslim is unbelievable. [Andrew] Koji is unbelievable. Everyone on the show is.

It’s something to be said about the actors who are on Warrior and made it what it is—these guys are training hard. People don’t realize. Everybody was. It was just unreal. It just became a vibe. Not just the actors. Even the crew was coming in and training with us. It was just unbelievable. So everyone pushed themselves. There are some tremendous fights in it.

like a kung fu Western. It couldn’t be further different from Cobra Kai. The acting is very intense. This is an intense drama that really tackles social issues. But I do love Cobra Kai. SPOILER: It’s sad that Warrior is becoming popular during the lockdown and you guys haven’t experienced conventions yet. Are you bummed about that? And do you think that may have changed things a little bit as far as promoting the series?

Dean Jagger: It absolutely would have. Obviously Comic Con is unbelievable. It’s the biggest, and it would be a thrill to have actually been there and see it light up. But I’m gonna just go with the flow of things. I know that when we come out the other side of this we’ll hopefully get out there and have these kinds of conversations in person and see the

fans. Because that really is the icing on the cake. And it’s great to be able to share those types of experiences and events with the fans. It’s gotta be unbelievable, especially on a show like this. I’m kinda holding out on the hopes that I’ll see you on the other side [laughs].

SPOILER: What is your favorite fight scene in the whole series?

Dean Jagger: Episode 9 was just unreal, right? Honestly, there’s just too many, but episode 9 was just hell on wheels. But I’ve got to say though that when Dylan fought Ah Sahm, there was just something really raw about that and it kinda took me back to the very first season in the very first episode when Dylan’s fighting in the ring against that big, huge dude—it took me back to that. And there’s something about that kinda

SPOILER:Dean, you have the coolest last name. I have to tell you that.

Dean Jagger: [laughs] I actually called into a family birthday party [the other day], and when I walked into the house they had “Moves Like Jagger’’ on, and they didn’t know I was coming [laughs], but it was just playing. I dunno, I always get embarrassed by that when I walk into a place and that’s playing and there’s anyone there who knows me [laughs].

SPOILER: If you could say anything to the fans out there, what would it be?

Dean Jagger: “Dial in.

Warrior is a tribute and an honor to Bruce Lee. It was inspired by his work and the collective people on board who brought this to fruition are some of the best out there in the business. And I feel that this story is worth a shot. It tackles a lot of issues that we’re challenged with today and it’s great entertainment. Just lose yourself in the world and just give it a shot. I promise you’ll be surprised.” fabruary 2021|

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

With an innate need to tell stories from such a young age, the Canadian-born actress had one of the coolest learning curves you could ask for. Her first major project was the award-winning miniseries Broken Trail, where she was able to study from acting legend Robert Duvall first hand, learning techniques that she still implements to this day. Olivia is truly an actress’ actress. It’s obvious she’s not only in love with her art, but the craft behind it.

Starring in HBO Max’s hit show Warrior as Ah Toy, the brothel Madame in San Francisco’s Chinatown in the 1870s, Cheng is continuing to make a name for herself.

She’s paid her dues and worked so hard for so many years, and she knows it. The actress not only deserves to be well-recognized, but the world needs to know who she is. And they will.

The lifelong comic book fan is able to nerd out with Galaxy about what comics have meant to her throughout her life and even dives a little into the Marvel vs. DC debate. She also tells us about how she got into acting, her dream collaborators, and her newfound pandemic life as a plant parent.

Olivia not only nails the perfect balance between sincerity and her jovial sense of humor when she speaks, but truly understands what it means to tell a story, both as a performer and just in everyday conversation. Here, she gifts us with some of her storytelling skills firsthand as she rants about her utter disdain for shopping vacations (we can’t blame her), and details her time spent taking an art course in Paris (we’ll let her tell you that one). This interview was a fun one.

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Olivia Cheng was born to be in the entertainment industry.

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SPOILER: You’re on a TV series that I love a lot. I’m very vocal about it. Warrior is very underrated and everyone needs to watch it. I’m excited for you. You’re one of the stars. How’s your experience been on Warrior?

OLIVIA CHENG: Warrior has been such a blessed, enhancing experience. Not only does it trip me out to know that I’m part of the Bruce Lee legacy in some significant way, but just in terms of the materials I’ve had to do artistically. It really resonated for me culturally, it resonated for me as a woman, and I got a brand new family out of it. I got to create something from scratch with a great group of people who I’m still in touch with to this day. Warrior is the bee’s knees and I’m so glad you found it and are spreading the Warrior word on our behalf.

SPOILER: You play Ah Toy, a brothel owner.

No spoilers, but I gotta tell everyone you’re a badass on the show. You do amazing things with your sword. Do you have martial arts experience? Because you look like you do.

OLIVIA CHENG: I don’t. I mean, I do in a sense that I was on another show called Marco Polo on Netflix. That show was very much martial arts influenced, and that was my real first experience in training martial arts. And in that case it was really only jumping into choreo to sell the fight sequences. I’m a gymnast. I was a gymnast when I was younger. I was exposed to martial arts because I was in a Mandarin bilingual program in Edmonton, Alberta.

But because I was already in gymnastics, training 20 hours a week, I didn’t have the bandwidth or the time to also add martial arts onto it. I was always interested in it, but it was just never something I had the opportunity to really dabble in. And I use the word “dabble” because I have legit respect for martial artists after the last five years of where my career has taken me. By the time I got to Warrior, I wasn’t completely starting from scratch like I was with Marco Polo. Because of Ah Toy’s fighting style where she knows she’s a woman so stealth, surprise, and efficiency is her fighting language, she doesn’t have time, nor does she take the chance to toy with her opponents. She gets the

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SPOILER: Why did you get into acting?

OLIVIA CHENG: We were very much the landed immigrant story. I think because my family comes from a past of fleeing from war and war-induced poverty and homelessness, I think my upbringing in Canada, for them, was incredibly affluent because I had access to universal health care and education. Part of what they wanted for me was, they realized that, “Okay they’re growing up in white-bred prairie town Canada. How do we instill in our children a sense of pride in their culture?” So my dad actually went through the Edmonton phonebook and found every Chinese family he could, and just cold-called everyone and pulled together a group of parents, and found the first teacher for what became the Edmonton Mandarin Bilingual Program. So absolutely, in terms of conservative Chinese families, my parents would have loved me to live the 9 to 5 dream with steady paychecks, benefits, a corporate ladder to rise in.

And that totally makes sense, right?

I think that anyone out there reading this who comes from parents who always wanted better for their children, for them having come from where they came from in terms of poverty and lack of resources, totally makes sense that they’d want me to almost have a desk job of some sort [laughs].

But acting, it was always just something I naturally gravitated towards, even before I had the words. I would bring these Christian Bible plays to school, because my dad bought them for me, and I would cast my friends to read them. So

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basically doing table reads in Grade 1 at recess. Instead of doing essays, my teachers would give me special permission to make short films on the topic instead, or write a play and present a play [laughs]. So it was already there, but it didn’t even occur to me that acting was something that I really wanted to make a livelihood or career out of. It was just so far out of the possibility of my reach at the time. You know, I’ve been scammed by quote-unquote agents [laughs], and “Get Discovered” kinda events that are just money-grabs, you know? I’ve been through all that.

But I guess a real turning point was

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job done and then she’s out. So my choreo on Warrior was actually quite simple and quick, and I actually had a lot of time to train for the first time in three years, since sort of being introduced into this action genre.

And obviously because I’m Asian, it’s inevitable that someone’s gonna go, “Let’s use her for martial arts!”

So thank you for saying that, and no, I cannot claim to be a legit martial artist in life.

when AMC’s Broken Trail came to Alberta, and they were specifically looking for five Chinese actresses at the time, and the pool for Asian actresses at that point was probably even smaller than it is now. So Robert Duvall, who was one of the executive producers, and Walter Hill, the director, they were willing to look at kinda non-actresses who didn’t really have experience. By this point I had been an extra on Christmas movies that would come to Edmonton, and Edmonton would stand in as some small Midwestern city or town, but I’d never really done anything significant. But I got cast in this and I

had to quit my job at the time, and I got to be on set for upwards of three months. It was my first lightning in a bottle experience of what was possible as an actor, and once that experience bit me–the acting bug bit me at that point–I didn’t want to go back to what my life had been in Edmonton, so I kinda made the jump and moved forward–moved to Vancouver and pursued acting from there.

SPOILER: That show with Robert Duvall was highly acclaimed and awarded. You must’ve learned so much from being on set with such a legend.

OLIVIA CHENG: I did. I mean, now I look back and think about how splendidly naive I was. I call him “Bobby D.” He made us call him that. He went out of his way to build rapport and chemistry, because he understood that we needed to be comfortable with him on screen and chemistry was something that was built in-between scenes. He was like a surrogate uncle or grandfather to us. Now I think about it, I’m like, “Oh my God, I would never have the balls to do this now,” [laughs] but I remember I would just walk up to his trailer at 6 in the morning and knock on his door and just be like, “Hey, what’re ya doin’?” [laughs] And he’d

be like, “I’m learnin’ my lines. Come in, come in.” And he’d pour me tea and I would just sit there and watch him learn his lines. There were just so many things on set where I now understand the wisdom of what he was doing with these really simple instructions. I didn’t know at the time, but there was a point where my character in that movie–I was really, really stressed out because there was so much I had to convey in one look. My character was someone who’s been incredibly traumatized.

It dealt with the part of Asian American history where young girls were trafficked over from China and that was America’s introduction to Asian women, through these horrible human trafficking rings. The ideas of prostitution and hypersexualization of Asian women, it comes from this tragic part of history, and Broken Trail touched on that. There was a scene where a horse gets injured and has to be put down, and my character sees the quickness of this death and is fascinated because she’s suicidal. She’s been abused and wants an escape. It was the tiniest foreshadowing and the tiniest way to convey where her psychology was at that moment. I’d never had a proper role, and I’m like, “How am I supposed to say all that?” I felt so much pressure

to have this big emotional response on screen and I think Bobby could see that I was panicking a little, so he said, “Just look at the horse and think, ‘What a pretty horse, what a pretty horse.’” And now I realize that’s an actual technique that’s taught, which is mantras–to have a thought in character and just repeat the mantra in your mind because it gives you something to ground yourself in emotionally, life-wise, and then the audience can project what they think is going on and project their emotion onto the character. So in all those little ways, I learned a lot from a legend. And that’s why I look back and I’m like, “Man, that was lightning in a bottle! First time out.”

SPOILER: Do you feel like Warrior has given you an audience where you can expand tremendously?

OLIVIA CHENG: I hope so. I think it’s going to be really interesting.

Warrior is in this really strange spot because there was a media acquisition where I believe AT&T bought out a number of networks, including HBO and Cinemax. HBO and Cinemax are actually the same network.

And we have been lost in the shuffle and the politics of the acquisition, and if not for the intervention of, I think, Vanity Fair writing an article about Warrior saying, “What do you mean we’re not going to be able to see Warrior on HBO Max when it ends?” then that would have been it for Warrior. There are all these

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fantastic Cinemax shows whose fates are up in the air and there’s a big question mark above them, and my heart goes out to them because that’s where we sat before the Vanity Fair article came out. So moving over to HBO Max, getting to join that streaming family, this exposes us to potentially millions of viewers who otherwise wouldn’t have discovered us on Cinemax. So I hope that Warrior catapults all of us to a different level of public consciousness.

At the same time, I think I’ve been in the game long enough to not be skeptical and not count on different things, because there have always been moments in my career where I thought, “Maybe this is it. Maybe this is that big break that levels me up.” And things never quite go as you expect, both good and bad. So I really hope so. I think there is the possibility for sure, and I’m very, very, very curious to see what happens.

SPOILER: If there was any one person in this acting universe to emulate, who would that be?

OLIVIA CHENG: That’s a tough one.

The first person who pops into mind is Charlize Theron. I’d really like to do comedy as well, and I’m thinking of her in Long Shot recently, and she had that recurring character in Arrested Development a few years back. And I guess she’s in dark comedies with Young Adult and Tully. So I think I’m feeling like some Charlize Theron vibes today.

SPOILER: Have you noticed she never ages?

OLIVIA CHENG: You know, a goddess is a goddess is a goddess. And speaking of ageless, because she played an immortal recently in The Old Guard, maybe that’s why she’s really top of mind for me. The action in that, for me, I’ve done so much action in the last 5 years in my career, so I always appreciated stunts; I always appreciated action, because there’s always a level of athleticism involved. I think Charlize Theron is the queen when it comes to female action. Can you think of someone else right now on that level where entire productions are built around an actress playing the lead

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role of her own action franchise? Like, Milla Jovovich has hers. I know Olivia Munn is shooting a new action movie I can’t wait to see. So right now Charlize is kind of, I feel like she’s up there.

SPOILER: Do you think clothing makes the person?

OLIVIA CHENG: I have a friend who says, “Dress how you feel.” So I think I dress more based on, “Okay, I’m feeling kinda laid back and casual,” which is most of the time. I roll around in a lot of athleisure, and then sometimes it’s like, “I feel like I’m feeling myself today, so maybe I’ll amp it up a bit more.” But I don’t think I’ve ever got up in the morning and felt, “I want to emulate this person or this character, so let me open the tickle trunk and see what pieces I have.”

SPOILER: Have you ever tapped into Ah Toy to get out of a situation?

OLIVIA CHENG: You know [laughs] I thought about that. I thought about what would happen if I channeled, like, Ah Toy or Master Gao [from Deadly Class], or just any of the characters I’ve played the last few years, and I’m like, “I just think it would be a lot.” Because part of what makes Ah Toy “Ah Toy” is her costumes and her makeup and the power of her presentation. And without those things, the character is 90% not there. But in terms of her wit and her ability to just look right through people, it’s funny, because I think that would be so unsettling. I’m not saying I’m not above using that, but I haven’t yet. But I have thought about it. I’ve thought about, “How would Ah Toy be out in the real world?” Some of her quick-witted banter–I mean, if I had those Warrior writers in my pocket writing me dialogue for life, I’d be killin’ it. I’d always have a zinger.

SPOILER: Do you have a celebrity crush?

OLIVIA CHENG: I know I’ve had celebrity crushes. Somebody asked me the other day who my first character crush was, and I said Astro Boy. At first I thou-

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OLIVIA CHENG: [laughs] I have no idea why, but I’m getting flashbacks to high school–”Eye of the Tiger” was like our high school’s theme song. [singing] “Risin’ up!” You know? That’s just what kinda came into my head. I was like, “What’s a song that’s like a bit of a fight song, but gets you into a ‘Yeah!’ kinda mode?” and “Eye of the Tiger” just came into my head [laughs]. It’s such an old song.

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ght they meant a real person, but the example they gave was a comic book character. So then I was like, “Oh, okay, so if we’re going in terms of comic book or animation character, then I would say my first crush would be Astro Boy.” But I’m trying to think of who my celebrity crush is right now, I’m drawing a blank right now.

I’m sorry, I just came out of stunt training so I think my brain is a little fried. I’m drawing a blank.

SPOILER: What inspires you?

OLIVIA CHENG: My gosh, it could be anything. I’m building a new character right now for a project I’m on, and I want to tune in and watch this reality show that I heard about on Netflix. And I have no idea if I’m gonna find the inspiration that I’m looking for, but sometimes just even that thread of possibility and curiosity, you always have to investigate it.

I don’t mean to sound so lame, but over this pandemic I’ve become a total plant parent. I’ve gotten so much

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joy–this is so lame–being like, “Oh my God, there’s a new leaf today!”

That plants around me are thriving and growing–and when you’re home enough, like over the pandemic, I was able to track growth day by day.

It can be something as simple as that, to seeing someone walk by on the street and I love their fashion, I love their style, to obviously a great movie or a good book, or sometimes you overshare conversation. I mean, it could even be the weather. When it’s sunny out, I feel different. I think there are so many sources of inspiration out there if you’re open to it.

SPOILER: If you could pick a theme song to describe where your life is at right now, what song would you choose?

OLIVIA CHENG: Ohh, these questions feel hard today, Galaxy! [laughs] SPOILER: [laughs] Maybe I should ask what your favorite color is.

SPOILER: I know you have a lot of fans out there that want to meet you. When COVID’s over and the conventions restart again, I’m tellin’ you, Olivia, you better get yourself out there and go to conventions. The energy is exhilarating.

OLIVIA CHENG: See, that, to me, is really crazy. Because I have never cracked conventions. I’ve never been asked. The one time was just a publicity thing. Even before Marco Polo came out, Netflix booked some time in Brazil, but nobody even knew who we were or what the show was. They just showed the clip of where I do the naked fight scene in episode 2 in season 1 and the crowd went crazy.

And then we did a panel to answer questions and we were out of there.

But other than that, I have never experienced any convention, and maybe I should take you up on that.

I don’t have a convention agent. I’ve never cracked that world. It’s a funny thing, when season one [of Warrior] came out, we were all actually in South Africa filming season two. And now that season two’s come out, it’s COVID. So we’ve never had a red carpet event. We as a cast have never had a chance to celebrate the opening of Warrior in person together.

We had one event where, I think, maybe four of us from the cast were able to make it, but we’ve never had a proper red carpet or a party, even for ourselves, let alone any kind of event that puts us in the same room live with people who know our show

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and are interested. So that would be a really interesting thing for us to actually get to meet and mingle.

SPOILER: What is your dream collaboration if you could create one?

OLIVIA CHENG: I’ll just say who popped in my head right away. Like a director, I’m trying to think if I’ve worked with a female director. I’ve had three female directors come in on a few episodes who I worked with on a short term basis, but I’d be really curious to see what it would be like to work with a female director on a feature film. People like Ava DuVernay, Lulu Wang, who did The Farewell with Awkwafina. He’s not

female, but I’d have to throw Steven Spielberg in there because he’s just an all-time great film director. I loved Ready Player One, and to be able to do something epic on that scope would be incredible. In terms of other actors I’d want to work with, there’s just so many great actors out there right now.

SPOILER: Whether it’s Warrior, Marco Polo or Deadly Class, you always stand out and do an amazing job.

The world needs to see how talented you are.

OLIVIA CHENG: Aww, thank you! I so appreciate that. Thank you. Even just feeling your energy alone, I apprecia-

te you. I hope, I really hope. I’ve been at this so long that I really do feel happy to be working, and I don’t know if after this project ends–I’ve gone up to two years without working. I don’t work more than I work. And that is how it happens with most working actors. You’ve got to be smart with your money and you have to budget, because even if you make a lot of money in one chunk, you never know how long you have to stretch it out for before your next job. You always wanna be trying to make a smart career move, or at the very least a lateral career move. It’s really common for so many actors where sometimes you do have to do a job for a paycheck and not for a shiny gold star on the resume. And that’s been most of my career in terms of not really knowing what’s around the corner–the inconsistency being the consistency. I would be really curious what life and my career would look like if it really blew up. I don’t know what that would be like. Let’s do it!

I’m ready!

SPOILER: What would you purchase if you had unlimited funds?

OLIVIA CHENG: I have thought about this [laughs]. I think at this point, I would love to buy a home. Is that boring?

SPOILER: It’s not boring. A leopard or a giraffe would be a bit more exciting, but a home is a great purchase.

OLIVIA CHENG: Listen, I had a friend who, after his first big job, bought a $9,000 wristwatch, and I was like, “I mean, look, it’s beautiful. But why?”

So I’m not built like that. I’m all for treating myself. But at this point, I’m technically based in Vancouver, and if I could finally crack that motherf***ing housing market, Galaxy, that would be dope! It’s so expensive to get into the housing market there.

I’d not only love a house, but I’d love a house or a yard big enough that I could put crazy cool sculptures around. That to me would be a splurge.

SPOILER: I know some people who are so rich, all they bring is a bac-

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olivia cheng kpack on vacation and they buy everything once they arrive at their destination, then throw it away afterwards.

OLIVIA CHENG: You know what?

I know some people who, every year they go to Utah and rebuy everything. Like brand new skis, ski suits, and are so averse to buying anything on sale. But to me, what would be annoying is just the time.

I have a 2 hour shopping limit. So when I go shopping I need to kinda know what I’m looking for, and I know I have 2 hours before I hit a wall and have to take a nap. I love shopping in short bouts, and I’ll get in moods where I love shopping, but I’m not… I’ve got some girlfriends who–there was one of the worst friend trips I’ve ever been on–I was in Edmonton at the time, and a few of us flew to Vancouver and it was awful. All we did was go from shopping mall to shopping mall to shopping mall–like 8 hours of shopping. Two days of shopping until the stores closed. And I was like a petulant temper-tantruming child because I was so mad that this was what I flew to Vancouver for. Vancouver is so beautiful, there’s Stanley Park, we have beaches right in the middle of the city, we have a national history rainforest, we’re surrounded by islands and world class ski resorts and hiking trails, and amazing restaurants. And yet all we did was hang out in malls.

It was a nightmare for me. I love those girls, and we stay in touch to this day, but I’ve never gone on a sho-

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pping trip with them again. To me, that’s cool, you can roll off the plane with a backpack, but then you gotta go buy your underwear, some socks, a change of pants, at least a couple shirts–I mean, how long are you in town for? That’s a lot of shopping.

I think what I realized in traveling with people is, you have to be able to travel with people–this is what an acting teacher, Veena Sood, said to me, and she meant it in terms of working with people and collaborating on projects or deciding whether or not to, say, mount a play together or getting into some kind of production together—she said, “Don’t work with anyone you wouldn’t want to be high on a mountain with.” And I think that’s pretty smart advice.

Don’t travel for days at a time with somebody you wouldn’t want to be high on a mountain with. Because you’ve gotta be able to travel with people and either be into the same things, the same interests, or you

have to be cool to be like, “I’m gonna go do this. Let’s meet up later.” The way I travel is I start researching what’s happening, sometimes just hours before I land in a city–this was pre-COVID when I was traveling a ton and didn’t have time to [plan months in advance]. I’m a little more fly-bythe-seat-of-my-pants. I tend to want to see cultural things. I want to see art events.

SPOILER: See! Your fans are getting to know you so well right now.

OLIVIA CHENG: Actually! That’s where I splurge. You were asking me earlier what would be the first thing I would purchase. I know I said a house earlier, but it might even be travel related. I remember when I first started not scrambling as much financially when I started booking bigger projects that just give you months of work versus days. And that’s when jet setting Olivia really came to the table to play, because

I wanted to see the world. One of the trips I’m most proud of–it was such a bucket list thing–but for eight years I had wanted to take a painting class in Paris. I came across this little company, run by a man who is like the third or fourth generation artist in his family. His family is Romanian lineage and they live in Paris now, and their whole philosophy was, “What better way to come to know Paris than to paint it?” And every day you meet, two locations a day you paint Paris. You learn how to paint and you paint Paris. So that was a big splurge of mine. He was so French too, he would show up hungover every morning, late–wine hangover.

At one point, we were at the Louvre, and he was too tired to walk so he had this woman push him around in this wheelchair [laughs]. I’m like, “This is amazing. The temperamental grumpy French artiste.”

SPOILER: [laughs] That is so funny!

Imagine seeing that: a perfectly well person being so tired that they wanna be pushed around in a chair.

OLIVIA CHENG: There was nothing wrong with his legs. He was just too tired to walk. He was a perfectly healthy gentleman in his mid-30s [laughs].

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SPOILER: And he gets paid to do this, that’s the cool part [laughs].

OLIVIA CHENG: [laughs] Yeah, and he was actually a fantastic teacher in a lot of ways, but yeah, it was pretty funny.

SPOILER: The best ones are always kooky like that.

OLIVIA CHENG: Yes, he was kooky.

I just sorta took it as part of the experience. If this had been someone who, say, I had for an entire semester then they would’ve been a problem [laughs]. But for five days in Paris, I was like, “This is hilarious. What are we painting today? Will he show up today? Oh! There he is! He made it” [laughs].

SPOILER: If you had a choice to be in a superhero project, which would you choose–Marvel or DC? OLIVIA CHENG: Marvel. I grew up with Marvel. Like, I grew up with a little bit of DC too, but for me, I was

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olivia cheng SPOILER: There’s Silk. Colleen Wing.

I can go on and on for you–I’m a nerd. But I’m a cool nerd!

OLIVIA CHENG: I think I’m an undercover nerd. I don’t think people expect it. I don’t think people expect that, yeah, I had a cubby hole too at my local comic book store where my subscriptions would come in–you know, in the plastic bags with the cardboard backings, so nothing gets bent. Then when you open it, you’re ever careful in turning the pages, then you put it back and store it in a cardboard box with a lid on it so nothing gets wrecked. …Did I sell it? Do I still have my Power Pack collection at home?? Anyway, moving on.

SPOILER: If there’s one thing you could tell your fans right now, what would it be?

a Power Pack kid. I loved X-Factor. I would go to comic book conventions and was a little obsessed for a little bit with buying different drawings of Wolverine. So I’ve just been in a Marvel universe from such a young age. I mean, I think Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot is the best movie out of the DC world franchise, so obviously I love aspects of the DC world as well. But all those first characters who introduced me to comic books–actually I was thinking about it today, comic books taught me a lot of life lessons. A lot of storylines I was thinking about growing up with. I was like, “Wow, that story was about compassion; that story was about learning how to care for someone if they’re in trouble and your superpowers can’t do anything to save them from that situation–what do you do then?” Yeah, I think first to market in my mind was Marvel. I signed with the Agency for the Performing Arts in Hollywood, and one of the reasons why I signed with them– because after Marco Polo, I finally generated some interest in Hollywood and went agent shopping, and APA was one of the agencies that took a meeting with me. And I remember, I sat down with Dan Baron and Paul

Santana and Brady Torgeson, and we sat at this conference table and they were one of the only teams–the other teams had been selling themselves, but not a lot of them had been asking me what I wanted. And they asked me, “What’s, like, a dream role for you?” And I said, “Well, from the time I was a kid I always wanted to play a mutant. I always wanted to be in a comic book franchise.” And without missing a beat, I remember Brady said, “Marvel or DC?” [laughs] Eventually I chose this team and they were like, “Marvel is these characters and these characters, and DC is these characters and these characters.”

They weren’t like, “That’s nice, that’s sweet,” and then patted me on the head. They listened. And one of the casting offices that has been so kind to me is Sarah Finn’s casting office, and she does everything for Marvel, so finger’s crossed. Maybe one day.

OLIVIA CHENG: That it would be amazing to, you know, just everyone party together in crowds again– like, safely! Not now, guys, not now! But in a post-pandemic world, I just so look forward to all of us frolicking at house parties and backyards, out in the streets, out at conventions like Comic Con without everything that’s going on right now.

SPOILER: We’ll see you in X-Men. OLIVIA CHENG: That would be dope. I guess it would have to be– what? Reboot number three? I think the only Asian female character I’ve been aware of–I’m not saying there’s not more–but the only character I can think of is Jubilee.

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For Jason Tobin, Warrior signifies even more than just an opportunity to tell an amazing story. The actor, known for his work in iconic films like Better Luck Tomorrow and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (and becoming a fan favorite in both), sees the HBO Max series as a second chance. Once on the upward trend in Hollywood, Jason eventually found himself on the back end, taking a lot of odd jobs and side hustles to make ends meet. But now he’s reaping what he sowed, starring in the hit drama.

Playing Young Jun, heir to the Hop Wei Tong, in a show that was concei-

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ved decades ago by the late Bruce Lee, who also just so happens to be Tobin’s childhood hero, the circumstances really couldn’t have been more perfect.

Young Jun is hugely important for the series, and for the trajectory and dynamics of the story it tells. The character has this macho attitude, but still possesses a heart underneath his brutal exterior.

A fan favorite once more, Jason recognizes the serendipity of it all.

Justin Lin, whom the actor has collaborated with several times in the past, including the two aforementioned films, serves as an executive producer on Warrior and can vouch for both his talent and his professionalism.

Jason’s enthusiasm is palpable and we can’t blame him. This is not just another acting job, but an opportunity for him to prove that he not only still belongs in this industry, but is a serious force to be reckoned with.

Jason Tobin/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

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interview interview

jason tobin SPOILER: I have asked every cast member this question. How’s your experience with the show?

JASON TOBIN: Things are going great!

Obviously, we’re living in this crazy time. But on a purely selfish level, one thing that’s helped me get through this period is Warrior season two coming out. We filmed it last year and had to keep it a secret from a lot of people.

Couldn’t get out any spoilers. And finally now that it’s out I can talk about it and it’s really put a pep in my step, even though we’re not shooting anything, to be able to see the fans’ reaction and to watch the show again for myself and re-experience it. It’s been a beautiful thing.

SPOILER: Are you excited to meet the Warrior fans? We obviously didn’t have any conventions last year, but when they return, it’s gonna be amazing!

JASON TOBIN: Yes! I can’t wait! I love Comic Con. I was dying to go [last year]. But it’s gonna happen.

SPOILER: When you heard about Warrior, did you get excited?

JASON TOBIN: Absolutely. Actually, I had heard about the project a few years before it was actually filmed. Maybe about three years prior to shooting, it had been announced in the trades. And I remember thinking, “Oh, that’s a cool project.” But I didn’t really think that I would be in it. I thought maybe I would get an audition, but I didn’t really think about it. And a friend of mine posted the link to the article about it being in the works and posted it on my timeline [chanting], “Tobin! Tobin! Tobin!” I’m like, “Yeah, whatever” [laughs]. Fast forward three years later, I get a call and, long story short, I got to work on it. And there’s so many great things about the show. For an actor, to be working, that in itself is a massive win, so I’m very, very grateful for that. But then on top of that, to be part of a great show, to have a great character. A great show that speaks volumes about what’s going on today that reflects back, but through the lens of Bruce Lee and martial arts and a different period in our history. People ask me if I feel a responsibility to Bruce Lee. And yeah, I mean I

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SPOILER: Watching the show feels like taking a time machine to that era. What’s it like on set?

JASON TOBIN: Just talking about this right now I’m getting goosebumps. When I walk onto the backlot, the Chinatown set, I’m transported, man. The cobbled streets, the buildings, especially when you start filming, when the lighting’s there and the set’s decorated and filled with actors in their costumes, and horses and carriages, you are taken back.

Part of your job as an actor–most of your job is using your imagination, but when you get dropped off at the set of Warrior, they’re doing half the work for you. I often felt like I was in a time machine too. Especially during those night shots. I remember during season two, there’s a scene where I’m in the back of a carriage, and it’s night time, transporting molasses to this hiding place, and it’s not a scene with any dialogue, it’s just us cruising along Chinatown road, and that is as real of a time machine as you’ll get.

SPOILER: Those moments must be so exhilarating for you.

JASON TOBIN: Look, if I’m gonna be honest, Galaxy, every actor has their own cross to bear, so to speak, and my career has had a lot of ups and downs. I’ve had a lot of downs where I never ever thought I’d be back doing this. When Warrior came, it really came at the right time for me. I have three children, and before I was doing Warrior, I was working literally ten different side hustles.

I didn’t even have a main hustle, everything was a side hustle, just to keep the family going. I was acting, but I was doing all sorts of other things to keep us afloat. Even doing, like, police lineups [laughs] just lining up with a bunch of people. It’s funny, as an actor, you want the job, normally, when you’re auditioning. But in a police lineup, that’s the only time as an actor when you don’t wanna be Jason Tobin/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

do, but I also feel a real responsibility to history; to the people who came before us. In particular, season 2, in episode 9 called “Enter the Dragon,” you know, when I shot that, like Young Jun, I felt that same kind of responsibility. We’re speaking about a real injustice that never got answered for. And yeah, it’s truly an honor and a blessing to not just be working as an actor, but to be part of something important.

picked [laughs]. So Warrior is such a–I’m not a religious person, but I feel that the word “blessed” or “blessing” really feels appropriate when I speak about it. Because I just feel so lucky to be part of it. It came at the right time and, like I said, there’s been so many times in my career where I felt like I was down for the count, and galaxies away from my dreams. And to be making this show now is just a dream come true.

And the other thing is, I was a diehard Bruce Lee fan, like a crazy, fanatical guy. I remember when I was a teenager, I would literally [laughs] walk around Hong Kong wearing my kung fu pants and kung fu shoes– like, that was my normal wear. And I wasn’t doing kung fu, that’s just what I wore. There was a time where I really believed I was the reincarnation of Bruce Lee. This man, I’ve often said that he got me through my childhood, in the sense that, I’m this Chinese kid and traveled around a lot as a kid. My dad’s an English guy and I went to boarding school in England and got picked on a lot as the smallest kid, as well as being the only Chinese kid, but also the smallest kid in the school I got picked on a lot. And someone like Bruce Lee, who my dad introduced me to, Bruce gave me something to look up to, something to aspire to, and can honestly, genuinely say that he helped me get through my childhood.

And I say that often. But recently I’ve come to realize that with Warrior now, he’s helping me get through my adulthood [laughs]. I’m a dad now

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SPOILER: Do you think there’s a little bit of Young Jun in Jason Tobin?

JASON TOBIN: [laughs] It’s 100% acting. I have never done any of those things, Galaxy! Don’t get me in trouble, Galaxy, alright? [laughs] You know, it’s funny because people who’ve known me, friends, whatever, maybe if they don’t really know my work—and I tell them the sort of characters that I play, they won’t believe it. Like, “Really? You? I can’t see you doing that.” And then people who only know me from my films or Warrior, they think that’s me. During season one, I remember there’s a scene where Ah Sahm comes back from jail and we’re at Ah Toy’s celebrating. And I’m standing there and I’m poppin’ off champagne bottles, spraying everybody with champagne. Hoon [Lee] who plays Chou says, “You look like you’ve done that before” [laughs]. And the truth is, I haven’t, but come on, who doesn’t want to do [that in real life]? I think I got the camera wet [laughs].

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SPOILER: You perform your character so well. I think without you this show wouldn’t be the same. There are a few characters like that on every series, but especially on this one. Do you feel that?

JASON TOBIN: Absolutely. This show is absolutely 100% an ensemble piece. There’s so many fantastic performers and actors and artists throughout all different departments. It’s such a well-oiled machine, creating this high-level artistry.

Obviously we’re a Cinemax and HBO show, but nevertheless we’re doing more with what we got. It’s even better than the resources we have.

Everyone’s elevated their game, and when you bring that all together, it just becomes better than the sum of its parts. Going back to what you’re saying about the cast, when I first got cast in it, I hadn’t read a lot of the script, I had just read the scenes I was auditioning for. And at the time, I thought, “Oh, well how many Asian characters are there gonna be on the show?” Generally speaking, if I book a drama film or a movie, especially an American production, chances are you may be one or one of the few Asians on the show, you know? But

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when I walked up to Cape Town to film the first season, I’m like, “Oh my God.” I saw my cast members, I’m like, “I’ve never seen so many Asians on a set!” It was awesome. And everyone delivers. It’s such a fantastic cast. I’ve learned so much from watching everybody. There’s this thing that Bruce Lee said, it was to “honestly express yourself.” And I’ve really adopted that thinking and that philosophy when it comes to being an actor. My colleagues on Warrior, everyone is expressing themselves honestly. Everyone is doing their own thing. Every actor on Warrior practices Jeet Kune Do of acting. Each one has their own style and way of doing it. Watching that unfold in front of me–it’s thrilling.

SPOILER: If you haven’t experienced these things in your real life, at least you get to experience them on set.

JASON TOBIN: Totally! That’s why I love acting. It’s why as soon as I was bitten by the acting bug it’s just never left me. And I’ve been pursuing that high ever since. It is pretend.

It is using your imagination, but if you commit to it, it’s just as good as experiencing it for real. Being an actor is a job that allows me to go places I don’t get to go in real life. I remember when I was preparing for Young Jun–and you’re not given a lot Jason Tobin/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

and Warrior could not have come at a better time. It’s such a sweet, sweet experience, and I could not say enough good things about it.

jason tobin all these places, and I really feel like my influence as an actor is from all those places. I’ve always loved Hong Kong movies–obviously Bruce Lee movies–but Hong Kong cinema, and Hong Kong movies and Hong Kong people and performers, they can be very broad and big, and I really loved that aspect of Young Jun. At one moment I can be big and broad, but then I can also bring it in really tight and keep it subtle and internal. That’s what I love about this show because I get to do everything. As an actor, I get to play the whole range of emotions and feelings, and physically I get to do that as well, as a martial arts performer too.

in the beginning. Now I’ve done 20 episodes, so I know Young Jun inside and out. But it’s episode one, and I get there, you’re playing a character but you don’t know what lies ahead yet. You’re given some ideas but still have a lot left to discover. So the first thing that I do is I think about, “How does Young Jun walk? How does he stand?” And then once I started getting the strut and the vibe–the shoulders back and the crick of the neck and the cocky swagger–then I started to really feel like him. But dude, I cannot walk around like that

in everyday life! [laughs] I mean, if I walked around like Young Jun, right now, I would look like the biggest a-hole. Hong Kong, where I lived, is a very cramped city, so can you imagine me walking with my arms doin’ the billionaire strut? I mean, come on.

SPOILER: There’s probably people that are actually like Young Jun in Hong Kong.

JASON TOBIN: [laughs] That’s actually a good point! I grew up in Hong Kong, and I grew up in England and America, and spent so much time in

SPOILER: Did you train in martial arts for many years?

JASON TOBIN: Yes, actually as a kid I trained in martial arts from the age of 9. And when I was 18 I moved to Los Angeles to become an actor and I signed up at the Inosanto Academy. Dan Inosanto was Bruce Lee’s right hand man, teacher, friend, student, and especially as a young actor in LA, I wasn’t working much and had a lot of time on my hands, so I would spend all day long at the Inosanto Academy and I would just take every single class they taught.

And I got really into it. But I always kept my love of martial arts and love of acting separate. Because I didn’t wanna fall into the martial arts film world at the time. There’s kind of a stigma, if you’re a martial arts actor, you get put in that category. I didn’t keep it secret, but I kept it separate.

By the time Warrior rolled up, I kinda thought that maybe acting and martial arts films–maybe that opportunity had passed me. And it was fine because I’ve done a lot of other great films and stuff, and all the while I did have an itch to do some martial arts in a project, but I was getting to that age, like, “Maybe I won’t get the opportunity.” But then Warrior came along and all of a sudden I can now, finally, bring these two passions of mine together and come out of the closet, so to speak, with my love of martial arts. And to be able to act and perform on an amazing show

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jason tobin with fantastic writing, great acting, AND do amazing choreography and martial arts? Bro. I remember when the contract came through for Warrior, in my head I was like, “Man, I would pay to be on this show” [laughs]. I was thinking, “Do they know if they just paid me five bucks I would say ‘yes’?” [laughs]

JASON TOBIN: [laughs] Exactly. Another thing–I mean, I keep counting all the positives–on top of everything, we get to film in Cape Town, South Africa, which is just this unbelievably beautiful part of the world. Oh man, I really fell in love with the outdoors. I’ve never been a hiker really. My wife’s a big hiker, [laughs] and when she would ask me to go hiking, it would require all the best acting work I would do to muster up the enthusiasm for it. But now, after living in Cape Town, I can honestly say I’ve caught the bug of walking the earth.

SPOILER: Your wife must be so happy that you do all these crazy things on screen and not in real life.

JASON TOBIN: Totally! Let me tell you a quick story. Before Warrior, when our first daughter was born, maybe six weeks later, I got a job and in one of the scenes I had to kiss this girl. And it was a very tame kiss, it wasn’t a passionate kiss, it wasn’t tongue action, it was just a silhouette. Me and the other actor were totally in profile and it was just our lips meeting. But my wife had just given birth and when she saw it, she flipped out and was sooo pissed at me. And I totally understand why because she’s emotional and now

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Jason Tobin/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

SPOILER: You tricked ‘em! Low and behold they’re paying you.

her husband’s kissing some other woman, and she had just had a baby.

But from my perspective, we just had a baby and we needed money, so I’m not gonna turn it down. Long story short, fast forward to Warrior a few years later, now we got three kids.

And I get the script for episode one.

And I flipped through it and one of the first scenes I got is a sex scene. I turn to my wife and I’m like, “Honey, umm, so there’s this sex scene I’ve got in episode one,” and she turns to me and says, totally serious, “I don’t care. Just bring home the bacon” [laughs]. After the third kid, she’s like, “You better brush your teeth, shower, wear clean clothes, don’t be disgusting when you meet the other actresses in the scene.”

SPOILER: I’m guessing after three kids, you ain’t goin’ nowhere.

JASON TOBIN: [laughs] She’s like, “Get outta here! Go to work!”

SPOILER: I know that you first auditioned for Ah Sahm, but the producers decided you’d fit Young Jun better and they brought you back for that.

JASON TOBIN: Yeah, that’s right. So the casting had contacted me in the

middle of 2017 and they had me audition for Ah Sahm. I think if you ask a lot of Asian actors, they will tell you that they auditioned for Ah Sahm.

They spread the net wide [laughs].

Anyway, I auditioned for Ah Sahm and thought that I had done a decent job; I thought I did a professional job as an actor. That they would watch it and be like, “Oh yeah, he’s a good actor. He’s a professional.” But sometimes you get a feeling–and you’re not always right–but I got a feeling after I did the [audition] that I didn’t think I had done enough to be quite right for the role. You can’t win them all, right? But at the same time, I had this instinct. I’m like, “Man, I bet you there’s a role in this script that I would just be perfect for.” Sure enough, I didn’t hear back from them at all [laughs]. Months and months go by, I’d forgotten about the project, and all of a sudden I get a call in the middle of the night and it’s from Justin Lin–you know, the director and the godfather of the Fast and Furious franchise. I’ve worked with him on Better Luck Tomorrow and several other films, and he’s telling me that he wants me to read for this character “Young Jun” and I say, “Yeah, I’d love to.” Then I get another call from

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with you. I grew up loving martial arts films, and still love them, and I mean this in no disrespect, but it isn’t often that the gap between great writing and great acting and great storytelling meet–-in martial arts as well. It’s rare when it happens, and when it does happen, it’s even more amazing. And I feel like Warrior really steps it up in every department. It’s such a good show and really bridges the gap between drama and martial arts. It’s weird, if you had said to someone, “Hey man, we’re gonna make this show that’s like Gangs of New York, but Peaky Blinders, but it’s got martial arts in it.” You’d be like, “Huh?” It almost feels like oil and water, but it mixes so well! And when you watch it, you’re like, “Yeah!

Of course! This is just like a delicious cocktail.” It just really hits the spot.

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all the notes that they all gave me and I thought, “I’m gonna honestly express myself in this role and I’m gonna have a great time with it.” So I did this scene and reshot it, and even threw in a couple of improvised lines.

I think I only did a take or two and smashed it together, and sent it off, and it felt like within a half an hour we were talking about contracts and two weeks later I was off on a flight to Cape Town.

SPOILER: Do you feel like this was the role that opened the door to making it big?

JASON TOBIN: I don’t wanna say, “making it big,” because, man, I’ve been in this game for so long and I thought I was gonna have a fantastic year in 2020, and then everyone in the world’s been having a tough time, so I don’t wanna like, “poor me,” or anything like that. But to answer your question, what I think [Warrior] has done is, everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve trained for, every little bit of experience has come to this moment. I was born for this.

SPOILER: The way this series is building is phenomenal. I don’t really consider Warrior a martial arts series. I see it as a wonderful drama.

JASON TOBIN: I absolutely agree

Jason Tobin/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

casting, and another from Jonathan Tropper, the showrunner, and they’re all keen to have me audition for Young Jun, but all three of them were VERY adamant about giving me the note of, “Don’t go crazy with this guy. Just play it chill. Please don’t go overboard. Just keep it chill.” And so I was like, “Okay, that’s not how he read to me in the script, but I’m a professional and I’m gonna listen to them.” So I did the audition in a real chill way. It was literally like Marlon Brando from The Godfather, just super chill and low-key. It didn’t feel right, but I did it anyway. And I remember going home that night, and I sat in the dark in the kitchen, thinking to myself, “What the hell am I doing? I do not know what the f*** I am doing,” just totally dejected, not feeling happy at all about my performance. The next day, Jonathan Tropper called me and goes, “Dude, no, no, no, we need to see the energy of this guy.” And I’m like, “Of course you do.” So he gave me an opportunity to reshoot my Young Jun audition, and then all of a sudden I basically heard Bruce Lee’s voice. He goes, “You’ve got to honestly express yourself.”

And I thought, “You know what?

If I’m gonna be so lucky to be able to play this character over the next several years, then I better do it in the way that I enjoy it.” So I threw out

SPOILER: What’s next for you?

JASON TOBIN: In terms of work, I’m also in the new Fast and Furious movie, which was supposed to come out in 2020, but has been postponed to this year. And obviously I’d like to continue to work on that franchise.

And I would love to work more on Warrior. I feel like now that we’re on HBO Max, we’ve opened up to a much bigger, wider audience, and now we stand a much better chance of being greenlit for another season. If that happens, then fantastic, because this is truly a dream job.

But in terms of as an actor, in what I wanna do, there’s so much stuff I want to cover. Episode five of season one, that Western that Andrew [Koji]

jason tobin and I shot, there’s no reason why a cowboy movie starring two Asian American cowboys couldn’t make it. Because we’ve literally done it.

So I’d love to do some of that. I’d love to change pace and currently, at the moment, have a real itch to do comedy. I would love to do a half hour comedy or something like that. I’m just gonna see how it unfolds. There’s a lot of opportunities. I’m actually closing on a deal right now to do a film, if things go to plan, later this year. But I can’t talk about it much right now because of contracts.

SPOILER: Warrior is on HBO Max now and the show is blowing up there. And for good reason. I think season three is inevitable.

JASON TOBIN: Yeah man, I’m feeling a lot more positive about it. I’m really confident about it. Bro, I can’t wait to cut my hair and sport that suit again.

I’ve got that surfer look now [laughs]. And man, I so appreciate your support. And to all the fans out there, the response has been incredible. I’ve talked to the other cast members and we’re feeling so much love, from critics, from fans on social media, so thank you so much. Acting is one of those things, you make this stuff because you want people to see it.

Even if you make incredible work, it’s not satisfying for it not to be seen. So for the world to see it and to be part of it, it’s incredible.

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

Kieran Bew/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

Amidst the high-flying kicks and martial arts mastery happening around

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him, Officer Bill O’Hara on HBO Max’s Warrior is just trying to get by. Preferring brute force over technique (not by any choice of his own), the head of the Chinatown police squad may be in over his head.

Officer O’Hara is played by Kieran Bew, a brilliant actor (and accomplished fencer in his own right) who mines for nuance within his complex character who seems, on the outside, to just be a sort of everyman surrounded by a group of larger-than-life superheroes. However, Kieran’s own obsession with learning about his character from every angle, including the ones not seen on screen, is what makes Bill feel totally lived in.

Growing up in England, the classically trained actor’s blend of Shakespearian roots and natural talent has helped imbue his performance with the depth and relatability required for this sort of audience surrogate. While O’Hara isn’t always the most likable character, he still manages to be a fan favorite on the series.

“We’re fans too,” says Bew, referring to Warrior. The actor perfectly sums up the unanimous sentiment we’ve heard by everyone involved with the series. And he plays a crucial role in making the show what it is.

interview interview

SPOILER: Kieran, what has your experience been like playing Officer O’Hara on Warrior?

Kieran Bew: Warrior is probably—not to do down any of the other work I’ve done—but probably my favorite job in 20 years in this business. Incredibly fulfilling and a lot of fun.

SPOILER: We need a season three, do you agree?

Kieran Bew: We talk about it all the time. I talk about it with the fans on social media almost every single day.

I get messages constantly asking me if I know any information. Just so you know, as a cast, we all still speak to each other daily. There’s a cast message group, a cast email. Everybody’s living in each other’s pockets, albeit in different parts of the world, and we all talk about season three and beyond. I’ve been talking with [executive producers] Jonathan Tropper and Brad Caleb Kane just this week about that as well. There’s a lot of hope, and there’s a lot of excitement, and there’s a lot of ideas. So

Kieran Bew to work on Warrior, for me, was exactly like walking into the world that I’ve obsessed with—this part of American history—that was brilliantly portrayed by HBO. And in a way, all I’ve ever wanted to do was to be part of that. So playing Bill in Warrior, for me, I used to pretend that I was doing exactly that. We couldn’t have had a better team to build that world for us. They make it really easy for you as an actor when the dialogue’s that good, when the world building’s that good, and when everything’s that detailed. It’s such a pleasure.

we’re here, just as excited as everybody who asks us. We’re fans too, which is weird because we’re making it [laughs].

SPOILER: On set do you ever get swept away to a different time in history.

Kieran Bew: Absolutely. For a start, we’re all away from home, we’re living in Cape Town filming it together.

So we’re all away from our families, and we travel to the studio and they built this incredible Chinatown. Not just Chinatown. Parts of Irishtown and some of the other well-to-do areas on the lot. So when you go to work, you’re literally walking into this incredibly detailed world that the art department put together for us. I personally was obsessed with the TV show Deadwood. And I’ve done many meetings over the years with people who, in the meetings for jobs have said, “This is going to be like Deadwood.” And I have to say that none of those jobs turned out to be like Deadwood. Whereas going

SPOILER: Warrior is such a well rounded series, I heard discussions started almost a decade ago.

Kieran Bew: We filmed the pilot in the end of 2017, which feels like 10 years ago right now [laughs] with everything that happened in the world. But 2017, we were in Cape Town in October, and even before that, I think Justin Lin and Shannon Lee had been discussing this as far back as 2011. And Jonathan and the team before that. You can go even further back to Bruce Lee’s treatment and his notes on it. This show has been a long time in the making.

SPOILER: Imagine Bruce Lee sitting at his desk in the ‘60s, writing ideas for this show. And now over 50 years later Warrior is viewed by millions.

Kieran Bew: It’s insane. Obviously when you audition for a job, I look at who’s producing, who’s making it, I look at all those sorts of details. And you just get excited about everything, because I just love doing this for a job and getting to transform myself and put myself in different worlds. And to see Bruce Lee’s name on it was a huge adrenaline rush, and to read Bill’s character on the page, and see how kinda funny he was, but also how complicated he was, being a character who is, of course, racist but has a moral compass, trying to do good but also messes up constantly. And I was really excited to do it. I traveled for the pilot in 2017 and we all got there and had a read through in one of the huge hangers in Cape Town Studios.

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dude, I’m better with the beard. You can’t get rid of the beard.”

And they put our scripts on the table. And next to the script was a pack that had been sent by Shannon Lee, and it had Bruce on the front in red, kicking. They each had our name on it too, and we opened them, and it was a welcome letter from Shannon, who couldn’t make it to South Africa, and it was also part of her father’s notes on the series. And I didn’t know until that moment that Bruce had conceived the character of Bill.

He was originally a character called Big Bill Walker [laughs], this drunk and conflicted character that Ah Sahm would help out and they had this strange and unruly friendship.

Seeing that, it definitely inspired me, but for a moment I was really frightened. It felt like a lot of responsibility but also this incredible opportunity.

Magic, really. That’s the kinda magic in the business that never goes away.

When I walk on set it always feels like I won the lottery.

SPOILER: You play Bill O’Hara so well. You are made for that character.

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Kieran Bew: I love it that you think that. When I auditioned for this part, my understanding was that I was about 5 or 10 years younger than the brief actually said. And Big Bill was supposed to be about a foot taller than me too. So I guess when I read for it, I felt like I had a bit of an outside chance because I wasn’t those physical things on the page.

So in preparation for going to Cape Town, I grew my beard. And when I got there, there was this big debate about, “No, the cops all have to be clean shaven.” And I was lobbying to keep Bill’s big beard, mainly because I knew he was gonna fall apart and I was like, “I just want this guy to get worse and worse. I want him to look a certain amount of stress in a cop who’s had a long career and is a veteran too. And when he gets the job in Chinatown I just want him to sort of fall apart.” And I was talking to Justin Lin about my beard and he was like, “Yeah, I think we’re gonna get rid of the beard.” And I sort of jokingly said to him, “No, I’m like James Harden,

SPOILER: You do look 7 feet tall on the show. I think your beard makes your character look taller for some reason.

Kieran Bew: A combination of things. Some of it is camera angles, and some of it’s physical commitment to eating pizza. When I first got there, Assaf Bernstein, who directed the first episode, said to me, “Kieran, we have to do something about the way you look. You look like Yoga Bill.

We need you to look like Big Bill.”

And I was like, “Well, the guys are all training and learning kung fu and boxing, so I’ll just eat pizzas” [laughs].

So I had a really good time. I put on a lot of weight for Bill, and when I came back for the second season I said, “I can’t do that again. I can’t eat like I did for the first season.” And so I used a combination of clothing and various things the second season, I didn’t quite eat as much. I just wasn’t used to being that heavy. Nothing wrong with being heavy set, but for me, I was used to being light. Daniel Day-Lewis and the other guys, when they put weight on for roles, it’s well publicized, and I started feeling like, “I don’t think anyone really cares that I’m doing this. And I don’t feel great.

I think I’m going back to yoga.” Look, the reality is, Bill is a gambler and a drunk, he’s using constantly, he has PTSD, he’s frightened, he’s got a really busy family. The guy is stressed all the time. And you’re watching him have a rock bottom over 20 episo-

des, and I was like, “He’s not gonna look good.” But I think my family members were like, “Are you okay?”

SPOILER: Does playing a character who’s so stressed all the time ever mentally affect you?

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Kieran Bew: I had an injury actually. I tore a muscle in my left glute training during the first season, and I just used that. If anything, it mentally affected me because all the guys were training so hard, and I did get to the point where I just did want to join in. And I thought, “Now I’ve gone too far and I feel physically terrible.” But of course, Brett Chan, our fantastic stunt coordinator, just looked after me and helped me with my injury. I used to shoot hoops in the gym often when people were doing other types of training. The guys are so

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amazing. The team works for, not just the stunts and the physical aspects of the show that you see that are flashy, but the physical aspects of the show that are subtle. Things like Buckley’s injury and other things like that. The detail there, that’s all worked on as well in the gym, that’s all worked on in the detail behind the scenes constantly.

SPOILER: The limp adds a good layer to the character, I was like, “How brilliant!” But, now we know you actually had an injury.

Kieran Bew: Yeah, well the thing is, Bill gets pretty severely beaten in episode 4. I have family members who are cops and they get bashed up, it’s part of the job. I used to try and track, for me, the true timeline of where Bill was when each episode arrives. When you see him, where has he just been? Has he had breakfast? Where was he the night before?

Was he gambling? Drinking? With his family? When was his last fight? And

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we were tracking bruises and things like that with Amanda Ross-McDonald, who does the makeup, and it got insane. It got to the point where the whole cast were just covered with bruises [laughs]. We were like, “I think we’ve probably got to let some of the bruises go.” If you contemplate those things, those guys at the time were doing a very difficult job. It was a brutal world and there’s some fantastic books on the history of San Francisco that I read. There’s a great one called The Barbary Coast, which talks about the creation of San Francisco and how many militias and uprisings they had by local businesses and things, and how the police force was formed and how many police were actually on the streets, and the creation of the Chinatown Squad, which was a real thing. That existed. Of course, our show Warrior cherry picks from history. We’re not an exact replica or an exact detailed period drama—we are our own standalone show, but we stand on the history.

One of the reasons why I was determined to try and make it as real as possible from Bill’s perspective was that I just thought there was a lot of responsibility with a character that’s a police officer who’s a sergeant and a father, and doing a really difficult job, who could just come across as a two-dimensional guy who’s just racist and not very nice. Jonathan never wrote that on the page. It was always three-dimensional. [Bill] was always a guy who you could empathize with. I was just really determined to try and make a human being who, although you might disagree wholeheartedly with the decisions he makes, you might see that there is a human being making the decisions and not just discount him as a monster. There’s a scene in episode 3 where he puts the thugs in the cell with Ah Sahm, because Leary puts pressure on him to do that. And it’s a terrible thing for him to do, and he leaves and he changes his mind.

By the time he gets back down, of course, Ah Sahm has dealt with the guys easily, but from that moment

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on, that’s a great example of showing somebody having a real experience of doing something that is quite clearly a disgusting thing and trying to change, trying to do something different, even though he’s not necessarily consistent.

It’s a lot of fun in that. It’s a very interesting type of role. It’s hugely challenging.

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SPOILER: Did you add many of your own ideas to the role?

Kieran Bew: I did add a few things like, talking about the beard, the beard was a thing about stature. How can I make him feel bigger? I have this thing about all the props. There’s a joke I always make that I’m ruined without my props.

All of Bill’s props—his gun, his cigarettes, his matches, the constant sort of fiddling with things, that was all stuff that I brought and added because I wanted him to feel completely lived in and completely real, that this guy is basically distracted all the time and under pressure all the time. There were occasional times where Jonathan or Brad would say, “If you’ve got a line or a joke, or an insult, that you can throw at someone...” One of my favorite things about Bill is his cynical sense of humor.

A sense of humor that is also a shield so that he never really has to tell the truth.

a lot. And the truth is I’m playing a guy who has a drinking problem. So if you understand what it is to have a drinking problem and why the guy might be drinking, or the consequences of what the drinking is, or the fact that he can’t stop drinking, he can’t stop gambling, and he can’t stop lying, but he didn’t start there. He started somewhere else.

I had some fans saying to me, “I really like the fact that he’s redeeming himself with his wife at the end of the series.” And I find that really interesting that people think that he was trying to redeem himself, because this is a guy who’s begging his wife to come home, and I think in that moment he means what he’s saying, but he’s lied to her consistently time after time. Bill is a liar, he’s an addict, he’s not well at this moment in time. Lots of fans are like, “We want a see season three so we can see Bill on the straight and narrow.” I’m like, “How is he gonna get better? I’d like to see him try, but how?” For me, when I talk to the writers on set about stuff, and I was like, “You got any ideas about where things are gonna go?” And the guys would often just laugh and smirk and go, “I think we’re just gonna keep torturing you. It’s just really fun. We just like seeing you stressed” [laughs].

SPOILER: Bringing a character to life is so much more difficult than we think.

Kieran Bew: But this is it, isn’t it—if it’s well-written then it’s always relatable. I trained as an actor at LAMDA in London, which is a drama school. I did three years there. And I didn’t really read plays or books really before I went there. It completely changed my perspective on things. And I remember one of the teachers saying, “The reason why Shakespeare was so good is that the characters were all contradictory and hypocrites and human beings and fallible. They would say one thing and then do another thing. And they all had their own individual language.” So I always look at Bill in Bruce Lee’s notes say that this guy’s a drunk. Now, you could say that I’m playing a stereotype.

I’m playing a cop who’s a drunk, who likes to eat, and his boss shouts at him

SPOILER: It’s difficult to not share spoilers about Warrior.

Kieran Bew: It is tricky. Because I live in London, and the show didn’t come out here until like 2 or 3 weeks after it aired in America, and it’s impossible to protect fans who like the show, who found the show from those things on the internet these days. You can’t do that. But now we’re on HBO Max and the show is being seen by a hell of a lot more people in America. We’ve had so many more messages. It’s like the show has come out again, really. I’m looking forward to HBO Max kinda getting itself established in Europe so it kinda occurs again here, in Britain. Because I still think the number of people who’ve actually managed to see the show is pretty small [over here]. We haven’t really done a press push here. It’s gone out and I had some wonderful messages

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from people I’ve worked with over the years who saw it and said that it’s not quite what they expected. They start watching the show feeling like it’s an exciting action series, and then a few episodes down the line you realize that this huge ensemble story has all the layers to it that are dark and interesting and relevant.

SPOILER: I‘ve noticed the show really doesn’t have any continuity mistakes or goofs in the production. You can tell that there’s so much care taken in the production details.

Kieran Bew: Well we do talk about everything on set. We do talk about all the characters, the detail, the storyline, and discuss where problems might be. If you’re not seeing any continuity mistakes in there, that’s our fantastic continuity supervisor Aparna [Jayachandran], who is one of the best in the business I’ve ever worked with. She looked after us in terms of any kind of visual mistakes you might see. But storylines and stuff, we’d often talk about what we felt was real, what wasn’t, what was heightened. There are certain things in the show that are—I suppose people use the term “graphic novel like”—that are a heightened reality to things.

We have this incredible sequence in season 2 with [director] Loni Peristere where there’s the red on the Fung Hai headquarters and we used so much firepower as a police force going through the door— and we shot that whole thing in one shot—and me coming through the door with a shotgun into a room that’s already been fighting and fighting through with all the cops—we shot that in one [take]. And Jonathan Tropper ran to me and said, “Keiran, we can’t use it in one, we’re gonna have to edit it up because you look like

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John Wick,” [laughs], “It’s too slick!” Honestly, Brett Chan and Loni and I and the team worked incredibly hard to make sure every single angle for the cameras worked for one take. It was really tough. That episode we used so much firepower as a police force that by episode 9, when we have to transport the carriage with Jacob in it and we get set upon by the mob, I was really concerned that we’re not gonna look like a credible outfit or police force because you’ve seen us, how we can operate with firepower, and then you’re seeing us transport a guy who killed the mayor, and we don’t have enough firepower to subdue this mob. And I was concerned that it would seem unreal, and yet, life is a crazy thing and you get to see things sometimes in real life. And as episode 9 came out, it worked perfectly.

Officer Stone, played by the brilliant South African actor Robert Hobbs, he’s a really mean dude in our show. He uses his gun willingly and often. And at that moment, we choose not to enforce our power and the consequence is that the mob overruns and goes into Chinatown, and we were directed that way and it was right. I said, “But why wouldn’t we shoot them?” And they said, “Because they’re Irish, so you’re not gonna do that. You’re gonna try something else. You’re not gonna use any kind of force.”

Episode 9 was directed by Dennie Gordon, who’s a brilliant director. She was juggling so much because, when we filmed those last few episodes, we were double-banking, so we were filming four episodes at once. And we also had a fight unit, so we actually had five units running. And we also had a pickup unit running from earlier episodes. So everybody was pretty busy right then and Dennie managed to pull it off—

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Kieran Bew often people say they love episode 5 from season 1, and then episode 9 from season 2 is everyone’s favorite right now.

SPOILER: I know you’re not a kung fu or martial arts practitioner, but you are in a lot of fight scenes. Do you enjoy them?

Kieran Bew: One of the things we talked about is, Bill’s a veteran of the war. He’s not just some kid who came over from Ireland. And he acknowledges in season 1, “If everybody could fight like these guys, we’d be f**ked.” We talked about the fight in my house in season 2. We never wanted the choreography to be reminiscent of any of the stylized fights of Ah Sahm and Leary, where you can see the articulation of the moves. You can see the chess game that’s going on and different styles that all the fighters have. In the house, we talked about it being more of a visceral experience for the viewer where you don’t know what’s happening exactly, you’re not literally seeing everything, and there’s a panic. With everything you’ve seen of what the Fung Hai guys are capable of, you think there’s no way that they’re gonna be able to hold them off. So it was more about trying to convey a sense of horror and anxiety, really.

SPOILER: You all carried out that scene so well. Even though it was total chaos.

Kieran Bew: That’s what it was. Whatever I do, I just want it to look like I’m really struggling. One of my favorite actors is Harrison Ford, and when you see him do stuff in movies, he always looks like he’s struggling [laughs]. He always makes stuff look really tough. He may pull it off, but he always looks like he’s just [barely] doing it. fabruary 2021|

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SPOILER: Do you feel like you have to get into a certain mindset to play Bill?

Kieran Bew: Yes and no. I wouldn’t say I’m a method actor in that I sort of become the character and then you can’t call me “Kieran.” I come from a school of training which is, “You’ve got to keep your third eye open and you’ve got to be safe,” and also that the best position to be in as an actor is to be playful. So I do a lot of work on a character, and a lot of thinking, and a lot of detail, which sometimes for directors and producers can be really annoying, because I might ask a detailed question that they’ve never thought of because it’s not relevant. Like, I had a question for the producers about whether or not Bill had volunteered to be in the Civil War or whether or not he had been [drafted], because it was an important thing for me to know. And they were like, “Why is that important??” And I was like, “Uhh, it’s just something that I thought about.”

And that’s been me. I try to keep a lid on it for actors and directors around me because I’m obsessive, but the mindset for Bill—the most important thing for me—is that the guy is hyper-vigilant. He’s frightened, he’s jumpy, he’s trying to project that he’s in control and he’s capable and he’s strong. When actually he’s frightened and he’s weak and he’s looking for an excuse to hide. So it wasn’t necessarily a mindset, it was just trying to look at what the guys had given me and mine the script for clues as to how I could reveal that

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SPOILER: Did you ever feel like you were not as believable because you’re not this martial arts expert?

Kieran Bew: Look, I love seeing people who are highly trained and move with this sort of confidence and proficiency, and of course it’s amazing seeing that. But I wanted it to be as relatable as possible for everybody.

All the time. Every bit of violence that I have as Bill, it’s more important that people feel something than necessarily admire a technique. The technique is that it’s supposed to be messy and relatable.

to the audience, but not reveal it to the people around Bill. The camera can see one thing while you’re doing something else to the people around you, so that’s basically what I was trying to look at.

The thing about doing a lot of work on your own is that you can get obsessed, and then you can come to work and all you’re doing is transmitting to everybody, “This is what my thing is”—which would be a huge shame, because all the other actors and artists on set, you’re a team, and if you’re not able to listen while you’ve done all that work,

you’re gonna miss the magic, because people will always do something to surprise you, and if you’re available to listen then you can find new things you haven’t done in your homework. So to get a character like this who is complicated and has so many different masks, the mindset is trying to stay relaxed.

There’s a scene, I think in episode 8 in the first season, where we’re going around Chinatown at night, and Bill is walking around and keeps seeing visions of the debt collector, Jack Damon, who he beat to death a couple of nights before, and he

keeps having these flashbacks. And while he’s doing that, people are setting off fireworks and he’s having all of these flashbacks to the American Civil War, and to his job as a policeman—he’s been a policeman for well over a decade—and he’s completely freaking out, and it results in him beating up the guy in the alleyway and having a fight with Lee. What’s really brilliant about being on set and the way they created that world is it was so busy, it was populated with people, there’s all kinds of things going on. I’m like, “I don’t have to do a huge amount of acting.” It’s all happening, and if you can listen and respond to it, the gifts are all just there. Aw man, I really miss being on set [laughs]. They’re the best team, man.

That’s one of the things about going to work. Where we film it, in Cape Town, the crew members are often local and they’ve made all these other great shows over the years.

They’ve worked on Strike Back, and they worked on Black Sails. Brad Caleb Kane, who’s our producer, also produced Black Sails, so we inherited Brad, and we inherited our makeup

department, our cameras department. There’s all this experience, and these guys are an amazing team.

Then you put on top of it Brett and his stunt team, and then a bunch of actors who, as far as I can tell, everybody just felt like they’d won the lottery getting a part on this job, and that kind of gratitude at work is infectious. It’s a really good kind of energy and formula to have if you’re gonna go to work and beat each other up every day [laughs]. Wanting to be there really helps. Because you’re covered in blood and you’re cold and you do often accidentally punch each other [laughs].

SPOILER: Is there any one scene that shouts out at you?

Kieran Bew: There’s a scene with Tom Weston-Jones and myself in the pub at the end of episode 4 in season 1, when Bill’s had a really hard time and he goes to have a drink, and Lee comes to apologize, and they have this little philosophical chat at the bar. And that was one of my favorite days of filming. And David Petrarca, who directed it, just said, “Just be really, really quiet.” This pub

is so quiet, there’s no one in it. And Lee apologizes to me, and Bill gives him some cynical philosophy back and then goes off to gamble some more. That was a scene that doesn’t sound very flashy but just, for me, was such a pleasure to do, because it was small and it was subtle, and they let us occupy a space that you don’t often get. The guys really cared about the details—those quiet moments in a show where we do have these big, bombastic sequences, like the opening of episode 6 where there’s the Chinese parade and the lions are all coming around and we’re following through and the fireworks are going off. Or episode 3 where the house gets raided. I always liked filming in the town hall. The police station is actually in the town hall in Cape Town where Nelson Mandela made his speeches when he left Robben Island, so we got to work in this historic building. There’s a locker room and then we come through the corridor, then there’s the police station, and then Flanagan’s office at the bottom. Tom and I like to do walk-and-talk. We used to call it, “We’re doin’ a West Wing,” and they used to string scenes together deliberately so that we could have a steady cam and we would walk around the police station. So if you watch

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cist thing that Bill only really treats Ah Sahm like a human being once he knows he can speak English.

It’s not a nice quality, but Bill does atone for the fact that he’s done something wrong when he tries to help Ah Sahm. And as it turns out, the person who was waiting for him was Chao, because Bill and Chao have got a really good personal relationship. People might not notice that because it might happen rather quick. And I don’t get another scene with Andrew until midway through season 2—which was such a fun scene to film: Me and Andrew at 4 o’clock in the morning in a dark alleyway, and I’m smoking, and it was a funny scene because it’s just a conversation, but God is it a fun conversation when I tell him to f-off.

I said to the lads that morning, “I actually pulled a muscle in my neck acting that morning.” I don’t know how I did it [laughs]. I was like, “What was I doin’?? I must’ve really been chewing the scenery that morning.” Koji was standing up higher

than me and I was looking up, but I didn’t really deserve having a pulled muscle in my neck. It’s not like I was doing anything like he was.

SPOILER: Well, Kieran, it is a pleasure as always. If you can share a final thought with the Warrior fans, what would it be?

Kieran Bew: “Thank you for watching and tell your family to watch the show; tell your grandmother to watch the show; tell your cousins to watch the show. And talk about it, because we seem to be a strange show that’s been put out deliberately to be found through word of mouth [laughs]. So thank you for watching it and sending us messages because we really do appreciate it.”

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the show, there’s scene after scene of me and Tom walking through the police station. They kept writing more of them for us because it worked well and we liked doing it. We’re like, “Let’s show the set off.”

And there was a scene with me and Ah Sahm in episode 3. So me and Andrew Koji, we’re sitting on a bench and Bill is basically releasing Ah Sahm after he’s been released from the judge. And Bill advises Ah Sahm to go out the back entrance.

So we’re rehearsing the scene and we were talking about it and I was saying, “What’s to stop Ah Sahm from saying, ‘I don’t trust you. You sent three guys to beat me up’?”

And doin’ it with Loni directing us was amazing. He comes up with that line, “Well, what if you got somebody waiting for me down there?” And Bill says, “Well, it would take more than three, wouldn’t it?”

And that came out from a discussion about the characters. Bill’s trying to atone for having tried to kill a guy. And it’s a terribly awful ra-

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

However, to Shannon Lee, he’s her father.

Yet since he passed away when she was only 4-years-old, she’s also able to share in that larger-than-life view of the martial arts legend who changed the cultural landscape in America, as well as the world, forever, and made a huge impact on how our society viewed Asian people during a time when they were being relegated to stereotypes in movies and TV. Warrior, on which Shannon serves as executive producer, is aiming to make a similar impact. The HBO Max series is largely based on the writings of her father back in the 1970s, a project that got “denied” by Hollywood, yet repurposed into another series called Kung Fu without the actor’s involvement. Somehow the producers back then felt like Bruce Lee would not be able to carry the project due to his ethnicity.

Shannon discusses how Warrior is not only a victory for her father and his legacy, but also for Asian Americans who now get an amazing story told about their past— one that has been seemingly buried in the history books. Since this is no doubt what Bruce’s intention was all those years ago, it’s very much a victory for him on another level as well.

Shannon also opens up about what it’s been like to be the daughter of one of the biggest cultural icons in the world, as well as the possibility of her making a cameo in season 3. Let’s make it happen.

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To most of us, Bruce Lee is almost mythlike.

erview erview SPOILER: I know you’ve been hearing this all your life about your dad, Bruce—there’s not a lot of people who I look up to in this world, but he’s one person I do look up to. Ever since my teachers would send notes home in the ‘80s saying, “Your son’s buying too many Scholastic books based on Bruce Lee” [laughs].

Shannon Lee: [laughs] Can there be too many? [laughs] But thank you.

I do not ever get tired of hearing that. I think it’s such a wonderful and phenomenal thing, the amount of impact and reach and excitement that my father has put into this world.

SPOILER: I know Warrior was created in the mind of Bruce Lee many years ago, and now it’s come to fruition. But what does Warrior mean to you?

Shannon Lee: I think that it’s a huge victory in a lot of ways—if I can use that word—in the best way possible. My father came up with the idea for the show, he created a treatment for it over 50 years ago now. He pitched it to Warner Brothers. They were considering it, but ultimately they said, “We can’t cast you because you’re Chinese and

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you have an accent. And US audiences are not going to rally around a Chinese man of a lead of an American TV series.” So he was turned down and it was really a big blow to him. Ever since Green Hornet, he had been trying to get another good role in Hollywood and make his mark and show his culture and his martial arts background in an authentic way to audiences in Hollywood, but just not getting anywhere with it. So this treatment went into a box and, of course, my father passed away, and then over many years I had always heard about this treatment and knew of its existence, but never put my fingers on it until I started looking after my father’s legacy. And even then, there was a lot of work to do.

At the time, I had not been producing—I had been acting. Really important to me always, in everything I do, is to represent my father in the best possible way, in the most meaningful way and who he was as a human being, so I wasn’t just gonna let anyone do this show.

Cut to Justin Lin giving me a call saying, “Hey, I’ve always heard this story about this treatment that your father created for this TV show, is that true?” I said, “Yes, it’s

true.” And he said, “You wouldn’t happen to know where that is, would you?” [laughs] I said, “Umm, yeah, actually I do. I have it right here.” And he said, “Oh my gosh, can I look at it? Would you ever want to make this?” And the thing that made it perfect with Justin and the show that we currently have, and why I call it a victory, is because it started out with the absolute best of intentions, that Justin said to me, “We should make this show, but we should only make it if we can really do it justice; if we can honor your dad and really create a meaningful and impactful story, and do it the right way. Otherwise, we just shouldn’t because it would just spoil the whole thing.” So we started with that intention and I really believe that we followed through. The show is in some ways a victory for my father, for finally getting it made, but also for having him be recognized as the creative that he was. And that his ideas and his storylines were really good.

One of the things that I think was really interesting was that anyone who read the original treatment of my fathers’, whether that was executives or writers or directors, they all were like, “Wow, this is actually really good,” as though they were surprised [laughs]. So for him to be recognized for his creativity, and for this show to find its way to the screen in the beautiful way that it did with such an amazing cast and crew and characters and storytelling, I really think it’s a victory in a number of ways.

SPOILER: I’ve gotten the chance to speak with the entire cast, and they all love being on the show.

It’s phenomenal the kind of enthusiasm I’m hearing—that basically doesn’t happen on this level with other shows. You get the sense that this doesn’t even feel like work for them.

Shannon Lee: There was such a sense of family and camaraderie and positivity on the set and all

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SPOILER: Why do you think season 3 should happen?

Shannon Lee: For a number of reasons. First of all, the show is phenomenal. The only reason there’s not a season 3 is, quite frankly, it was just circumstance. Cinemax got caught up in the Warner/HBO merger. There was a decision made on the corporate level to cancel all of the Cinemax original programming across the board, and we just got caught up in that.

We were renewed for a season 2 before season 1 was even done filming. There was so much excitement for the show. It’s a landmark show in a lot of ways. There’s not another series in the one-hour dramatic television format that has such a beautiful and large Asian cast, and that is telling this authentic American and Chinese American story that we tell. People love it—we’ve been on top 10 lists for all the episodes. Season 2 just really amped up the show and it started to really delve into complex issues and conflicts, and we just got sorta cut off for literally no reason other than just a corporate decision. And I do give kudos to Cinemax and all of the people at Cinemax who helped get our show on the air—they were such champions of Warrior. We did a phenomenal job with what we were given to create this show. It looks amazing and we did everything we could to make it spectacular. I just think it’s a shame that this series, which is just so good and ripe with representation—a unique voice in the television landscape—is being shelved for no good reason, in my opinion.

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throughout the process. It was really a beautiful thing to see and be a part of. And it’s true, even now, to this day, even though we’ve finished filming season 2 over a year and a half ago, everybody still keeps in touch with one another and is so excited about the show and, in a heartbeat, would come back to keep doing it.

Everybody involved, not just the Asian cast members, but everybody, we all kinda felt like the spirit of my father was watching over everyone.

SPOILER: People have compared Warrior to Cobra Kai because of how the two series have been given an increase in viewership within their platforms, but obviously Warrior is a period piece and not even close to the same show as Cobra Kai.

Shannon Lee: I’m a huge fan of Cobra Kai. I grew up in the original era of The Karate Kid, so I love the show, it’s super fun. But Warrior is nothing like that show. It’s a historical drama, a political drama, martial arts action, Western vibes and tropes.

There’s really something for everyone.

SPOILER: People want you to make a cameo in the series. Maybe if season 3 happens you can come in and kick some butt.

Shannon Lee: [laughs] I’ll tell you a little secret. They started to talk about having a small cameo for me in season 2, but the season had already been written at that point and there wasn’t really a role that had been thought through that would be meaningful for me to occupy. So we were just joking around, they kept asking me, “Would you do it?”

And when I was down there in South Africa on set during the filming of season 2, I was talking to Brett Chan, our amazing choreographer and coordinator for the show, and they were trying to get him to also make a cameo. So I looked at Brett and went, “Alright, if you do one, I’ll do

one. We can even fight each other in season 3.” And he said, “Fine, I’ll do it if you do it.” So we made this little pact that we were gonna have a small cameo and fight each other in season 3, which is also why we need a season 3 [laughs].

SPOILER: Well if people haven’t written to HBO yet, they’re definitely writing to them now.

Shannon Lee: If the decision were mine, we would already be working on season 3, but it’s not my decision, so there is some convincing that needs to be done. We need to find a champion who believes in the show, and we also need to create that buzz.

We’re so grateful that they put it on HBO Max, because originally there were no plans to do that. So kudos to HBO for doing that. And the show is very successful so far on HBO Max, but we need to create a real ground flow of enthusiasm and we’re working on coordinating efforts to do that so that we can demonstrate to them that it would be a good decision and that people would want it. So we do need as many people to request to HBO Max that you want this show, through social media channels, through direct messaging, emailing them, petitioning, all of that. So hopefully those corporate minds will be swayed.

SPOILER: Do you feel a lot of pressure to keep Warrior going because of

your father?

Shannon Lee: Because we didn’t know that there was the potential of the show being cancelled, we weren’t sort of wrapping anything up from the story standpoint. So there’s still a lot of story to tell, and we’re excited to tell it, and I think it deserves to be told. It is a Chinese American story. When I tell people that the show takes place at the time of the Tong Wars and the Chinese Exclusion Act, literally 9 out of 10 people say, “What’s the Chinese Exclusion Act?” Just right there, I know our show is a martial arts show and it’s a drama and action show, but it is shining a light on part of our history that I think people should know about. And maybe if they encounter it in this form, they can be educated and informed and entertained at the same time, and start to dig deeper into the story of Chinese Americans in this country. Look, I’ll never stop pushing for it. So even if it doesn’t happen, in the back of my mind I’ll always be looking for an opportunity to tell this story again in some other way, or through some other medium. And I know the cast feels similarly. It will always be a child of mine, if you will, and I’ll always want to do it justice. And I hope that we get the opportunity to.

SPOILER: We’ve had fans say things like, “My life is over if Warrior doesn’t get season 3,” and so forth. Do you

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get messages like that too?

Shannon Lee: I do. I get moving comments on social media and people reaching out in various ways saying, “Oh my God, I love this show!

I’m begging for a season 3!” A lot of people, I think, if they’re not totally on top of what’s happening with the show and they’ve just encountered it, I get a lot of messages where they say, “When is season 3 coming out?”

And the message I want to put out is, “We don’t have a season 3, so if you want a season 3 you gotta let people know!” [laughs] SPOILER: I know you’ve had a lengthy career prior to Warrior with acting and martial arts and various endeavors. How has life been for you being the daughter of Bruce Lee all these years?

Shannon Lee: [laughs] Well… How long do we have here? [laughs] Obviously I’ve been Bruce Lee’s daughter my whole life, and it’s meant different things at different times in my life. And I couldn’t be more proud to be my father’s child. He was phenomenal in so many ways and his love was actually very beautiful.

He died when I was 4, which is a very young age, and I don’t have a ton of memories of him—like visual, audial memories. But what I do have is, I remember so clearly the feeling of him—his energy, his love, the safety of that and the power of it and the purity of it, and I have to say that has sustained me my whole life. I’m not fabruary 2021|

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in any way, shape, or form complaining, because I would have to say that any of the negativities that I experience of that is mostly stuff that I’ve done to myself—pressure I’ve put on myself to feel like I’m not living up to some imaginary level that I’ve concocted. I mean, he lived life at such a high level. I would say that it’s hard not to over time as you’re a child, and then an insecure teenager, and then a young adult trying to find your way, etc. My own insecurities and what I’ve done to make myself feel less than or feel like I’m not good enough, is really all mine. That’s not to say that there aren’t people who say terrible things to me and all that, because people have their judgements, whatever, but I really try my best to do everything with the best of intentions and when I make mistakes I try to correct them and learn from them. At the end of the day, it’s the least I can do. And now where I sit as a, by the way, 51-year-old woman [laughs], I’ve lived enough of my life and gone through enough in my life and worked hard enough at understanding different aspects of my life to finally be at a place where I feel just grateful for my life and my life’s circumstances, and I’ve stopped putting so much pressure on myself and I’m trying, like my father did, to just live my life to the fullest.

I’m proud and honored to continue to promote his legacy, because it’s been meaningful and healing and motivating to me in my life, and I know it has been for so many others. And I’m still working on who Shannon Lee is and what she’s gonna do next.

SPOILER: Isn’t it wild that your dad’s legacy is still relevant nearly 50 years later? At any moment of the day, there are people all over the world talking about him and referring to him, with the greatest of admiration.

Shannon Lee: It’s amazing. It’s almost incomprehensible. I’ve traveled a bit and there’s no place that I’ve ever been in the world where people don’t know my father and people aren’t fans of my father. And I’m just amazed by it. By living his life and being the most cultiva-

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ted version of himself, and just putting himself out there and being the best that he could, was just so impactful. He was a warrior through and through in his own right, and people can see that and feel that, and it continues to inspire them.

SPOILER: What else is in the works for you that you can share?

Shannon Lee: I just wrote a book recently called Be Water, My Friend, which talks about my father’s philosophy. It’s part memoir, part biography, and part self-help book. That was a long journey and that came out at the end of last year. I really would encourage, whether you’re a Bruce Lee fan, a martial artist, or just a regular person going through life who doesn’t know a lot about Bruce Lee, this book is for you no matter who you are, to give people an insight into the things that made my father so phenomenal and how you, as a human being, can adopt them into your own life. That’s one thing I’m extremely passionate about, which is passing on his wisdom and injecting it with some wisdom of my own.

I have a number of other projects that are in various stages of development right now. But some very exciting things: feature films and TV. Right now we are creating like crazy, so I will be producing some more in the near future. I do plan to write more. I do have the Bruce Lee Podcast, which is in a new season right now. We’ve been doing interviews with some of the cast members from Warrior, as well as athletes and actors and musicians, all about their relationship with Bruce Lee. Previous seasons have been all about the philosophy. So we’ve got a few more episodes to go in this season, and then we’re gonna take a little break and come back with something all new and exciting in the Spring. And we may be doing some special Bruce Lee Podcast features on Warrior itself, so everybody can get to really hear from all the creators, and the process that we went to to bring the show to reality. There’s really no end to what can happen.

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A INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

2020 was a great year for Chen Tang.

He had a major role in Disney’s live-action Mulan remake, and became a series regular on HBO’s kung fu Western, Warrior. The show has recently gotten the opportunity to broaden its audience, which means even greater things for the actor.

Even though Warrior didn’t need a spark, they still got one with Tang. He plays Hong, a new recruit of the Hop Wei Tong, one of the rivaling gangs in San Francisco’s Chinatown district in the 1870s.

Chen caught the acting bug late in life, but it’s easy to see that he’s gonna be a lifer, and his recent successes are a sign of great things to come. Like everyone else in the industry, this last year saw a lot of sitting at home and reading scripts.

The actor admits that he’s been extremely fortunate to land two major roles back to back, and is utilizing his success to allow him to be picky with his next projects, as he should be. The self-proclaimed Trekkie, I’m sure, wouldn’t mind getting his shot as a member of the bridge staff, but he’s also got his eye out for the perfect captivating indie drama.

Coming to Warrior in the second season has given the actor the opportunity to become a fan of the series first. Chen and Galaxy get to nerd out over the show, whose popularity and visibility is really booming in recent weeks since its move to HBO Max.

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erview erview SPOILER: Let me tell you something, Warrior is on my personal Top 5 TV shows in the world list.

I love the show, the premise was great, the cast, and you’re kicking butt in season two. How’s your experience with the show?

CHEN TANG: First off, thank you so much for the support! We have a small and strong and mighty fan base. We love our fans. I’ll second it, not only is this show highly underrated, but it’s just a great show and I’m thrilled to be on it. With [the culmination of] the second season we’ve moved to HBO Max, so hopefully more people will see it. Aside from just all the stunt work and all the fighting and all the action and everything, I’m really just so proud of the second season– we’re proud of the show overall, but really the second season, because you can really feel it, from the top down–from the producers all the way down–this was just a labor of love for all of us, and I really think it shows.

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SPOILER: I love your character Hong, he’s full energy. What has this show meant for you on a personal level?

CHEN TANG: Two words: Bruce Lee. Bruce freakin’ Lee. First off, as an Asian American, seeing Bruce Lee for the first time on screen, it

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was the first time I felt proud to be an Asian American. And now to be part of that legacy and to be able to work with his daughter–she’s our executive producer–and to do it justice and do Bruce proud, this is one of the greatest experiences of my life. When I started working on it, I was just like, “Wow, it’s not just a martial arts show. This is a stylized fantasized version of actual historical events.” And for me, as a Chinese man, as an immigrant to this country, this part of American history before the Chinese Exclusion Act is unfortunately highly, highly underrepresented. And to be able to do a deep dive into something like this—basically in American History, you might only get a paragraph about what happened.

But these are human beings, man.

These are real stories. And to be a part of it and live in that world for a while, it’s a dream come true.

SPOILER: Cinemax is a great brand, but I’m so glad Warrior is on HBOMax now.

CHEN TANG: The world is moving towards streaming too. So we’re really excited to be part of that.

I love HBO and I love Cinemax, they’re incredible to work with, but we are so over-saturated right now with stuff. Some days I’m like, “There’s so much stuff, I don’t even wan-

na watch anything,” [laughs] if that makes sense. The show is already great, but it’s like that old parable, “If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, did it make a sound?”

Don’t get me wrong, Cinemax has an amazing fanbase, but unfortunately Cinemax is moving away from original programming and is just going to be doing movies, so I’m just excited for the world to see this show. I’m biased too, but I’m also honest–it’s a good show. It’s a very well-made show. And I can’t be proud enough.

SPOILER: Warrior is underrated to the max, but it’s okay because being on HBO Max now, it’s gonna blow up. Do you feel that?

CHEN TANG: God willing, man.

With streaming nowadays, everybody loves to binge stuff. For me, I don’t know about you, but I can’t stop at one. I don’t know how I used to do it when I was younger to wait every week for a show. I’m a big Simpsons fan–a huge Simpsons fan–and I remember waiting for Fox. I was like, “Aw yeah, it’s a new episode!” And I’d watch it and come to school and just talk about it.

How is that possible? I don’t know how I had that much patience back then. Because now, I remember watching this British show called Rome. I watched it in three days.

That’s me. I have a very addictive personality. Especially, I think, with Warrior, it’s very bingeable. It’s like a rolling train. In preparation for season 2, HBO gave us the entire first season. And it happens…

Sometimes it’s 10 o’clock at night and you’re like, “Okay, I’ll start.”

And then before you know it it’s 7 o’clock in the morning [laughs] and you’re like, “I can’t believe I just watched the whole thing.”

SPOILER: The show is based on the writings of Bruce Lee. But, what is Warrior for the fans that don’t know anything about it?

CHEN TANG: One of the things I like to joke is, our show is Peaky

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Blinders with kung fu [laughs]. It’s like a pulpy Tarantino-esque fantasized version of 19th century Chinatown San Francisco gang wars, in a nutshell. It’s a martial arts drama, but the martial arts is just a highlight of it. A big part of it is race relations in the late-1800s America Wild West.

It just so happens that [in Warrior] a lot of people are Chinese, Asian, because, well, there is a Chinatown there. It’s a Chinatown story, but it doesn’t just stay in Chinatown. It goes to the perspective of the law, the politicians of the time, the Irish, the white people, other minority groups. Because the cast is so large and diverse, each faction, in a way, has their own first person view and what’s important to them. So that way it’s not just a Chinatown story.

It’s an American story with some kickass kung fu.

SPOILER: Another project you’re on that did well recently is Mulan. What is Mulan to you?

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CHEN TANG: I am Chinese.

And Hua Mulan is like our Joan of Arc. This is a part of my childhood; this is a part of my culture. To be part of a global movie like this, again, it’s another one of these greatest experiences of my life that I’ll remember until the day that I die. It’s an honor. It’s a fun movie; it’s a really cool movie. It’s big and vast and massive, and to be able to sort of be not only an extension of my own culture’s folklore, but also an extension of–for me, I love the cartoon version too–to be an extension of that, that’s cool, man.

SPOILER: I want the readers to know that you are one of the nicest people

around. You’re on this great path, and it’s just the beginning. You’re also on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and other shows. Is the superhero and fantasy genre your career goal?

CHEN TANG: Believe it or not, I’m actually not a huge superhero movie fan. They’re fun, I like them. But I lean towards more pure sci-fi. I’m a huge sci-fi nerd. I love it. The harder the sci-fi, the better for me. But specifically as an artist, as an actor, I really gravitate towards indie dramas, character-driven dramas. Stuff like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the old French film called Le Samouraï, one of the classics of the neo-noir movement. Stuff like that, just interesting characters for me. I love going into another person’s life, living in another person’s skin for a while. It really changes who I am and really expands my horizons. It really turns me on as an artist. But as a fan, sci-fi, all the way. I’m the biggest Trekkie. My dream, one day I would love to be on a Star Trek show.

And one of our producers is now on it. But regardless, Discovery is cool because everything’s so real and new and glossy, but for me I’m such a sucker for all the older Star Trek from the ‘90s. Deep Space Nine. I could talk about Star Trek all day. But one of my biggest dreams is to do a really good sci-fi film. It doesn’t have to be Prometheus or something, but I would love to just live in a world in the future. One of my favorite sci-fi films is Blade Runner. I could live in that world for a while.

SPOILER: Every kid who’s gonna be born for the next thousand years is gonna watch Mulan at least once.

How does that feel?

CHEN TANG: Wow, that’s a lot of pressure, man! [laughs] It’s surreal.

The other day, someone said, “It’s Yao! You’re Yao!” But it hasn’t quite hit me yet to be honest. That’s the beauty of film and TV and what we do. It’s forever. If you’re fortunate and lucky enough to get a wonderful role on a wonderful project, it’s part of you forever and it’s part of the cultural landscape forever. It’s a great honor. That’s the only way I can describe it.

chen tang very pedestrian. I simply fell into it.

This is just something I enjoy and was fortunate enough to find something that I was passionate enough about. And to [be able to] give your whole life to something [you’re passionate about], it really is rare to find that I think. So I’m grateful to have that opportunity.

SPOILER: When did you realize that you wanted to become an actor?

When did you get the bug?

CHEN TANG: To be honest, it never really was in my mind growing up.

I kinda got into it a little later. I was 19, in college. Before that I actually wanted to join the military. I have a military family so I just always wanted to be a soldier. Long story short, it was 2006 and I was going off to college, and I was thinking, “I’m not going to college. I’m gonna join the military.” And [my mother] was like, “Do you know what year it is?? We just entered the Iraq War. Why don’t you take a year and just try college? Just try it. You don’t have to stay. You can always join later with my blessing, but just try it.” So I did–I went to the University of Miami, I’m a proud Hurricane–and I had to take a fine arts class. I was like, “Acting, that sounds cool.” I did it and the teacher said, “You know, Chen, you’re pretty good at this and seem to really enjoy it. Why don’t you try and audition and see if you wanna do this?” And I did and I got into a show. It was a musical. It was my first experience on stage. And even the whole process, the rehearsals, it was just fun.

That was the first thing that really got me hooked to it, just how enjoya-

ble it was. And it really is. It’s playing make believe, really. Advanced make believe is fun [laughs]. And I think I literally woke up one day and said, “You know what? This is fun! I can’t believe people get paid for it. I wanna make this my career. This is something I could really throw my whole life into.”

And that’s really how it got started.

Every time I get this question I feel kinda bad. I wish that I had one of those stories where you were like, “The muses descended from the heavens and struck me with a creative thunderbolt!” But it wasn’t. It was

SPOILER: Do you find acting challenging sometimes?

CHEN TANG: Oh definitely. A big part of the challenge as a profession is you have to be really good about not being in control. And if you’re okay with that, it’s okay. And you really never are in control in life, right?

But especially it’s much more highlighted in the entertainment industry because you just never know what’s gonna happen. Every day you wake up and it could be completely different. It’s like, “What’s the next thing?

Are you gonna get this job?” What I think the biggest challenge, that I know from myself personally and from a lot of people around me in the industry, is the psychological and emotional difficulty of it. If you love to do something you wanna be doing it all the time, but if you get the great fortune to be able to be working on a great project, that’s not really within your control. All you can do is keep showing up and keep doing the best you can, and keep pushing “Play” in a way, and hopefully something lands.

Listen, there’s a difference between saying, “It will happen when it ha-

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D ppens,” and really doing your best, but also surrendering control too. Because all we can really control is ourselves, and what we can control is actually doing the very best that we can—if you do anything. It could be sweeping the floor or something, but if you really do it with your all, with your heart and soul and do it 100%, that’s all you can control. And then let the chips fall where they may. That’s the other side of it. I’m waxing spiritual here, but that is a big thing. We are never really in control. All we can really do is do our very best.

SPOILER: Do you have a martial arts background?

CHEN TANG: Actually yes! I have over 7 years of experience in kung fu and Wushu. But, with that being said, I cannot sit here and speak honestly and compare it to some of the people I’ve met, especially on [Warrior]. Like, the stunt performers and some of the martial artists who have been doing it for their entire lives, I cannot sit here with a straight face and be like, “Yeah, I’m a martial artist” [laughs]. No way. I mean, there’s Saiyan and there’s Super Saiyan [laughs]. I have a background in it and I can definitely move. The physical action comes quite easily to me only because I have an athletic background, but we were made to look amazing by the talents of other talented people.

The stunt team on our show–especially our stunt coordinator Brett Chan, I’m always throwing love to him, man, because the stunt performers are beyond world class. Some of our stunt team were on the Olympic teams for, like, Taekwondo or something, for Korea.

And to be able to work with them and just be like, “Wow, you guys are making me look extra good here,” I can’t take credit for that. That’s all them. I was just talking about Joe Taslim and, you know, he is a world class judo fighter.

He was on the Indonesian national team for judo, like World Championships and stuff. And when you’re next to a guy like that and you’re just an actor–I mean, I can fight and definitely hold my own and move–but when you’re next to a

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world class athlete, you see just how vast the difference is. The difference is an ocean [laughs]. I can’t talk enough about them. They’re incredible, what the human body can do.

SPOILER: I’m telling you, our readers need to watch Warrior right now! I don’t vouch for a lot of shows, but when I do it’s because I know it’s worth it.

CHEN TANG: I really appreciate that, honestly. Believe me, we’ve had a lot of love from so many of the fans. I’m feeling the love for the show, and to hear you say that, I’m genuinely grateful, man, that means a lot. I’m so excited for fans and audiences to see Hong on Warrior go through the whole season.

By the time you guys get to episodes 9 and 10, it just gets crazier and crazier [laughs].

SPOILER: I know you haven’t experienced conventions yet. If conventions were open this past year it would’ve been bonkers for you. You’ll see how passionate the fans of these projects are. They have a lot of love to give.

CHEN TANG: Oh, I can’t wait! I have a small secret: I’ve never been to a Comic Con. But from your mouth to God’s ears, because I will say this–I’m saying this truthfully–the fans are who we do this for. You guys save us. Because it’s a pure love. People get dressed up because they love it, simple as that, full stop. And to see that purity of enjoying something, how often do you see that in life? Very rarely. So to be able to be in that presence, I’m so looking forward to it and I welcome it, and I’d love to attend. Hopefully we get back and healthy again soon.

SPOILER: What else do you have in the works right now?

CHEN TANG: The truth is, right now, especially in 2020, this industry has really pushed the pause button. So right now it’s been sort of cocoon time for me. I’ve been looking at a lot of scripts and I’m always constantly working on my craft and right now, what I’d really love to do for my next project, if not sci-fi, it would be an indie character-dri-

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chen tang ven drama. What I love most about acting is the ability to transform, so for me to go into something like that, it would be a dream come true. So I’m looking at a lot of scripts right now, but I’m willing to wait for the right thing. I don’t believe in being productive for its own sake. You’ve gotta love what you do. It’s a wonderful time right now. People are sending me scripts here and there, but I’m thinking whatever hits me in my soul is gonna be the next thing.

It will probably be something cool, a really cool character.

SPOILER: You ever think you’re gonna cut your hair?

CHEN TANG: [laughs] Never! Let me tell you something, 90% of my acting is just hair. Hair and facial hair.

People always say, “You look like a totally different guy.” And I’m like, “It’s just hair” [laughs]. With Hong, the cool thing about entering with a new character and also working with HBO and Cinemax, they are so cool to work with because they’re literally like, “We want to meet you halfway. What kind of ideas do you have? How do you wanna look? Do you wanna be fat? Do you wanna be buff? Do you wanna be skinny?

How do you want your hair to look?

What do you want to wear?” And it’s so creatively fulfilling. The story with my hair, everybody’s ribbing me about my little bob as Hong [laughs].

My hair was already grown out for Mulan, because we had wigs, they had to attach it. The longer your hair, the easier it is to attach. So I grew my hair out down to my chin, and by

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SPOILER: Have you noticed since Mulan and Warrior doors are opening easier?

CHEN TANG: Yes and no. Yes because the projects that I’m going out for now and the level of the roles I’m going out for now, it’s all good stuff. It’s easier to get into doors. But throughout the entire summer, even if you wanted to work and audition, you couldn’t [laughs]. So it’s hard to say. You’ll have to get back to me next year and I’ll give you a clearer answer.

the time I got to South Africa to film Warrior, they were like, “We kinda like your hair as it is. Can we keep it as sort of this soccer mom bob?”

And I was like, “Yeah, it’s so silly, let’s keep it!” [laughs] And if anything, the hair is getting longer.

SPOILER: Ah Sahm [on Warrior] came off the boat looking all GQ like he got a haircut at a trendy parlor or something. You on the other hand came off the boat all shaggy.

CHEN TANG: [laughs] I give [Andrew Koji] s**t about that too! I was like, “Man, you came off the boat looking like you went to Supercuts!” In that day and age, the journey was like 4 months on the boat, and I was like, “Where did you get your haircut?” So I wanted to get as sloppy and dirty as possible. That’s what I asked for.

I can’t imagine Hong with Ah Sahm’s hair. You’d take away my powers [laughs].

SPOILER: Is there anything you want to tell the fans of Mulan and Warrior?

CHEN TANG: “I love you guys. You guys make what I do so worthwhile. We do this for you guys. At the end of the day, in the entertainment industry, you wanna put out a great project, but you also want people to enjoy it. And that’s what really got me into this world, and to be able to be part of stuff that people enjoy, and to see you guys’ passion and love, it’s a life well lived.

So thank you.”

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D Since the ‘80s, Dustin Nguyen has starred in and directed a

number of films and shows, both in America and overseas in Vietnam, and has made a career out of his gritty and heavy roles. Now the actor gets to bring his talents to HBO Max’s Warrior as Zing, the unflinchingly brutal leader of the Fung Hai Tong.

Having a recurring role in season 1, Dustin was brought back as part of the main cast for season 2, with Zing now a crucial part of the series. His character, along with his tong, adds a wild card spontaneity to the show that keeps the matters between Hop Wei and Long Zii always in a state of instability. The other gangs are

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ruthless, but it’s typically within the context of the story. However, Zing and Fung Hai show the merciless reality of how many of the tongs really were back then. And it’s the veteran actor’s talent of understanding character and how to inject depth into his performance that makes Zing not just another antagonist.

The Vietnamese-born actor has a great energy both on and off screen.

Dustin is a very real dude and has an appealingly nuanced turn of phrase.

He’s a man of perspective and practices what he preaches. He truly knows the blessing of this opportunity he’s had with his life in show business, and despite his worst days, still realizes that he’s currently living out his dream.

Here, Galaxy gets to sit down and chat with the actor about his role in Warrior, along with where his unfaltering professionalism comes from, and how he’s managed to translate that into an honest appreciation of life in general.

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

interview interview SPOILER: You joined Warrior in season 2. Your character made season 2 so lively. How’s it been working on the series?

Dustin Nguyen: The most miserable group of people I’ve ever dealt with [laughs]. You know, I have to joke like that because, I’m sure you’ve interviewed a lot of people and listened to a lot of interviews, and a lot of actors will say, “I love working with them,” and stuff, and unfortunately some of that isn’t that impactful anymore to some readers, but I truly had the time of my life on Warrior.

It’s just one of those things where everything comes together for an actor or anybody who works in this industry, where you have the creative content that you’re very excited and passionate about. And on top of that, you have a group of people, in front and behind the camera who are just as passionate as you are, and good human beings—and you don’t get that a lot. Not saying there’s a lot of awful people out there, but just sometimes you just get people whose personality doesn’t quite gel or they’re having a bad year or something, and you’re working with them and it just makes things very difficult and unproductive. In this case with Warrior, we have the best of all of those things, so when I come onto a show like that… And then you get to play a character like Zing who [laughs], he doesn’t care about anything.

He’s got, like, no redeeming qualities whatsoever and just causes all kinds of havoc, which is a lot of fun to do as an actor.

dustin nguyen SPOILER: You directed and starred in Warrior, even double banking! How did you juggle all of that?

Dustin Nguyen: Double banking was what we did during season 2, shooting multiple episodes at the same time—which is nuts! I mean, it was an experiment, and everybody came through it with flying colors, and you know the result with season 2. But the logistics of it was—not to pat ourselves on the back—just incredible. Imagine you’re shooting episodes 7 and 8 at the same time, and somewhere across the lot you’ve got episodes 9 and 10, which are huge episodes to begin with, shooting at the same time, while I was prepping episode 6, which I directed. So you’ve got this machine that’s going and at any given time, just the continuity for the actors and crew to keep up with. You know there’s a lot of blood and scars and bruises on the show. Imagine the makeup and hair department has to keep everything in order—what comes first, what comes second. So there’s a lot of continuity issues that [arise]. An incredible amount of workload. Honestly, I don’t think anybody wants to do that again [laughs]. You just try to focus as much on what you’re doing at that moment. If you try to look at the big picture too much you get kinda overwhelmed. You just cowboy up and you do it. And I think, again, the passion and the enthusiasm for the show helps a lot, because sometimes, you’re a professional and they pay you to do a job, but certainly when there’s passion and love behind it, it gets you a long way.

SPOILER: Warrior is on HBO Max now and there are a lot of eyes on it.

It would be awesome if the fans get a season 3. This show needs a season 3.

Dustin Nguyen: I’m proud of a lot of things I’ve done throughout my career, but I rarely say, “Money back guaranteed” [laughs]. I usually kind of downplay it because everyone takes it differently. You don’t wanna be one of those guys who says, “Everything I do is the best!” But truly Warrior is a show I can comfortably say is a money back guarantee.

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SPOILER: I see Warrior as a drama more than a martial arts series. What do you think?

Dustin Nguyen: I agree with you, Galaxy. I would say it’s a drama first, because of the content and the wonderful writing that Jonathan Tropper and the team put out, and then I think the action martial arts aspect of it surprises people. I don’t think if you were to come across a trailer for Warrior or hear about Warrior, “Okay, it’s a dramatic show with martial arts action,” and frankly we’re not the first to do that. There have been many shows on the air who have [both elements], but I think what surprises people is that the martial arts aspect is done quite well. But for me, it’s the drama first, and it’s clear. Martial arts fans tune in for the action of course, but that can only go for so long. If you got no drama, no heart behind the action, it’s just a bunch of people fighting, and I can imagine after 5 or 6 episodes it can get a little bit weary. So in our case, sometimes it can get neglected to mention that it’s really the drama stuff that’s driving Warrior and making it memorable.

SPOILER: I hate to bring it up, but you’re almost 60 years old, man. But you’re out there looking like you’re 25. You’re absolutely kicking ass.

What do you do to stay in shape?

Dustin Nguyen: Well if you had Joe Taslim beating down on you, you have to keep in good shape [laughs].

You know, I guess I’m blessed with some decent genetics, and I enjoy life and try to live a clean life. Early

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It’s got a little bit for everybody.

It’s got historical elements, it’s got action, it’s got sex, it’s got amazing sets to look at, it’s produced well and well put together. It has all the elements to entertain you, but at the same time there’s a bit of integrity behind it, and to hear your enthusiasm is just great because, yes, we still run into people who are discovering the show for the first time and they go, “Aw man! Where have I been?” It was on a smaller platform and a lot of people couldn’t reach it.

on, from the time I was a teenager, with the martial arts training and having discipline in life—not to the point where you’re boring and stuff.

But I think just keeping fit and clean living, and again, passion. I get up every morning and I’m one of the happiest people because I just think I’m so lucky to be doing what I’m doing.

I’ve got a great family. My children and my wife are what drive me. All of that works together, but certainly, I look back at where I started as an actor to now, it’s just amazing I’m still doing it and doing it in a way where I love doing it. You talk to enough

cast members and it’s like bootcamp everyday. You look around and it’s these young guys, and they get you excited, you’ve gotta step up.

SPOILER: I see a lot of pictures of you from Warrior and you always have this smirk on your face. What is that about?

Dustin Nguyen: It’s like, “Holy sh*t!

I’m doin’ Warrior!” [laughs] Not only do I get to act in it, but I got cool people around me, I get to direct it.

It’s like the Zing smirk. He sorta has this big plan inside of him that he’s trying to execute and a lot of peo-

ple on the outside like Mai Ling and others are sort of underestimating him. You know, he’s quite a cocky guy. He’s gone through the ranks and paid his dues. But that smirk is sort of like his devil may care type of attitude where he thinks, no matter what, he’s gonna come out on top.

I try to have that sort of spirit with characters like Zing. There are many ways to go about that, and there’s no correct way. But I just felt like I didn’t wanna do this dowry, evil, serious bad guy all the time. I took the character seriously, but I didn’t want him to be so one level or predictable. So you make some choices that hopefully the audience likes, but that’s kinda where it comes from.

SPOILER: I remember on the cast panel, you shared a story when you hurt your leg and they offered you a wheelchair and you said, “Zing wouldn’t use a wheelchair!” [laughs] What’s the full story?

Dustin Nguyen: Prior to me directing episode 6, we were shooting episode 5, which is the big fight scene between Joe Taslim and myself. And for two days, from morning to night, we would just beat the crap out of each other because we were so into this fight scene. And unfortunately towards the end–literally we were like 5 or 6 moves from finishing the fight–remember when I get thrown into the bookcase and it comes crashing down and I get back up and lunge at him and we start fighting again? In the last take–it’s usually the

last take–but what happened was there was a bunch of debris that had fallen off the shelves and some of them were shot glasses, but made out of copper. And while I’m lunging forward towards Joe, I step on one of these and I lost my footing. But there’s so much momentum going forward and I had to correct myself midair and, of course, it tore my ACL and my meniscus. I had the same situation with my right knee years ago, and you know the sound when it pops [laughs]. And of course I couldn’t get surgery right away because I had to start prepping episode 6 as a director. So I was wrapping it up and hopping around all the time and had to get through episode 6 before I could have surgery. That was a situation where the producers wanted to make sure I’m okay, so they thought of having a wheelchair for me and someone was gonna push me around, and I was just thinking, “No, man! Death before dishonor” [laughs]. Not that I was tryna be a hero or anything, but luckily for me, once the swelling went down after the first two weeks, I wrapped it up and was able to walk around. But you get so excited about the work, and during episode 6, at one point I had literally forgotten that I’m working with a torn ACL, and a few times I got too excited and popped out of a chair or something and it reminded me, “Hey, man, it’s torn down here!

Take it easy!” When I’m directing I love running around talking to the actors. I don’t like just sitting behind

the monitors too much. You get so excited working and getting caught up in the energy of the day, and it’s great. So after I wrapped up episode 6, a few days later, I went into surgery.

SPOILER: I hope you’re feeling better.

Dustin Nguyen: Yeah, I’m okay now, but it’s a bummer, because the recovery period can be quite long. A lot of it’s psychological. When you’re used to being so active and all of a sudden you can’t move around, and you really have to be disciplined with rehab. But it is what it is. I went through it with my right knee 20 years ago, but back then I had youth on my side [laughs].

SPOILER: Zing is such a ruthless character. I know Warrior is partially fictional, but do you think there was really someone like Zing back then?

Dustin Nguyen: Well I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s such a dog-eat-dog world and the competition to control the heroin business. Any immigrant situation, the Italians, the Greeks, of course the Chinese, had that kind of mentality, I wouldn’t be surprised

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at all. When you have a group of guys like the Fung Hai Tong who are known establishments coming from the Mongolian descendants, there had to be someone like that. Because the other two gangs, they’re pretty badass, so to go up against them, you have to bring it on and step up your own gang. There’s a certain theatrical element to it, but in real life, in this world, I’d imagine they were actually a lot more brutal than what we portray on screen.

SPOILER: What do you do to prepare for a character like Zing?

Dustin Nguyen: Well I didn’t do any research per se, because there weren’t any personalities historically that it was based on–at least the writers didn’t give me anything. For me, what was written on the page was a good start. But I did the research on the tongs in general and the way they were doing business and interacting with each other. And the battle for supremacy and territorial rights. You put yourself in that world where, not only do you have all these internal conflicts going on, but you have this society where, outside of Chinatown, you were essentially nonexistent and meant nothing, which for sure creates a sense of rage and anger and resentment. And for somebody like Zing, someone who came up in the ranks–if you remember when I was introduced, I was sort of a lieutenant, my own boss–a guy who was not unlike Mai Ling and Young Jun, trying to have his footing in society as a person to be taken seriously, but the hunger for the power, the control for what he perceived as something that would validate him in a society where he doesn’t mean anything.

So you go with these premises and these feelings that are very believable and go from there. I had some backstories about Zing that I did [on my own], and not something that we’ve seen on screen–not yet anyway, hopefully in the future. But you just project those feelings and situations. What I normally do is say, “What are some of the things for a character like this that have been done before? What are some of the things that would make a character

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like this predictable?” and I try to avoid those choices if possible. Sometimes you can do that and sometimes you can’t. Not that you’re trying to reinvent the wheel, but you’re trying not to make this character flat. When you’re playing an antagonist it’s very easy to fall into these traps. Some of these cliches are actually not bad–they’re cliches for a reason. At least for me personally, I try to put a new spin on it if possible. I’m a big fan of humor, even in the most dire situations, the most dramatic situations.

I’ve been there, and there’s always some humor there if you’re willing to dig deep enough. And some of those moments can be very nice for a character to counter a very dramatic scene.

SPOILER: It’s wild to see what everyone went through back then. It was tough, man. Do you think you could’ve survived living back then?

Dustin Nguyen: I like to think so. I like to think all of us [could]. Whenever you’re sitting here and it’s all hypothetical, but human beings are made to adapt. If you don’t adapt you’re gonna die. So I like to think that you adapt and you make the best of it. One of the things that needs to be said is it’s a piece of history, yes, but for the writers there’s not a lot of information that’s available on it. It’s a piece of history that’s almost like a little footnote in history and a lot of people don’t even want to acknowledge it. So with the very little material the writers had to work with, it just goes to show what a wonderful job and how much work they put into it. You take facts, historical facts in this case, and you have to make it entertaining and theatrical and put your spin on it to make it an entertaining show. With what they had to work with, I think they did a wonderful job. It’s not just the Asian characters.

Life was tough for the Irish too. You watch this show and you really feel for the Irish. As horrible as they were in some of the episodes, just because of the nature of them feeling threatened by the Chinese labor taking the jobs away, they were starving too, and they were scrapping everyday just to make ends meet. So everybody was, in a way,

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a victim of this really harsh environment. In the meantime you’ve got people like the politicians in the show, they’re living the high life and making policies. It’s just a wide range of perspectives that the writers on Warrior have presented. It’s a very Asian-centric show, but I know there’s a lot of other colors that should be appreciated as well.

SPOILER: Warrior should be on the HBO Max top 10 series list. I see some of the shows on the top 10 list and I’m like, “What’s goin’ on?”

Dustin Nguyen: [laughs] Yeah, look, I too can’t help but think, “If we had started on HBO or Netflix or CBS, the reception would have been different.” But sometimes that’s how things work. I’ve yet to see Cobra Kai, but I’ve been hearing so much about that too starting out on a very limited platform and very slowly got the recognition that it has at the moment.

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SPOILER: I hear people comparing Cobra Kai and Warrior all the time. I love Cobra Kai, it’s a great show, but they’re so different.

Dustin Nguyen: It’s like saying an enchilada and an egg roll are the same because they’re wrapped, but the taste is completely different.

But it’s a challenge when you have a limited platform. Even when you hear Warrior is a drama/martial arts show. It doesn’t really tell you a lot until you actually sit down and watch an episode or two.

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SPOILER: Do you think directing and acting on the same series is an advantage or disadvantage?

Dustin Nguyen: On Warrior, I’ve yet to have to direct and act in the same episode, and frankly it’s not something I want to take on. I’ve done it on feature films I’ve done in Vietnam for financial reasons. And one thing I’ve learned from doing that—I had to do it twice—is it’s not something you wanna do because it really is incredibly draining, exhausting, and nothing good can come out of it because you’re just too scattered and pulled in so many different directions.

On a show like Warrior, or on a series [in general], if you’re lucky enou-

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gh where they let you direct, you have the luxury of riding around that.

They knew that in episode 6, the particular episode I was going to direct, they would ride around it to make sure that Zing is not in it. You can kind of work around it to make sure that it’s not overwhelming for the director. But it’s tough. If you happen to do both, it’s very difficult because directing is arguably 40 times more intense than acting. When you’re an actor, you’re one of the colors of the painting—be the best red or the best yellow you can possibly be—but the person doing the painting has to make so many decisions about what goes into it and so on. Directing is so exhausting. You’re handling all of this and then you have to be in front of the camera. When you’re acting, you’ve gotta flow, man. You can’t be thinking about anything else. But if you’re directing and you’re acting, I’ve been in a scene where the camera’s on me, and while I’m acting I’m thinking about what I’m gonna do when I turn the camera around on the other actor [laughs] because I’m seeing adjustments that I need to make. I’m doing a closeup and I’m thinking, “Oh man, in two hours the sun’s gonna go down. I gotta figure something out.” So you can’t quite possibly do your best when you’re

directing and acting. You do the best you can and you get through it. But to get to do both, listen, I’m not gonna sit there and complain. I’ll take it anyway. I’d rather do that than digging ditches [laughs]. Not that there’s anything wrong with digging ditches, but it’s like, “You’re a lucky bastard, man! Don’t complain!”

SPOILER: I know being a director is no joke, it can get very hectic at times. But you give off this very calm and laid back energy.

Dustin Nguyen: That’s just my nature. I truly believe that’s how it should be. I think very early on, or maybe the background that I came from, or I’m fortunate enough that my parents and different teachers who have come in and out of my life have instilled in me that one of the most important things is perspective. And it sounds cliche and philosophical, but at the end of the day it comes down to perspective and where you’re sitting and how you’re looking at things. Because no matter what—I’ve been through some hard times, as you have, Galaxy, and everybody sitting here—but there’s always somebody who’s having it a lot harder than you, you know? And I guess I’ve trained myself, no different than the martial arts training or

training a muscle, the default thing I always try to go with is perspective: “This is my situation, but there are people right now at this moment who are having it a lot worse than what I’m going through.” And it’s not just a justification or a philosophy that you can just masterbate with—to use that language—but it’s true. There are times when I’m on a film set, and you’ve got days when everything is going wrong and you’re stressed out of your mind, you don’t know if you’re gonna make your day, and you’re cranky and you might’ve said some things and you might’ve lost your temper, and you’re feeling miserable. And then you go home that night and go, “Wait a minute, yeah it was a tough day, but I’m making a movie, man,” which was a dream of mine from the time I was sitting in the cinema when I was kid, “and I’m actually living my dream!”

And not too long ago, 15, 20 years ago, I was diggin’ ditches, and I was doing construction work, and a lot of other work. And it’s just perspective and you hafta remember that and go, “You know what? I should be really happy that I’m having this kind of stress.” So that’s how I’ve gotten through life so far, and I’ve trained and conditioned myself to do that.

Truly, Galaxy, it really comes down to that. You’re always gonna run into stuff in life but, man, there’s people out there who are having it a lot

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dustin nguyen a few scenes with him that are very memorable, so it’s tough. But I guess I would have to say, only because of the nature of it, it’s the scene with Joe Taslim, where we’re talking a little bit before we started trading blows in episode 5 of season 2. If you recall, I say something to the effect of, “After I kill you, I’m gonna go see Mai Ling…” and said some over-thetop delicious lines to him that you could never say any other time in life [laughs].

SPOILER: If you can share a final thought with your fans, what would it be?

worse. I gotta say, bro, when I hear actors complain, my blood just boils—successful actors. “Aw, it’s such a pain in the ass!” I get all of that and I’m sympathetic to it, but when people complain, especially successful actors, I just got no time for it, man.

I just think sometimes they need to get their perspective right. Not that I’m perfect or a saint, but that’s just how I feel. It’s a slap in the face, but I think more importantly, you’re just doing a disservice to yourself and what God gives you. There’s just no other way to say it. You really gotta take into account what God gives you–or whatever you believe in. Even when things are bad, if you look really hard, you find something that keeps you going because there’s always somebody worse off than you. That’s just the way it is. And you and me, tomorrow, we can get caught up and forget about stuff too, but you try to check yourself and put things into perspective. We’re human beings after all, but society

these days, it’s very easy to spin out of control. And sometimes I read certain things, and I try not to judge because I’m not God, but you read certain news items and people are complaining about this and that, and showing off their $100,000 Gucci watch or whatever. Not that there’s anything wrong with material things, but I’m like, “You actually have articles about this, man? Come on, there’s sh*t goin’ on right now! You’re kickin’ it in your $2 billion yacht when people are starving on the beach?”

There’s nothing wrong with having nice things in your life–I mean, God bless you–but it’s the way you promote it and the way you present it in an insensitive way when there’s other people struggling.

SPOILER: What was your favorite scene in the entire two seasons?

Dustin Nguyen: The first thing that comes to mind is Hoon Lee. I love his character, and he’s such a wonderful actor and human being. I had

Dustin Nguyen: I wanna thank them, if there are some fans out there of my work and of the show in general, I sincerely thank them, because there are a lot of choices these days for people to watch. And in this particular case, I’m very grateful that we have a following at this show. If you’re a fan of the show, I really wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart. It’s the kind of stuff that keeps me going as a performer, as a filmmaker, as a storyteller.

I just genuinely wanna express my gratitude because I know, when I turn the TV on, there’s so many choices I don’t even know where to start, Galaxy. Unless someone refers me to something or recommends something.

I don’t know about everyone else. So in this case, if someone really happens to dig Warrior, like you or some of the fans we have, I truly thank everybody for that. february 2021|

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interview interview

INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

If listening to Perry Yung speak doesn’t get you hyped up about Bruce Lee, then I don’t know what will. Perry owes his career to the martial arts icon and has somewhat of a personal connection to the actor himself, not only coming from the town where Lee had his first kung fu studio, but learning martial arts from Jack Man Wong, who once had a highly-publicized feud with Lee. The Oakland native sheds light on what it was like growing up in the city during the height of the Bruce Lee craze, and how his ubiquitous presence in society helped make an impact in the inner-city, perhaps more than it did anywhere else. Yung saw the Lee’s success as a sign that anything is possible.

Being in this game for a while, Yung has such an important point of view and has seen, first hand, the consequences of poor Asian representation in Hollywood for decades.

Moving to New York in the ‘90s to pursue a career in theater, the actor

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shied away from film and television for years because of the grossly limited roles for people who looked like him.

A man who knows well his culture’s history, Perry recognizes more than anyone the opportunity for Warrior to tell these stories which have been inexplicably buried for decades in this industry, and has been empowered even more by the very existence of the series.

His role as Father Jun is that of the patriarch of the Hop Wei Tong. A master diplomat, the big boss runs his tong with an iron fist, but also with a brilliant mind. Like Vito Corleone, Father Jun is the gangster of all gangsters.

Along with trying to put the enigma of Bruce Lee’s popularity into words, Perry also shares with us how he got into acting, and Warrior’s role in this ever-changing cultural landscape of Hollywood.

SPOILER: Perry, what does Warrior mean to you?

Perry Yung: Oh man, it’s amazing!

But first, I’d like to say thank you so much to you and the fans for supporting the show. It’s amazing to see this response. Working on this show is a dream for someone like me who’s Chinese American, born in Oakland, California where Bruce Lee had his first kung fu studio. Bruce Lee was like the hometown boy who made it big when I was a kid. He was the person I looked up to and said, “Look, he got out of Oakland. He made it.” Boy, did he make it. No one else from Oakland came close to what Bruce Lee did. He was my hero.

I can say with 100% honesty, being an Asian American actor, I would not be doing what I’m doing. He was my inspiration. He saved my ass.

Growing up in Oakland in the ‘70s, it’s not an easy city. Oakland has a reputation. It was an urban city with a lot of racial issues. It’s the home of the Black Panthers. It’s really progressive. It was multiculturalism way before the word came about. The city is full of Latinx, Black, Asian– Oakland is like Queens in New York City where there’s like 28 languages spoken. So back in the day, if we left Chinatown, we could feel all the eyes on us. We didn’t stray too far from the border [laughs], we’d get shoved around a bit. But after Enter the Dragon came about, we got some respect. We had people looking at us goin’, “Hey! You know that stuff?

Show us some of that stuff!” Before that it was like, “Hey! Give me your lunch money!” So Bruce Lee saved our asses. It was amazing.

SPOILER: Even if you didn’t know kung fu, you had to give off the perception that you did.

Perry Yung: Exactly! It was, “Either act like you know kung fu or get your money taken.” [laughs] There was no choice. But I saw that we got a lot of respect from those people who said, “Show me kung fu.” They really meant it because they were so excited about kung fu. This new form that happened at a time when African American culture kinda needed a different role model like everybody did. One that Hollywood never offered. So when kung fu hit

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the theaters, it was like, “We wanna be like that!” It was something that Hollywood didn’t offer before that was not white. So here was this form, here was this hero, here was this guy who fought oppression.

And everybody in the audience in Oakland at that time, predominantly people of color, could identify with what Bruce’s message was.

SPOILER: Did you ever get a chance to go to Bruce Lee’s original school?

Perry Yung: Well when he was doing his stuff I was only about 5 or 6.

I was born right in Oakland when Brandon and Shannon [Lee] were also. But you know the famous fight with Wong Jack Man? There’s a famous fight [between him and Bruce Lee]. Jack Man Wong was my teacher. When I started studying with him I was about 7, 8 maybe. The only reason I went to study with him was because my two older brothers went to study with him and they had to babysit me, so they dragged me along. I was too young, I just remember him yelling at me all the time [laughs]. I couldn’t stand still. I couldn’t do the horse stance, I was too young. But a couple years after that, people were saying, “You know,

our teacher fought Bruce Lee?” I was like, “Wait, what?” They go, “Yeah, he had a fight and that’s why he’s not around anymore.” And we don’t really know what happened with the fight, it’s kinda like myth and legend, but we know that there was a fight.

And it just blew me away that my teacher was the one who was involved. Obviously that happened way after I had stopped studying with him, so I couldn’t really confirm what had happened. But yeah, I studied with Jack Man Wong.

do it, but actually there were a lot of pretty women there at the time. And I was like, “You know what? Being a dancer is way better than being a fine artist,” because you’re just kinda stuck in your studio—there’s no one around but you and your canvases.

But if you’re a dancer you’re in a studio with a lot of beautiful women, so I was like, “Okay, I’m gonna try this out” [laughs]. So I found myself doing dance, and next thing you know, when I graduated I said, “I’m gonna go to New York City to see what it’s all about.” I ended up doing more theater and auditioning.

I wanted to continue with fine art and music, but it was much easier to get into theater and dance. And next thing you know I’m in a theater production. Some of the first Asian American theater companies, like Pan Asian Rep and Ping Chong, people who’ve been making experimental theater since the late-’60s and ‘70s, and I happened to meet these people and get into their shows. From there I had legit actors say, “Hey, you wanna try film or TV? If you do, I could turn you on to my agent.” This was the early-’90s, and when I looked into that world, there was nothing for someone like me. Back then I had long hair, kinda like this rock musician kinda guy, and there was nothing on TV for a Chinese or Asian American character like that in the early-’90s.

It was basically gangster roles in Chinatown or waiters and stuff like

SPOILER: Why acting?

Perry Yung: Long story short, I was an artist and musician first. I was in punk rock bands and rock bands in the early ‘80s, late ‘70s—punk rock and heavy metal. And then I realized I just like to be on stage. And at some point I just started studying movement from the actor, I thought I could use it in performance art, in music. Then I found myself on stage doing stuff like dance and theater, because people were like, “You have stage presence, why don’t you come see what it’s all about?” This was in school, so I’d have teachers bring me to their dance studios out of school.

I wasn’t a dancer and didn’t want to

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that. So I basically stopped. I was like, “I don’t think I wanna audition for these roles.” You might have one line. This was the time right after Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles and you’re like, “There’s nothing for me in TV and film.” So I bailed. I stuck with theater because it was a way to really engage with a live audience, and your skin color didn’t matter as much in live theater as it does in film and television. Your ethnicity says a lot about your character and helps the writers tell the story quickly. So things have changed a lot since then. Look at where we are now with streaming and Netflix, where people want original content.

Badlands, Crazy Rich Asians, I mean, it took a long time for these shows to happen. I remember when Joy Luck Club came around and then nothing happened for like 20 years in Hollywood. But if you were into kung fu, you saw Hong Kong movies.

John Woo came out in the mid-’90s and he made a huge splash in the independent film circuit. And he kinda blew the door open with his style, his way of cinematography.

Wong Kar-wai, these people weren’t mainstream Hollywood but they were making a splash in culture. You would read about them in European magazines, you’d read about Wong Kar-wai and John Woo. And suddenly—I had a theater company called Slant, and we were making all these statements on representation in theater. And we’d have talks with the audience and there’d be young people who’d go, “I don’t know what you mean when you say, ‘Asian men have negative stereotypes.’ I think they’re really cool. When you see John Woo films and Chow Yun-fat, they’re really cool!” And I’m like, “Wow, there’s a whole generation now who aren’t raised on Long Duk Dong and Mickey Rooney from Breakfast at Tiffany’s— these stereotypes.” They haven’t seen these films like my generation has. But they’re seeing Romeo Must Die. SPOILER: Oh my goodness, Mickey Rooney’s stereotype was awful.

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Perry Yung: I know. It was horrible! It left an indelible mark in Hollywood as representation for what people think Asians are. People still reference that film now and how bad [his portrayal] is.

Those things linger. They don’t go away. They leave a shadow; a bad taste in the mouth of Hollywood.

So it’s up to us to change the spices. You know, with Warrior, we’re so blessed.

SPOILER: Warrior is very spicy.

Perry Yung: It’s spicy and it’s a whole new flavor for the palette of the new audience who needs something new. Thank God for the executive producers, Justin Lin, Shannon Lee, Jonathan Tropper. Kenneth Lin and the rest of the writers, all these amazing writers who understand what representation means and the importance of it. And they’re giving Asian American men and women a whole new palette to work off of.

SPOILER: You gotta give it up to the set designers and crew. Their hard work paid off big time. The set is amazing, don’t you think?

Perry Yung: The Cape Town Film Studios are so talented and ready to work. They do international work at top quality, and that’s why I think Jonathan Tropper and Justin Lin decided that we can afford them.

Because Cinemax had a really low budget to make this show, and it’s surprising that it got made. But thanks to Justin and Jonathan, who found them and said, “We can make this show in South Africa.” It’s wild to have a Chinatown in Cape Town, South Africa. They built this amazing set. I mean, I walked on set and my heart stopped for a minute. I’ve been in Hollywood and walked around Universal Studios and these big sets, but this Chinatown is the most amazing set I’ve ever seen out of any Chinatown I’ve ever seen—maybe not the ones actually made in Hong Kong or China, but definitely in the US or internationally, it’s the most amazing set, down to the minute detail. When you walk down the street and you see cabbage—that cabbage is real. And you don’t see it in the film, you just see a peddler. You see a fish seller—that fish is real. Two days later it’s full of flies. That dried squid hanging—it’s real. You smell that dried squid. People don’t spend that money like they do in South Africa because [the country] has the resources, for one thing—they have agriculture and fish so they’re not wasting it. But the time they take, the expertise of the set designers

and art directors, and the crew. The crew is so respectful. I would say they’re the most respectful crew I’ve ever worked with. They are so respectful of the actors and talent and creatives. They just want you to do your work and quietly do their work.

And their work is fantastic. How well a shoot goes depends on how well each member moves quickly—moves that table, moves that light right before they say, “Action.” It’s teamwork, it’s clockwork. And you gotta have a good crew. That crew at Cape Town Film Studios, they’re amazing.

If anyone ever thinks about shooting a film there, they should hire them.

They get it done.

SPOILER: Another reason we need season 3 is because Father Jun’s journey is not finished, the second season ended with so many cliffhangers.

Perry Yung: Yeah, man. Thank you so much for the work to put it out there. That’s what it takes, just a little bit of outreach and advertising, because anyone who’s seen this show is blown away by the power of it in terms of entertainment, and then the historical aspect, and then the topical subject matter of racism and white supremacy and scapegoating and political demagoguery, all that is happening right now. And that’s why it’s hitting a nerve because this is happening right now.

We had the Chinese Exclusion Act

in 1882 and nobody even remembers that, but that’s the reason why there were no women in Chinatown because the laws didn’t allow Asian women to come and they didn’t want Chinese people to start families in America. They basically said, “You come and you work, and when you’re done, you either go home or you die here alone.” That was the message to the Chinese, and that has to play out. I wanna see how that story plays out in Warrior. I know my history as a Chinese American. I have never met my grandmothers because of that law, they were not able to immigrate. Only the fathers came, and then when they got lonely, they had arranged marriages so they went back to China and consummated the marriage and had a couple of babies and then they left. And maybe 10 or 12 years later they would go back if they had a son and bring the son over, because they couldn’t bring the mother over. So I’m fifth generation because of that. My great-grandfather went back and forth. If they had not put a cork in it, imagine how many Asian Americans there’d be in America. We’re such a minority because of that. It’s really sad and any Asian Americans who know the history, when they see the show they’re like, “Oh my God, they’re actually telling the story! Finally! A story that Hollywood would not touch.”

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I don’t wanna give anything away, but season 2 episode 9, I was out on the sidelines watching that because I knew how historical that moment was for us, to have that story told on TV. I couldn’t believe it while they were shooting it. I was like, “They’re finally gonna tell this story.” If you really do Chinese American history, you’ll know that Chinese camps were burned down, like nothing, Chinese mining camps in the Barbary Coast of California, and Arizona, and New Mexico, Nevada, they were burned down. Whenever Chinese struck gold, white miners would come in and kill them. This happened consistently and was rampant, but this story isn’t told by anyone. It’s empowering to me to finally have my history told, and then to be in this show, it’s just like a dream come true. People don’t know that Chinese were lynched just as much as black people, proportionately. But to finally have that story told in a Hollywood television series was mind-blowing. And it’s offered in a way that’s full of art. It’s entertainment. We get this medicine through entertainment, but it’s healing the country and those people, like me, who feel like they’re finally heard; our stories are finally told. And it’s done in a way where, this show, thanks to Jonathan and Justin and Shannon, it’s done through art. People can take the art. They might not be able to take the lecture or a documentary, but if they see it in the guise of a kung fu TV show, they get the story. And it’s done in a way where, “Okay, I can accept this medicine. It’s going down sweet, but it’s strong.” A lot of people say they go back. They think about it and then go watch it again, and then it reverberates even stronger and resonates even deeper. I’ve heard people say that they’ve watched Warrior over and over again, because it’s finally a voice—it’s not just entertainment.

SPOILER: Everybody said, “Wait ‘til you talk to Perry, he’s deep.”

Perry Yung: [laughs] Malcolm X said you can’t do anything until you know your history. “Until you know where you came from, you’re not gonna know where you’re going.” So I was lucky that

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when I went to school I happened, by chance, to go to an Asian American Studies class. When I walked into that class, my mind was blown about how society works and all these systems.

You’re talking about how systems in America guide culture and guide where we come from, and how our laws are made, and how people treat each other through these laws. And then from that I took another Asian American in Law class, and I was like, “Holy sh*t!”

Asian Americans were just as worse off as Black Americans at the time. We got our “model minority” status, and thus were sort of pinned against other minorities to say, “Look at Asian Americans, they’re the model minority. You should do what they do. And if you do that we won’t need Affirmative Action.”

You learn how the government abused people of color, and until you study this stuff you don’t know what’s going on in society. You only think, “Those Asians, they’re rich and they’re smart.

We should be like them.” But because of that we have honorary white society, but we’re not white. Asians are not white. When we get lumped with that, we get violence perpetrated upon our bodies. They’re not gonna attack white people, but they will attack Chinese. So I was lucky that I studied Asian American History. I have a minor in Asian American Studies. I know how this society operates and you just kinda have to work your way around it and get the most out of it.

Like Ah Toy and Mai Ling—in that time of America, there was extreme misogyny and they kept women in their place.

But how did Ah Toy and Mai Ling rise?

And there were real women like that.

They had to work the system somehow. It’s a look at how women had to buck the system. So I think the genius of Warrior is the writers know about that, they know about these systems and they’re like, “Let’s look at how Ah Toy and Mai Ling are gonna fight all this—and Ah Sahm.” And Father Jun had some nice speeches in the beginning that told us. He’s a revolutionary.

He’s an activist. He saves his people.

He created the most powerful tong in

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love somehow, and I think that there’s a sort of resonating chamber of love involved in this genre that comes from Bruce.

One of my favorite quotes from Bruce that inspires me is that he does what he does to show the beauty of the Chinese culture. It’s not about ego. If you look at the story of all of Bruce’s films, it’s about him overcoming oppression, because that’s the story of his life in America and the story of how he had to get through Hollywood, and how he lost the Kung Fu series to David Carradine. But underneath all of that, he’s not a bitter dude. He’s got philosophy to get him through it. “You gotta flow like water, because water is so powerful. Just keep moving and it’s fresh, and it’s rejuvenating. Your water has to flow. If it doesn’t flow, it’s gonna be stagnant and breed disease.” That’s one of my favorite quotes from Bruce. Bruce was such a great philosopher, and it’s helpful, useful philosophy. It’s not out of the grasp of most people. You read it and think, “Be like water.” Everybody has a take on that, it’s not too esoteric or abstract.

Chinatown so that he could prevent the violence of the ducks upon our people. That’s Malcolm X talking.

Jonathan Tropper wrote that.

SPOILER: Your Instagram shows you as a kind and spiritual person. If the viewer didn’t see that side of you on social they’d think you were really some mafia gangster [laughs].

Perry Yung: [laughs] That side is in me when I have to be an activist because I know that’s what it takes.

But I’m also the kind of activist that is like, I don’t know if you know Grace Lee Boggs, but she’s the first Chinese American activist who worked with supporting the Black Panthers and she did it with love. She was like, “I’m gonna be an activist and I’m gonna do this with love.” And Martin Luther King also. I embrace those concepts of change with love, even if it’s difficult. I understand Malcolm X’s point of view: “If change doesn’t come 60 years later after Civil Rights marches, if change still hasn’t come, something’s gotta break. It’s gon-

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na break before it gets any better.”

There are a lot of different ways of looking at how we can change, and my first inclination is to embrace and support change with love. It’s an opportunity to show that we can do this as a human race. We are one.

We’re born loving each other. Babies love to laugh. Racism is learned at home. I don’t know if you saw American History X. The father comes home talking crap about other races.

Babies aren’t born racist. You have to wonder where that comes from.

We have to cultivate love, and I think that Warrior does cultivate love in the show through the means of loving the characters, loving the way the story is told, loving the beauty of the fight choreography. It’s beautiful, but it’s done in a very artistic way that people can go, “Oh, I admire how they did that.” A lot of people say that they can’t take the gore, but they actually see it in a different way because it’s done so well. So I think the producers of Warrior understand that we can show racism through

SPOILER: Bruce Lee is idolized by millions, from every walk of life around the globe. Isn’t that wild?

Perry Yung: That’s pretty mind boggling, isn’t it? I’m sure there are tons of white supremacists loving Warrior [laughs]. It’s the genre, they like action, fighting genre, but they don’t know it’s about white supremacy.

From my experience being Chinese

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American, or just a person with an Asian face, first of all, I’m lucky that I’ve been able to travel the world quite a bit because of my theater work in New York City. I was working with La MaMa theater and they do a lot of tours annually around the world—theater work, with Spain, Italy, Africa, the Balkans, Europe, Asia, everywhere. And whenever I arrive, almost any non-Asian city, I get out of the airport and I get in the cab and the cab driver is usually like, “Where you from?” And I’m like, “America.” And they’re like, “Well you don’t look American” [laughs].

I’m like, “Well my parents are Chinese.” And invariably they all go, “Bruce Lee!” I’m not offended by that because he’s my hero. I’m talking about Egypt and Spain, these cab drivers go, “I love Bruce Lee!” How is that possible through the language barrier? He’s not even Chinese [to them]. He’s like something else they see. He represents something else. I don’t know how to explain it. No one says, “I don’t like Bruce Lee.” I was in a shopping mall in Cape Town. I had my Bruce Lee shirt on that Shannon gave me. This woman with a Louis Vuitton bag and gold rings and all this stuff goes, “Bruce Lee! Now there goes a guy!” She was

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an older white woman, maybe like 70. I get outside the mall and there’s a black guy sitting on the ground panhandling, I give him some rand, and he sees my shirt and goes, “Bruce Lee! That was the guy!” You have two people here from totally opposite walks of life, both admiring Bruce Lee. Is that amazing or what?

SPOILER: It’s beyond love, beyond admiration.

Perry Yung: It’s iconic. He’s one of the most iconic human beings in the world without a doubt. And even if you haven’t seen his face, you know his name.

SPOILER: You know what’s fabulous?

Netflix just started playing Bruce Lee movies. I believe it’s because of the enthusiasm driven by Warrior or because it was his 80th birthday recently.

Perry Yung: 80th, yeah. I gotta hand that over to Shannon. She is an amazing person to carry on this legacy.

Shepherding this legacy through this new era through digital social media.

There’s a documentary that Shannon produced, too. It’s just timeless, his charisma. His talent, the visual imagery of Bruce is breathtaking.

He’s a beautiful human being. He

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represents the good in humanity.

We all wanna be good. We all wanna be the hero. We all wanna overcome adversity. And Bruce does all of that.

But he does it not for himself, but for his community, if you watch his films. He’s got a group of people he’s helping out. It’s like, “We are one.”

Bruce Lee’s other famous quote, “Under one sky, we are one family,” something like that. So he lives it. He shows it in his art. It’s the impetus, the inspiration behind what he does that resonates so clearly to people.

Without a doubt he’s on a mission.

And his mission is to save humanity.

SPOILER: We live on this rock that’s zooming around this fireball at tremendous speeds—you ever think how amazing that is—but then we have racism? Why? We’re all from the same planet, we’re the same species.

Perry Yung: Scientifically, you can break it down, we all come from the same thing. Even if you break it down even further, going into the most modern science, the DNA, the smallest molecule that makes up human beings, that makes up animals, that makes up a rock, is the same molecule. We are all that one thing.

And then we have racism! Which doesn’t make any sense. We have plenty of resources to live the happy, joyful life. We can share the resource. Why can’t we do it?

SPOILER: I hope people have the mindset to think about it that way.

And I hope the world can sit with you for 10 minutes, Perry, because you break it down, brotha!

Perry Yung: Really, at the end of the day, don’t you wanna feel good? I don’t know what it feels like to be a white supremacist, somebody who hurts other people. But what makes people feel good is helping.

If you help a lady cross the street, if you give somebody a glass of water who feels thirsty, helping makes you feel good. The gesture of helping, it’s not that difficult. To me, taking something from someone doesn’t make me feel good. Stealing something from someone doesn’t make me feel good. If I share my meal with

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someone, I’m happy to give them more of my meal if they need it. That makes me feel good, that makes me feel human. I think Bruce had that philosophy in him. He put himself out there. He put his body at risk to help people. That’s a great example of a human being.

SPOILER: Do you think when Bruce Lee was at his prime, he was intentionally planting a seed for the future? That his intent was, “This is going to affect millions for decades to come”?

Perry Yung: That would be a great question to ask Shannon. For me, the power of his art means that he’s committed to doing the most important thing in the moment.

He’s not compromising anything but what we’re doing right now. What we’re doing right now, in this room, that’s going to be captured on film, that’s the most important thing. He might’ve done his research to say

that every bit of it is driven by sharing the beauty of his culture, and if only sharing the beauty of his culture is enough, then it will resonate. You don’t have to think about what will happen afterwards, because the most important thing is, “Does this moment share the beauty of my culture?” But I can’t speak for Bruce [laughs]. We can only judge by his actions. His actions are the films he’s made. Because it’s not easy making a film. It’s really difficult if you talk to anybody who’s a filmmaker telling a story. There’s so many hands in the pot. That’s the medium of film. You have all these creatives—the writer, the director, casting, costumes, music, lighting, camera op, the director of photography—all those people want their stamp on the film. So for somebody to make a successful film takes a lot of diligent hard work, and focused work. So for Bruce to be consistently turning out these films means he was driven by something.

Aside from talent, he had a vision, and I think, going back to your question, he just wanted to share his beautiful culture with the world. And if it fails, he’s gonna go back to the cutting room.

SPOILER: And Bruce did it before social media. He was able to rise to the top and become this icon and legend during a time when it wasn’t that easy.

Perry Yung: It was so much harder in his time to make good art. You really had to be dedicated to it. There weren’t as many people doing it. There’s more people making films now. You can shoot and edit on your own. So to really be a filmmaker and an actor, I think, was a much harder, deeper struggle than it is now. I’m not saying it’s easier now—it’s still hard. It was just harder back then. I think what Bruce went through in Hollywood when he was pitching Kung Fu, the series, and doing Green Hornet, I think it was really hard probably what he experienced on set.

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SPOILER: Perry, any final words to the fans?

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Perry Yung: I just wanna say that it’s such a privilege to be carrying on the legacy of Bruce Lee. I’m humbled by it. I have so much gratitude.

I’ve met the most amazing people on this journey. All the actors, the whole cast, all the creatives, the writers, Shannon, Jonathan, they all changed my life. And also, they’re all really down to earth, humble, great human beings. I just wanna say I have so much gratitude.

And so much gratitude for you all for helping us push Warrior to a new season, hopefully.

SPOILER MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

The name, itself, just invokes a bad taste for many, and sounds devious whenever you hear it, but this is by design. In a world of ruthless gangsters, the Deputy Mayor is like a rogue mafioso himself. This lone wolf has his hands dipped all over town and uses his power to unapologetically instate his own agenda.

The effectiveness of Buckley can be attributed to the impressive talents of actor Langley Kirkwood, who plays the role with an unrestrained conviction. A native of South Africa, where the series films, Langley has seen an accomplished career over the past 20+ years, and now gets another time to shine as the insidious villain of Warrior.

Brought on board by showrunner Jonathan Tropper, whom he’s had a chance to work with in the past on the series Banshee, Langley also had a recurring role on Starz’ Black Sails, which shares a lot of the same crew as Warrior.

Galaxy talks with the actor about his role on the HBO series, how often fans message him about their disdain for his character, as well as some ambiguous teasers for what’s to come if (and when) this series gets its third season.

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FANS OF WARRIOR LOVE TO HATE WALTER BUCKLEY.

erview erview SPOILER: I ask all the cast this same question, what does Warrior mean for you?

Langley Kirkwood: First and foremost, it’s a wonderful opportunity to work with really great people— people who I love—and to work in my hometown. That ticks a lot of boxes for me. I’d moved back to Cape Town shortly before we filmed the pilot to be closer to my kids because I’d been living in LA for a few years, and I had a relationship with Jonathan Tropper, the show’s creator, from another show called Banshee. He had a part he thought would be a good fit for me.

And it turned out Buckley was. And then to be involved in a show that has Bruce Lee’s name attached to it, that’s the dream of a lot of boys out there who grow up wanting to kick people’s asses—whether it be for real or on screen—so that certainly had a huge appeal. There really weren’t any parts to this whole deal, getting onto this show, that didn’t shout, “Yes!” at the top of the lungs. It was green lights all the way.

SPOILER: You were also on Black Sails, a show that shares a lot of the same crew as Warrior. Wor-

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king on both shows, which one do you think is closer to the period it portrays?

Langley Kirkwood: I guess we have more historical references in the world of Warrior—especially from a photographic perspective. It was obviously more recently—the 1870s as opposed to the world of Black Sails which was the 1700s, long before they had photographic evidence of things. And the world of that show is based on the fictitious world of Robert Louis Stevenson, with some historical characters thrown in. Honestly, when I looked at the photographic references we have on [Warrior], there are times where I’m looking at Cape Town and I can’t believe I’m not looking at San Francisco in the 1870s. And there are times on the backlot when my breath is taken away by how accurately the streets of Chinatown and San Francisco have been depicted. The set builders did an incredible job, the art department does an amazing job.

And the costumes are kinda mindblowing in their attention to detail.

It’s always fun. It’s always really cool to immerse yourself and add those other layers onto a character.

SPOILER: Do you prefer a modern series or a period piece?

Langley Kirkwood: That’s a good question. I’ve always been a history fan. And certainly history was one of my favorite subjects to study at school, and there’s something about being in a historical drama that I find really satisfying. I do find it wonderful to be able to immerse myself and imagine what life must’ve been like, doing research and homework for the character and the world of those times. I really enjoy the period stuff. I grew up watching Westerns, and there’s a lot of Western in the world of Warrior. So I do feel like I’m living out a childhood fantasy on a lot of levels. But ultimately it depends on the project, really.

SPOILER: You add so much detail and quirks to your character, Buckley. Bravo!

Langley Kirkwood: [laughs] Thanks so much. I wish I could take all the credit for that. But I really must give kudos to the writers. Jonathan Tropper and the writing team had a very clear vision from the word “go” about this character and all the characters that they’ve created. None of the characters are in any way flat or two-dimensional.

They are multilayered, multifaceted human beings, whether they are Madames or prostitutes or street fighters or narcissistic mayors or PTSD, strung-out, OCD, Deputy Mayors [laughs]—whoever the characters are, they all have these really interesting inner-worlds and backstories that make it just so much more of a joy to really dive in.

And I was led really well by a really good team of directors, producers, writers, in terms of being able to lay the groundwork for a character and knowing where all his idiosyncrasies came from and why he behaved in these weird ways.

SPOILER: What specific things did you do to prep for scenes and get in that mindset?

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Langley Kirkwood: His disability certainly was in my mind whenever I would do preparation for scenes. It was always a part of it. I’m always thinking about when I have to move around in the scene—not only how I will move around as Langley the actor, but how would Buckley want to be perceived to be moving around in this scene. He’s a man with a huge amount of pride. You could say that’s his Achilles heel in many ways—his pride and his vanity. So there’s always that motivation, not wanting to be seen in a negative light. He’s always aware of his disability and not wanting to draw attention to it because he does have such a complex about it.

SPOILER: The scene where Buckley massages his leg. It just adds so much to his origin.

Langley Kirkwood: I think there were two scenes—one in each season. In episode 1, season 1, if I remember correctly, even the way it was scripted, it was designed that the audience was supposed to not really be quite sure what they were watching [laughs].

SPOILER: [laughs] I thought it was a sex scene initially. It looked that way before the camera zoomed in.

Langley Kirkwood: So yeah, obviously with you the scene worked as how the writers intended it [laughs]. One of the great things about the show and one of the reasons why I think it’s had such an amazing response is, from a cinematic perspective, the show really punches above its weight. And that’s why we’re so excited that it’s found this other life now on HBO. Because the series really does have the style and the feel of a show with a far bigger budget than we had. Everyone on the show just takes immense pride in knowing the quality of the show that we’ve been able to produce.

SPOILER: Warrior is immensely underrated. It deserves a season 3. It’s like Deadwood, meets Peaky Blinders, meets martial arts.

Langley Kirkwood: Those are great analogies and comparisons. I love all of

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those things. It has the gangster world of Peaky Blinders. It also has a similar feel of Gangs of New York, combined with the most incredible martial arts that you can see on television. Brett Chan’s stunt team is just phenomenal.

The stunt performers are next-level.

They bring so much of themselves to every single fight scene that they do, and bring such pride in their work. And you can feel it. You can see the joy that goes into the preparation when you see the finished product on screen with the amazing fight sequences. Episode 9 in season 2, honestly, every time I watch that, my jaw drops. I think about the Fung Hai home invasion as well in season 2. There are just so many incredible action sequences. The reality is, even though, yes, it’s an action show, it’s also so much more than just an action show.

My girlfriend absolutely hates blood and violence, and yet I’m able to get her to happily sit through Warrior. She’s watched both seasons with me twice now, and she absolutely loves it. So I think that’s a testament to how much more there is to this show. It’s not just for action fans.

SPOILER: Are you hard on yourself?

Langley Kirkwood: I think in this day and age, because the nature of auditions has changed so much and we often have to audition ourselves doing tapes at home and sending them in, I think actors have learned that we have to be less critical of ourselves. So I’ve learned to be less harsh, but at the same time I hope I’ve also learned to be more honest with myself and be more open to help and criticism from colleagues and friends. From that perspective, I think I’ve been able to watch this show quite openly and honestly with myself and I must be honest, there’s no part of my performance in either season where I go, “I should have played that better.” I just enjoy it, which is great. It’s not often that I’ve had that in the past. I used to be a lot more critical of myself.

SPOILER: On Warrior you’re secretly doing deals with everyone. You’re a badass undercover gangster.

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SPOILER: I talk to a lot of actors and I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a unanimous enthusiasm about a show like the cast of Warrior has for it. It truly deserves a season 3.

Langley Kirkwood: The truth of the matter is that HBO owns the show and always has. Certainly from a cast perspective, there’s no one who doesn’t want this to continue.

We all would love for it to happen.

This isn’t a scenario where you have an okay show that only a few people like—it’s an amazing show that everyone who’s watching is really enjoying. And the fact that it has done so well in its first few weeks on HBO Max is a testament to that. As one of my cast mates actually said to me [who’s typically] slightly more

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Langley Kirkwood: He’s definitely got his finger in many pies and he likes to control things. He’s a bit of a puppet master and I suppose what’s great about this guy is because of this web that he has, there are so many different relationships that have got to play out. I’m always interested to see what’s going to happen next in terms of all the different relationships. Totally coincidentally, there was actually a historic person by the name of Buckley at this time who was involved in the politics of San Francisco. He ended up becoming very deeply involved in the underworld with one of the Madames in one of the tongs. Who knows where Buckley’s journey could end up going. But let’s hope for a few more seasons to explore that journey.

of a cynic than most of the others, “Langley, there’s no reason for us not to do another season. And there’s no reason for HBO Max not to want to do another season.” So let’s see where we go. I don’t believe the journey is over and I know a lot of us feel the same way.

SPOILER: If they greenlight the show, are you ready to jump back in as Buckley?

Langley Kirkwood: You’d have to dust a few things off I do believe [laughs], but the industry in South Africa is hurting since everything

has been severely curtailed by the pandemic, as it has everywhere. And we’re probably, right now, in the peak of our second wave. So I think when things have died down, hopefully we’ll have a vaccine here [in South Africa] soon. It hasn’t been rolled out here properly. But I don’t think it’s out of the question that we could get into pre-production within the next few months. Raised By Wolves, Ridley Scott’s show, which is also on HBO Max, that shoots here as well, and they are about to get underway with season 2. So it’s possible. But it just means that everyone would

have to be very careful. I’ve already shot a local South African show in the midst of lockdown last year, and it’s doable. It just takes longer, which obviously pushes budgets up. So it would just be about finding more time and money, and then we would probably have to go into some sort of production bubble as so many shows are doing around the world right now. There’s no reason why we can’t do all of these things.

SPOILER: The fans are restless. We’ve never gotten as much fan response on our end like we have for Warrior.

Langley Kirkwood: Well let’s just hope we keep on snowballing like that and make so much noise that the powers that be can’t ignore us any longer.

SPOILER: Do you ever get any fans who reach out and tell you that they despise your character?

Langley Kirkwood: Yeah! Are you kidding?? [laughs] Actually quite a lot. And they’re all really sweet and kind. It usually goes in this order: “I just wanted you to know that I absolutely hate your character. I think he’s despicable. He makes me squirm.” And usually that’s followed by, “And I want you to take that as a compliment because I think you’re doing a great job and it’s a wonderful performance.” [laughs] If they were saying that to me just as Langley, in the kind of numbers that I’m getting

in, then I would start to think that maybe I need to look at myself and examine the way that I’m conducting myself out in the world. But with the same passion that people are hating these characters, they’re loving the other characters in equal measure.

There’s something to love in all of them, even if it’s loving to hate them.

Every one of the cast members on the show loves their characters and loves playing them. You can feel it through the screen.

SPOILER: On set, who’s an actor you feed off of the most?

Langley Kirkwood: Dianne [Doan] and I hang out a lot on set because we do quite a few scenes together and she’s always good to be around just because she’s a bundle of really positive energy. [And then there’s] Joe Taslim. It’s almost as if he’s from another world. He’s so filled with love and positive energy. He’s incredible.

His energy is really infectious. But there’s no one I don’t enjoy hanging out with. I really enjoy hanging out with Dean [Jagger] and Kieran [Bew], they both have dry energy, as does Andrew Koji. He’s super dry and super funny. Perry [Yung] is this kind of really loving, kind, patriarchal—he’s the father of the show in terms of the cast. He’s just this really gentle, paternal figure. People say I’m nothing like my character, but neither is Perry. He’s such a sweet guy. It’s really an honor and privilege to be part

of a show that’s long overdue and so important to Asian people, not just in the states, but around the world.

And seeing more Asian representation in English language television is long overdue. I just feel so lucky to be part of this particular show, personally and professionally.

SPOILER: The cast of Warrior didn’t get to enjoy any conventions because the show got popular during the pandemic. I can’t wait for you all to experience fan interactions at conventions.

Langley Kirkwood: That’d be great.

There’s so much to look forward to once we’re done with this damn pandemic, man. I have lots of friends who’ve done lots of conventions and they all tell me it’s a complete blast.

I do wanna do Comic Con. Let’s look forward to brighter times and hope we can all get this pandemic under control as a human family, and come out the other side stronger and wiser.

SPOILER: Of all the scenes you’ve been in, which one is your favorite?

Langley Kirkwood: The scene where I stab myself in the arm [laughs], I remember that with some kind of fondness. Not because of what I did at the end of the scene, but maybe my favorite line in the whole season, which was when Joanna [Vander-

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SPOILER: Langley, is there anything you’d like to tell fans across the world?

Langley Kirkwood: Well, I’m not gonna say anything, but I’m also NOT gonna say that there isn’t something inside Buckley’s cane.

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ham]’s character, Penny, comes into my office and accuses me of buying off reporters, and I basically say, “Nonsense, I’ve been buying off reporters for years’’ [laughs]. I really enjoyed that line and I really enjoyed that scene and the way that it played off, in spite of the awful ending that it landed on for Penny.

But just from a complete mind f**k perspective, the flashback scene in episode 8 when we go back to the Civil War and we see how Buckley lost his leg, we took most of the afternoon to shoot that scene. And it really was such a surreal experience for me. I really felt like I had gone back in time 150 years to the Civil War and there were moments when I got flashes of how horrific it must’ve been living in that time, living through that war—living through any war. I count myself very lucky that I haven’t had to live through war. I have friends, both here and in [other countries], who have served in combat, and some of them are not the same. And it gave me a newfound empathy and respect for anyone who’s gone through that and come out the other side. It made me think about veterans, even though I’ve played US Marines on other shows, but I didn’t quite grasp the depth of how horrible and horrific war actually must be until I shot that scene. So that’s the most impactful scene in the show for me. It’ll be a stretch for a lot of audience members to actually empathize with Buckley, but that trauma he went through is very much part of what has made him the really complex character that he is.

Meet your new sidekick gita is a first-of-its-kind hands-free robot that follows you and totes your gear.

SPOILER MAGAZINE

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INTERVIEW BY GALAXY INTRO BY ETHAN BREHM

producer Shannon Lee, “I think I’ve been preparing my whole life for your dad’s show.” Like millions of kids, Rich grew up idolizing Bruce Lee, but strangely enough he also grew up a big fan of Bolo Yeung, a good friend of Bruce’s and also the namesake of his character on the series.

To double down on the coincidence and the funny way fate works, Rich grew up being called “Bolo” by his brothers and friends due to his larger stature, much like the bodybuilder himself.

In Warrior, Bolo is the right hand man of Father Jun, the leader of the Hop Wei Tong, and also serves as a sort of de facto nemesis of Ah Sahm within the tong.

On the series, Bolo can be a man of few words. He’s a tough dude who gets the job done, but you can’t help but stay locked into what his next move will be.

When you hear Rich Ting talk, it’s hard not to notice the wisdom he’s accumulated through his life’s experiences, punctuated even more by how incredibly incisive and articulate he is. A Yale alum and law school grad, Rich has had his plethora of options throughout his adult life, but sticks with acting because that’s what fulfills him the most. Even more impressively, where most celebrities use the pronouns “I” and “my” when discussing their careers—which there’s no problem with at all, by the way— Rich always makes sure to give credit to the team around him by saying things like, “When we booked the job...”

Fans won’t see Rich in season 2 of Warrior due to—spoiler alert!—his character’s demise, but the actor stays hopeful that he might be able to live on in the series in some capacity if a season 3 ultimately happens. However, don’t you worry: The grinder that he truly is, Rich is definitely keeping himself busy, even during these seemingly stagnant times.

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When Rich Ting got the role of Bolo on Warrior, he told executive

interview interview

rich ting

SPOILER: How was your experience filming Warrior?

Rich Ting: That’s a hard question to open up with because I could probably speak a few hours on that one. But in summation, it was a childhood dream to not only be part of something that was created by Bruce Lee, who’s obviously my childhood idol, but then to play another idol of mine who is Bolo Yeung, in a Bruce Lee-inspired show. Bruce Lee is the reason why I started my martial arts career at 4-years-old.

His philosophies and teaching and complete way of living have continued to influence me to the present day. So to not only be part of something that he created, but to honor him and pay tribute to him through it, I mean, I always say, “No one wakes up says, ‘Hey, when I grow up I want to do something that will be seen by millions around the world and it will be inspired by my idol,’ and then actually does it.” So it’s been really special, and words really can’t summarize what this project has meant to me. But I’m just truly grateful to be a part of it and to have something that we can share to the world.

SPOILER: You are a badass on the show.

Tell me about your martial arts background.

Rich Ting: I have a background in Tae Kwon Do and more recently through Jiu-Jitsu and Wing Chun and Jeet Kune Do. I started at 4-years-old because that was the first time I saw Bruce Lee on television, and didn’t really connect the dots but just saw something that I wanted to do. And luckily my parents were open to it to help me enroll at that early age at a Tae Kwon Do studio that was close to the house, and the rest is history. I just fell in love with the whole martial arts study, discipline, training, and was able to continue it throughout my adulthood. My mom always reminds me, “I’m the one who drove you to those lessons, and now you’re able to do it on camera and make a living.” It’s just incredible to think of everything I’ve been through, that at the end of the day, something that I started so many years ago is enabling me to showcase it on a world stage like Warrior.

SPOILER: That must’ve felt so amazing when you got the call for the part of Bolo

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on Warrior, because I’m sure you watched Bolo in movies growing up.

Rich Ting: Totally. It was a bit surreal to say the least. The truth is that, when I was growing up as a kid, and my parents are 2nd and 3rd generation Asian Americans, they had me enroll in the more traditional sports, which were football, basketball, baseball, and track, but on those individual teams I used to be the only Asian kid playing. And I was kinda big for my age. So at a very young age, the only other reference to a big Asian guy was Bolo. I remember playing Pop Warner football, my teammates would poke fun and call me “Bolo,” and my brothers would call me “Bolo” growing up. And then as Bolo Yeung, the real person, evolved in those Van Damme movies, that’s when Bloodsport had its renaissance and it was showcased more for a broader audience. So when I got to college and played Division I football, all my teammates were like, “Dude, you’re like Chong Li.” So this Bolo image and persona and physicality has followed me. The joke is, I never wanted to be Bolo, I wanted to be Bruce Lee, but because of my stature, I fell into the Bolo mold a little easier.

Long story short, when we got the call to not only audition for Bolo, but when we booked it, [laughs] I remember just laughing and being like, “You can’t write this. It’s meant to be.” Not only is it an honor, but I really think it was 100% in the universe for me to do this role and bring everything I’ve learned from both Bruce and Bolo, on and off the screen, and to tribute them. “Surreal” is the only word that comes to mind, but I don’t think that word even gives justice to what this overall project meant. Not only working with Shannon Lee and the Bruce Lee family, but with people like Justin Lin, Jonathan Tropper, Danielle Woodrow, all these amazing producers and writers under the same umbrella, with this amazing cast that we have. I don’t know if another project in my career will top this, just because of the magnitude that it symbolizes not only to me but to the world.

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SPOILER: The fight scene between you and Ah Sahm was such an amazing one. I think you rocked season 1.

Rich Ting: I appreciate that. I am not Father Jun’s blood son, but just due to our past and historical context, he has accepted me as his son along with his biological son Young Jun. And one thing we wanted to establish in that relationship is that obviously there has been a lot of time, a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of loyalty shown between me and Father Jun for him to be able to accept me in that position. And I reciprocate it by not only willing to give my life for him at any second, but to protect the Hop Wei from outsiders like Ah

Sahm. And I think viewers know that it’s not that I don’t like Ah Sahm, but I was protecting the family, the house, from anyone new or foreign to us.

I think in any fraternity or gang or organization like that, like Father Jun always says, “Loyalty above all.” And that loyalty doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a tremendous amount of time. Fans always hit me up, like, “Yo, why did you hate Ah Sahm so much?” But it wasn’t hate. It was protection. And obviously Rich Ting and Bolo have a sixth sense, we can feel people out. And I just smelled something that wasn’t right on that initial meet-and-greet with Ah Sahm in the street, and it took seven episodes

to finally get it out, but my gut was right, and I was willing to give my life for Father Jun. It was an honor to fight Ah Sahm. It was not an honor to be stabbed in the back by Mai Ling, but I’ll take it like a man [laughs], and live with it in my next life, hopefully on a new season of Warrior if that happens.

SPOILER: Did it make you sad exiting the show in season 1?

Rich Ting: I have to give so much thanks to Jonathan Tropper, because in the very onset of booking this role and this project, we had a meeting and he put everything on the table and was like, “Look, we have your character dying at the end of season 1, because we need that magnitude of an event—aka your death—to really push this show into episodes 9 and 10, and even into season 2, because of your significance. And because Ah Sahm and Mai Ling literally take your life, it has to be that huge so that we come to an intersection where the Hop Wei and the Long Zii have to fight it out in order to move on.” And that’s what you see between Joe Taslim’s character, Li Yong, and Ah Sahm. They have that big tournament fight because of my death. So from the beginning I was already mentally and emotionally ready.

I’d say the only reason I got sad was because the rest of the cast wasn’t aware of that at the time. So

as we got deeper into season 1 and also closer as friends—I always say I’ll never have a relationship with another cast like I have with this Warrior cast, due to the fact of where we were in South Africa, the amount of time spent, the project that we were working on. And I believe every one of us has a personal tie to Bruce Lee. And the fact that it was season 1 and we were doing something that has never been done before—having Asian Americans and Asians from other parts of the world speak unaccented English on camera in a Western, written and developed by Bruce Lee, a Chinese American. There’s so many intangibles that brought us closer together, so when we got to episode 7 and that script got emailed to the cast, I had to kinda relive all the emotions again that I had already gone through prior to even starting the show, because all my castmates were like, “Oh my God! What is going on?? You can’t die! We need to talk to JT about this.” It was the love and the family ties that I developed with these other castmates that made me sad. I wasn’t sad because I was dying, but because I was leaving this team. Not to say I can’t rejoin them hopefully some time in the future.

I always say, if I had one scene on one episode on one season on a Bruce Lee-inspired show, that woulda been enough for me—that woulda been epic in itself. So to have 6 or 7 episodes on season 1 and to play

that character and have the impact on the overall show that I did—that’s more than I ever dreamed of and I can never be sad about that. The fact that we’re still talking about this 4 years after we started [filming] it, that’s cool as hell to me. It’s one of those projects that will forever be with me. I’m completely grateful and humbled by it, and still in denial that I did it and played the character that I played, and that I belonged in this franchise.

SPOILER: People keep thinking Warrior got canceled, but I keep telling them that’s totally not the case. Cinemax just stopped original content to make way for HBOMax. Fans want a season 3 badly.

Rich Ting: A huge thank you to you guys, because you summed it up fantastically. The fans just aren’t included on this background information because it’s just reserved for the network and producers. It’s really blown my mind the overall support we’ve received from fans who were on board prior to it premiering, and then obviously after season 1 on Cinemax.

For me, once I’m done with a project, fortunately I have other things I have to move on to, but I knew that season 2 was gonna shine and that new characters were going to be introduced, and I was completely humbled and blessed with my time on season 1, so when people started

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promoting season 2, I was very content being like, “Yo, this is season 2. I’m not in the picture, and I support all my castmates on the next season.” And the fans were the ones who were like, “Why aren’t you involved?” And I’m like, “I’m dead. I’m currently not in that world anymore,” [laughs] and to my amazement, that’s not what fans wanted to hear. They were like, “No, what are you talking about?” So with outlets like yourselves who have done so much to push this show and highlight us and just talk about it, I can’t thank you enough, because if season 3 were to happen, it would be a direct result of the fans, networks like yourselves, and platforms that are such loyal fans that they feel like it’s their responsibility to get our story out there.

The HBO Max thing blew my mind.

It premiered at the beginning of 2021, and within a week I felt like it was back in 2019, season 1, the first week of the premiere because everyone was receiving so much praise and fan mail and it was just nuts. Because I had finished my part back in season 1. To be honest, everyone I know who has watched it has only said positive things. It’s not one of those things where you have to wait and wait and wait, and you finally get into the story in like, episode 6 or something. You watch the first 15 minutes of the pilot and you’re captivated and engaged and hooked, so that was the ultimate goal.

SPOILER: What got you into acting?

Rich Ting: I always say the childhood dream was to play Division I collegiate football, which I was able to do, and the fantasy was to be an actor in Hollywood. So I would say from a very young age, mixing Bruce Lee with Michael Jackson, and growing up in LA, I had that bug in me as a kid, probably younger than the age of 4. Throughout the years, taking part in school plays and drama classes, I was just never able to excel to the level I wanted to because my parents had just pushed the athletics on me and my brother so much. But it’s definitely been there.

It wasn’t until, I would say, grad

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school, just because I had the time.

I went to Yale University and won an Ivy League Championship there, and playing in the Ivy League, not only with the athletic schedule and the demand of that, but also the academics, was a full-time job. I was able to take and audit a bunch of great classes in the arts. However, again, because of my lack of time, I could not focus on the fantasy of pursuing acting, because my plate was full at the time. So moving onto grad school, I didn’t have football practice and team workouts. I had class in the morning and night classes, and I had this huge gap every other day. I kinda started investing and taking the acting classes and joining studios more intensively there, but more as a hobby, because I was on a different route. I had gone to law school and gotten my MBA, so I was headed towards the corporate world. It wasn’t until, ironically, I accepted a law firm job back in Los Angeles that my cousin, who’s a Hollywood stunt coordinator, asked me if I would be interested in helping him out on a project and doubling a guy, and also doing some motion capture, and having some lines as well. And having the acting background and the training I had at the time, I was definitely confident, but I just didn’t know what that was gonna lead to. So I decided to take the job.

I told my law firm that there was a different proposal on the table [laughs], and I didn’t wanna burn any bridges.

Fortunately all the law people I was working for at the time were very, very gracious. They said, “Go for it! If you fail in the entertainment industry, come back and there’s a job for you.” So with that kind of plan B set up for me, there was nothing to lose. I decided to give it a chance. I never wanted to pursue stunts just because I was more into the acting. Having played football and basketball and baseball, and ran track, and martial arts—I had sustained so many legitimate injuries, but I was still walking and working out, and I didn’t wanna now put myself in a stunt man’s world where they sacrifice their life, literally, every time they have to do something

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on camera. It just wasn’t appealing for me [laughs]. But I decided to do it just to get the exposure and to learn.

There’s no better way to learn than to be on a real life set.

This first gig was a Warner Brothers gig. I went from not acting or doing anything in entertainment to now being on the Warner Brothers lot shooting a feature film. It was a tremendous learning experience to say the least. You can take classes and work and train in the actor’s studio, but nothing prepares you for the real thing like the real thing. As soon as I was able to crossover from stunts into the acting world full time, I did that. Fortunately it only took a year and a few months until I got my first big acting job, and was able to leave the stunt world and pursue acting. And the rest is history and I’ve never looked back.

My motivation is, if this doesn’t work out, I’d have to go back to corporate law and wear a suit everyday. And I would rather not. It’s been a dream come true to say the least.

And it sounds cliche, but I really

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believe I was chosen and meant to do this. Because I feel like I could be doing a lot of things with my academic background, but the fact that I’m able to get up everyday and go from project to project and work in this crazy entertainment world is a true blessing. I know I’m lucky and I never take that for granted.

SPOILER: You worked hard to become an attorney, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Rich Ting: I like to say so.

There’s been too many positive weird things that have happened, including this Bolo role. I remember telling Shannon, “I think I’ve been preparing my whole life for your dad’s show.” It wasn’t like this was an idea in 2015 and they got everyone together, filming in 2017. These projects can be on the shelf

for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And that’s exactly what happened in Warrior’s case. This treatment was in Bruce’s garage, and then Shannon’s garage for decades. It wasn’t until Justin Lin called her up to [ask her about it]. THEN the creative juices start flowing. “Okay, now we need to get a showrunner, we need to get staff writers, we need to get producers, etc.” And then finally you go to casting. And then finally you get your cast. And then finally you get location. I mean, it’s a long way until you finally roll film. The fact that the timing worked out when it did, I truly believe it was meant to be. And that’s how I feel about my whole acting career overall. The time I got into the business, with the current way things are going, especially for Asian American artists, the way the world is currently changing, I think it’s special.

You just can’t plan for these things. I think they’re prewritten and I’m just following my path.

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SPOILER: Do you think your role on Warrior has opened doors for you in this industry?

Rich Ting: Definitely. The most important thing, especially in this industry, is the momentum. So you work 150% until you get there, and once you get there—like a booking like Warrior—then you have to start working 150% more. So really there’s no days off. The challenge is keeping that momentum going. I’ve felt that since the beginning of my career in this industry, I’ve slowly continued that momentum, allowing me to get a role like Bolo. But then it’s like, “Okay, how do I continue this momentum and this energy, not only for myself, but for my team?”

I think a lot of people forget that it’s not just the actor—we have management, publicists, agents, stylists—it takes a village to really get this thing going. So for me, after Warrior, it definitely was another stepping stone for me. It put me on a different platform. 2018, when we finished filming season 1, was one of my better years. I went from doing season 1 of Warrior to the finale season of The Man in the High Castle. I told you about my ties with Bruce Lee, but I’m a viewer as well in my offtime. And one of the shows that I was totally glued to as a viewer since season 1 was The Man in the High Castle. So to be cast, right after I got finished with Warrior, for the

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finale season of that show was a dream come true as well. And when people see me on that show in a different character—a completely different color—it just helps with the overall brand. You’re able to expand your audience and your cast. I’m not one to be typecast because my team does an excellent job in trying to get me projects that show a wide range of what I do. Bolo is a pretty epic character and it does involve martial arts and that physicality, but in reality, that’s just one of the tools that I carry in my pocket. My team and I, we never label myself as a martial arts actor or an action actor. I’m an actor, and if you need me to throw kicks, I’ll throw kicks, and because of my athletic background I’m very coachable and I’m flexible, and that’s what you need in this business. Ironically, the real Bolo usually played the same character with the same lines with the same overall genre, and that’s great, because if you’re able to make a career out of that, fantastic.

But I always like to be able to be in a position where I can show all the different things that I train on as part of my craft, and don’t wanna limit myself either.

It’s funny, a lot of people know me from High Castle, and other people know me from Warrior, but then a lot of other people have seen me in other things and go, “Wait a minute!

That’s the guy from there.” So hope-

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fully I’ll get to a point in my career where people won’t know what to expect. And as an artist, that’s the most fulfilling thing that I can achieve on a personal level.

Warrior definitely has helped me, but all in all, the kind of mentality I always live by is, “When I’m done, I’m done, and I move on to the next.”

And that goes with projects I didn’t get as well. I just look forward to moving on to the next thing, and that’s helped me get through this whole coronavirus quarantine. You can only control the things you can control.

There’s no use stressing about things that are outside of your world that you have no influence on, and that you have no control over. I just try to keep things simple. I’m not thinking of next year, or next, next year. And at the same time, you just have to be working and grinding because there’s no days off in this industry.

SPOILER: Do you sometimes ever think, “I don’t even have to be doing this. I went to Yale,” and get in your own head?

Rich Ting: I think it happened more so early on. I think it’s very human to have those doubts and those questions. People always ask me, “You went to Yale, do you feel like you wasted that?” To me, none of it’s a waste because acting is being a real character, being a real person, being believable. Having been raised on the west coast in Los Angeles, then I went to high school in inner-city San Francisco, then I went to Yale for my undergrad, and then went on to grad school—all of these experiences give me these tools that I can bring out at any given time. So I would be more intimidated and scared to look back and think, “There’s things I didn’t do that maybe would’ve helped me even more in the current time.” So it’s always been about finding something I love to do. What’s gonna get me up tomorrow morning? What’s gonna get me motivated to work out tomorrow? What’s gonna get me motivated to go to sleep early so I can be 100% at 6 a.m.? That was always the goal.

I think the scary part is to have

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I’m doing, and I’m able to do it every day, because it’s timeless.” Years can go by—and I can’t believe how time flies the way it does—and that’s only because I love what I’m doing.

kinda followed the system and to have gone to Ivy League and grad school, and followed that natural evolution into the corporate world, which is a fantastic career, however, it wouldn’t have been my career of choice. My fear was always getting stuck in something I didn’t want to do. As my career has evolved, it’s just confirmed that I’m doing exactly what I need to do. It also works with my personality type. I get bored very easily, and this business doesn’t allow you to get bored because you always have to stay ready and be on point. During quarantine, obviously the industry shut down, but that didn’t shut Rich Ting down. I’m working on projects, I’m writing, I’m producing. There’s tons of things you can do on your own. That motivation only comes from that drive or that fire that you have inside. So whether I’m a lawyer or a banker or a trader or whatever—if that’s what I wanna do, then that fire’s gonna be there.

It’s not, “What if?” No, it’s, “Thank God I found what I did when I did.”

Because that would have been a nightmare so many years later going, “I should have took that chance and followed my heart; followed my passion.” People always talk about the finance aspect, but the money will come. You can do anything to make money, but how long is that gonna

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last? I wanted to be an artist and an actor, not so I can retire at 50. I became an artist and an actor so that I don’t ever have to retire.

Perry [Yung] is obviously older than me, but the way he acts it’s like I feel old around the guy. He’s so youthful and has so much energy and is so positive. I admire that.

When I meet someone like Perry Yung on set, it just motivates me to know that I’m doing the right thing.

As I age and I continue to fall in love with my work and what I do every day, that’s gonna keep me young and fresh and positive. Even like Henry Yuk, our other Long Zii fella. When you meet Henry and Perry in real life, they make you feel old. They’ve [been acting] since a time when Asian Americans didn’t even really have a voice in the industry. They’ve lasted so many decades that now there is a voice and a presence. And because they’ve done what they love to do, they’re able to be who they really are, which are these happy, grateful human beings. So that can only tell me as a younger artist that what I’m doing is right. To me, that’s motivating. You see a lot of old guys who are tired, grumpy, pissed off at the world because they didn’t do what they wanted to do for a living.

That’s my nightmare. I tell my wife, “I still can’t believe I’m doing what

SPOILER: Has there ever been an actor you worked with who got you starstruck?

Rich Ting: [laughs] That’s an easy question. Early in my career, I was able to work with Angelina Jolie on Salt back in the day. I remember when I booked it, they didn’t tell me who the lead was. They just said, “It’s a great project. We’re gonna film it in New York. These are the dates they need you.” And it wasn’t until I arrived in New York and I had to do rehearsal with Angelina and they told me, “Oh, so you’re gonna be working with Angelina Jolie,” and I literally got nervous—and I don’t get nervous. And I was like, “Wait a minute, what??” They were like, “Yeah, Angie’s gonna meet you at the Waldorf and we’re gonna go through rehearsal,” and I’m just like, “Okay, so the female name in the script, that’s Angelina Jolie?” I kept asking and they were just like, “Yeah.”

I just remember meeting her and, I can’t even make this up, but production had literally flipped two suites on one of the floors of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and had made it into like a training facility. And I was there, stretching out with the stunt coordinator, and she comes walking in in black leggings, knee-high boots, black long sleeve t-shirt, and I’m like, “Dude, that’s Lara Croft! Tomb Raider

rich ting

Rich Ting/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

has arrived.” And the coolest thing about this moment was she came up to me and stuck out her hand and was like, “Hi, I’m Angelina.

Thank you so much for helping me this week on this show.” And I didn’t know how to respond, I just said, “No problem, I’m Rich, nice to meet you,” but inside I was like, “Everyone in the world knows who Angelina Jolie is! And she just introduced herself to me.” That showed so much just the kind of person she is.

Moving on from that one rehearsal to working with her for a few weeks in New York, just having her come on set, sitting next to me, asking how I’m doing, what my plans are after I wrap, it was just awesome. She was one of the most professional, nicest actors I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and on top of it, it was Angelina. When someone looks into your eyes and really, you feel, cares about what she asks—she asked me what I was doing after and I felt like she really cared. I think at the time I was going to Vietnam after that show to film something there, and one of her sons is from Vietnam, so I remember that was a discussion. Because I had never been to Vietnam. And she was like, “Oh my God, if you have any questions, give me an email. I’d be happy to help you.” She didn’t have to do that. But I really felt she meant it—not just saying it to say it. It’s just so refreshing when you meet such accomplished artists who are just nice people, because so many times in this industry that doesn’t happen, unfortunately.

SPOILER: That’s amazing, Rich.

That’s another sign that shows you’re on the right path.

Rich Ting: I’d like to think so, man.

I know there’s a few of those diamonds out there like Angelina. Jeff Bridges being another one, who I just recently worked with. It’s just so nice to work with people of that caliber who not only have a love for what they do, but for other people.

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SPOILER: If you can pick between Marvel or DC, which would you pick?

Rich Ting: Aw man, I was hoping you wouldn’t ask me the Marvel vs. DC question [laughs]. Before I answer that, I need to set the premise. I’ve had the pleasure of working on Supergirl, which is under the DC Comics family, and that was awesome.

However, I’ve always wanted to be a part of the Marvel world—and obviously with Shang-Chi coming out, and that push for Asian American superheroes. Villain or good guy, I would be totally down, and my team is definitely trying to get me into the Marvel universe. To the ignorant person, it’s like, “Aren’t they the same?”

But I’m starting to understand the differences between them, and the more I learn, the harder it is to pick.

Like I said, I’d hate to corner myself. I really don’t know. I would have to say, so no one calls BS on my answer: “It would really have to come down to the character and the project type.” I won’t do something just because it’s Marvel or DC. I would do it because I love the character and love the story and love the entire synopsis. It would really depend on the actual project, and that’s the most honest I can be.

If I’m into it, and my team’s on board, I guarantee you I will take that role and that character to a level that not even the writers thought that it would get taken to.

SPOILER: We wish you huge success, Rich! Any final thoughts for the fans?

Rich Ting: “Thank you.” I know probably everyone says that, but honestly, with my situation in particular, having been a part of Warrior—having worked on it in 2017 and 2018, premiering in 2019, and seeing that even through COVID-19 and quarantine and all the craziness in the world that fans are still reaching out and commenting and asking 170 I

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questions about, “Hey, are you gonna come back if there’s a season 3?” Those are the things that really help me as a person to get me through these hard times. It really blows my mind. This past year is a prime example. We’re living through an unprecedented time where there’s so much negativity in the world. There’s so many deaths. And there’s a lot of evil that’s out there. I’m a human being, so I’m quarantined at home, yet the fans’ support and outpouring of love for something I did years ago, during a time like this? It’s weird in the most humbling sense, because

to me, [we don’t need] to talk about Warrior during times like these, and yet the fans are still so passionate and it’s incredible, man. If we do go to a season 3 and Rich Ting comes back, not as Bolo, but someone else, that’s gonna be a direct reflection and result of the fanbase’s support and individuals like you and what you do in your magazine to help promote us. I can’t thank everyone enough. The fans have kept us alive. We’re on HBO Max now; we’re on a way better platform now to reach a broader audience, and I’m just grateful for all the support.

Rich Ting/Warrior/HBO/HBO Max/Cinemax/WarnerMedia

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Directed by: Lawrence Michael Levine Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, Sarah Gadon

While most actors try to maintain a level of believability, Aubrey Plaza has made a career out of being impossible to read.

With notes of suppressed anxiety and contempt for mankind, Plaza has always held some sort of enigmatic quality. Any uneasiness or awkwardness a director wants to cultivate is already there. She not only settles the audience into a level of discomfort, but makes the tensions of other characters not feel so harsh. The result is an audience who no longer has to stress about the unknown of how other characters feel because she doesn’t bat an eye.

It’s fitting that her best performance to date would be in a film that’s equally as enigmatic. Lawrence Michael Levine’s latest thriller Black Bear relies on awkwardness and stars the actress as someone who’s erratic and mysterious, and she’s perfect for the role. Due to the project’s nature, Plaza is asked to switch between different emotional extremes, but also to lock into each extreme at any given time.

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Black Bear is insanely easy to overthink, and while Levine allows a lot of leeway for us to interpret it for ourselves, it’s essentially a film about the writing process and, more specifically, writer’s block and how integrity can so willingly become distorted through the process of creating.

The film opens up on a woman (Plaza) sitting by a lake, thinking

about something presumably important. She then walks inside of a cabin and begins to write.

What follows are two tangential stories about more or less the same idea, but slightly altered in both form and content.

Amongst the absurdity there is structure. While the framework is bemusing, the narratives

Black Bear/Momentum Pictures/Lawrence Michael Levine

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within both cinematic halves of the film are completely coherent. They each have a beginning, middle, and end. Essentially both plots revolve around a love triangle of sorts, and the complications that arise from jealousy and certain inherent dynamics that accompany a lack of communication. It’s difficult talking about Black Bear without giving anything away, but there are multiple layers to this film.

Each half is able to stand alone in its own right as a captivating, interesting story about love and agendas, without resorting to plot twists–only a set of constants and symbols if you know where to look. However, when

putting each segment into the context of the other, especially with the puzzling framework around them, these stories take on a different meaning and we begin to think of them beyond the film that we just watched.

For as much as the characters talk politics and muse about sociopolitical dynamics in our country, there’s no stance being taken whatsoever. The banter only serves to highlight a writer’s role in crafting their script; breaking down his or her own philosophies; and temporarily sacrificing personal beliefs to fully and entirely relate to the characters, not only to expand upon them and develop them, but to better empathize with them (crazy, huh?). We’re allowed to ruminate on the bipartisan stance that writers must often take when creating characters at the risk of compromising their own moral code in the process. Levine, himself, must also take on both sides of the argument and understand each of them thoroughly before moving forward.

Black Bear’s ambiguity arises from the debate of life imitating art versus art imitating life. Which one informs which?

Perhaps there’s no definitive answer. When telling a story, you must often find the balance between telling a compelling tale and holding onto your own voice as well. Here we see the boundaries blurred between what’s real and what’s invented–a writer experimenting with what lines to cross for the sake of her art, and how much of herself to put into her own writing.

Occasionally a film will come along and attempt to make tangible a concept that can’t be. And while Black Bear is free-flowing and difficult to grasp, that’s also the point. Sometimes it feels too obtuse, and admittedly there are probably easier ways to portray writer’s block–even more definitive ones within this film–but to create something that has people thinking about ideas and actually feeling certain emotions, even when the topic is as innately mundane as this, is a deceptively ballsy ambition, and one that showcases art in its purest form.

The film speaks to our obsession with fitting everything in our lives into narrative form. As we play out events from our own past, we try finding their cinematic value and structure.

We might want to rearrange certain people

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no finite answer from the filmmaker.

The movie never takes a definitive stance on what it’s trying to do, and some may very well see that as a flaw.

However, what its ambiguity does is allow for the audience to relate to it on a multitude of levels, fitting into whatever they need it to fit into in that moment. If you’re a writer, then the connection might be a little more apparent. But anyone who’s worked on any kind of art can at least relate to that creative process–one that’s very much filled with intangibles which are beautifully reflected here in Levine’s own work of art.

Most impressively, the filmmaker actually knows how to keep our intrigue and delivers on that despite the enigma he very much provides us with. Sometimes haunting, other times tense and thrilling, and occasionally funny–almost unintentionally–Black Bear is entertaining just as much as it is thought-provoking.

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Black Bear’s ambiguity arises from the debate of life imitating art versus art imitating life.

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to fit into different outcomes, even switch roles with someone else in that same story. This can be either conscious or subconscious, and sometimes both, especially when mining for creativity for the ultimate sake of creating.

Plaza tackles all three of her roles with three separate approaches. She plays each character in a way that’s so unique and specific to her own personality that we’re actually watching her corner the market on her idiosyncratic style, proving how valuable she is with the right material. And in a film whose nature finds it difficult for us to attach ourselves to the characters, Plaza is still able to connect with the audience despite all of this.

Black Bear subverts what we hold true about character consistency.

The only actual character here is the writer, or at least we can assume as much. Furthermore, the procedural nature of the writing and creative process justifies the lack of an established tone within the movie. When you brainstorm, or even when you’re writing the first few drafts of a story, you have yet to lock down things such as tone or themes, and that’s reflected here.

We often throw around the word “poetic” in reference to film. And many times it fits. But Black Bear is like a poem in the truest sense. It’s actually open to interpretation with

Black Bear/Momentum Pictures/Lawrence Michael Levine/Another Round/Nordisk Film/Thomas Vinterberg

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another round Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang Thomas Vinterberg’s latest film Another Round views the consumption of alcohol with a very truthful lens.

Neither stigmatizing nor lauding the culture of drinking, the writer/director shows how too much of a good thing is never the answer, but also how cutting yourself off completely can have negative side effects for some.

Mads Mikkelsen plays Martin, a high school teacher in Copenhagen, who just doesn’t seem to have any enthusiasm for life anymore. He’s been operating on autopilot for some time now and it’s starting to have an impact on the people around him. One night while out at dinner with three of his friends and co-workers, one of the men brings up psychiatrist Finn Skårderud’s theory that maintaining a blood alcohol content of 0.05% may increase your creativity and overall effectiveness in life. Inspired at just the right moment, Martin decides to have his first drink in years.

Denmark is a country where drunkenness is very much part of the

culture, especially for youths. We’re never told why Martin has given up alcohol entirely, but we assume it’s to overcorrect his vices from his teen years.

Pleased with the results and his newfound enthusiasm for his interests and the people in his life, Martin urges his friends to accompany him in testing Skårderud’s theory, and the four of them spend their days a little buzzed.

But of course, as with anything helpful and enjoyable, there’s some curiosity about the limit of the substance’s effectiveness. In the case of our characters, the question is raised of, “If a little alcohol makes me better at my job and thrive in my social

life, then what would more alcohol do?” Of course, we can assume the answer, but Vinterberg doesn’t really concern himself with how the audience will absorb his narrative, rather the point behind it. Hidden underneath a hooky premise and a conventionally entertaining execution are heady themes about moderation and the deceitful gray area between helpful and harmful. (For those curious, the sweet spot is around 0.1% BAC.) Staying on one side of the line isn’t always an easy thing to do when the device that’s helping you is also enjoyable to partake in. Of course, there are people who should go nowhere near the stuff, and that topic is covered here as well.

The men see how as they consume more alcohol–even up to malignant levels–more truths become revealed by those around them and their personal lives become exfoliated, often toxically, but this enables them to ultimately better themselves because of it. Even diamonds need to be forged through fire before they can become beautiful.

Infused with Kierkegaardian philosophies and a well-informed knowledge of its subject matter, Another Round is both incisive and candid.

However, it’s ability to separate the poignancy from the cynicism allows for the contrast to be useful rather than cacophonous. Where Vinterberg continuously finds success is in his ability to manage the movie’s several conflicting moods with ease.

Despite a healthy dose of levity, Another Round is still not a comedy.

There are some very funny moments, but then some equally effective ones on the more serious side of things as well. This doesn’t feel like a premise that could be accomplished without a frat comedy sensibility, yet Vinterberg does so exceptionally well, and without over-stylizing his

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but then one night of excessive drunkenness becomes overblown and suddenly he’s right back where he started.

This seems to oversimplify the idea of drinking–the one thing this film aims to avoid–and becomes the only instance where you feel even a slight tinge of the hackneyed importance of an Afterschool Special. I suppose this could also just be more commentary on the stigma surrounding alcohol rather than the acceptance of its benefits, but it only serves to take us out of the flow of the movie, if only for a moment.

And yet, there’s still a level of competence this film can’t ever let go of. It’s what the best films do. We recognize its flaws, but the rest of the way is so undeniably good that it doesn’t matter.

Another Round is also an advocate for male bonding, with a group of friends who are supportive of one another rather than overly cynical.

All four main characters are worth following, and their journey with

the experiment exudes a carefree joviality that’s incredibly infectious.

However, we only see the rounded out effects of the experiment on Martin–not the others. In fact, there’s a frustrating lack of either growth or regression experienced by two of the other three characters. Martin’s best friend, Tommy, however, does get the cinematic treatment, but never in the intimate or submerged fashion that we get with our protagonist.

With a more definitive bias, Another Round would feel as controversial as it could have been. There’s one scene where one of the main characters advises his student to take a couple shots of alcohol prior to an exam. Another scene nearly draws a comparison between sobriety and Hitler. However, Vinterberg maintains a non-flippant voice, stubborn in his honesty. This is not only a champion for the benefits of alcohol, but a caveat of the limitations of those benefits.

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Infused with Kierkegaardian philosophies and a wellinformed knowledge of its subject matter, Another Round is both incisive and candid.

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aesthetic. Regardless of some issues with the trajectory of the story, the director and co-writer (along with frequent collaborator Tobias Lindholm) keeps a steady hand on the tone of the film, neither presenting the content in a shallow way nor becoming preoccupied in making moral judgements, instead allowing for his characters to learn for themselves, and us with them. After all, this is a film about a social experiment. The plot markers are inherently predictable, sure, but getting to them is an intoxicating ride.

Mikkelsen himself is equally as intoxicating. The actor provides yet another one of his nuanced and sturdy performances where you feel like he’s the only one making decisions for his role, not the director.

Of course that’s not the case, but Mikkelsen becomes so wrapped up in the emotion of his character, shedding an unexpected tear at the most precious and spontaneous moments, that we totally feel for Martin despite his odd, albeit convincing, arc.

Some of the brief shoehorned drama from Martin’s personal life acts like a pebble in our shoe, detracting from the effectiveness of everything else going on in the plot and giving the impression that there are some gaps in this story, exposing the script’s failure to realize certain sentiments. Martin is a changed man because of his experiment, and his relationship with his wife and sons is definitely improving in return,

Another Round/Nordisk Film/Thomas Vinterberg/ Tenet/Warner Bros./Christopher Nolan

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tenet Directed by: Christopher Nolan Cast: John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki

There was a lot of hype surrounding Christopher Nolan’s latest film Tenet.

The ambitious filmmaker has challenged us in the past with mind-bending epics like Inception and Interstellar, but this time he comes at us with a premise so far out and abstract that you can’t afford to look away. The drama surrounding its release back in September seems to have overshadowed the movie itself, with audiences frustrated that they wouldn’t be able to watch it due to Nolan’s strict no-streaming policy. Access to screeners for critics was also pretty air tight. However, this wasn’t the writer/ director’s middle finger to pandemic rules and restrictions in order to make some extra dough, but his insurance of our attention. He doesn’t want us texting or cooking or folding laundry while we watch this movie, because

Tenet is difficult enough to understand even if you aren’t doing those things. Every frame is dense with crucial details that help in comprehending this massively lofty project with a scope that’s unlike most things we’ve ever seen. And unfortunately a high percentage of “I heard it wasn’t good” reviews are sourced from people who are passively watching something, and Nolan feels that if you’re not going to like it, at least you’re going to give it a fair shot.

A former CIA operative (John David Washington), known only as The Protagonist, fakes his death after a failed mission and gets recruited by a highly secret organization called Tenet. He learns about an entirely new technology of inverted bullets and time travel that is being misused by a Russian terrorist named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh) in order to start World War III. Along the way, The Protagonist joins forces with a handler named Neil (Robert Pattinson) who assembles a team to help take down Sator.

He also becomes somewhat romantically involved with Sator’s estranged wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki).

There’s a whole lot of plot to unpack here and you have to do a lot of rewinding in order to fully comprehend what’s happening. Once again, Nolan demands a level of trust from his audience. Tenet features an extremely high concept premise that relies on our blind acceptance of it in order to truly work. “Ignorance is our ammunition” is a phrase that gets repeated a few times between cha-

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racters, but this is also Nolan’s way of communicating with the viewer.

The director uses that acceptance to his advantage, with the convolution serving as a sort of buffer. There are so many moving parts that plot holes almost can’t be found, and seemingly random characters are introduced without us feeling qualified enough to question the logic of why they’re there.

The filmmaker has alienated us with confusion in small moments within his past films, but never for the amount of time that he does so here.

By the one hour mark, we’re not even aware enough of the vast intricacies of this plot to be curious about the proceedings. The first half of the film is essentially an aggressive deluge of verbal exposition. Nolan is a master of snappy pace, even within sequential scenes of pure dialogue, but often never leaves room to breathe. In this case, we’re still trying to digest information from the last scene as he moves on to the next.

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However, the real challenge early on isn’t necessarily figuring out the details of this time travel world, but how all of these seemingly unrelated sequences fit together. The plot deviates frequently early on as it tries to establish its footing, almost forcing itself into coherence.

The concept is totally Nolan-esque, dealing with temporal paradoxes and weaponized time travel. It’s easily the director’s most challenging film yet, but not given the same kind of fluid storytelling as his others.

Think of that one scene in Inception where Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page are sitting at that table and he’s teaching her about the mechanics of the dream world. In Tenet, there are multiple “table scenes.” In fact, the entire first half of the movie seems to consist of a never-ending string of table scenes and conversations. But whereas Inception uses one scene to explain the entire film, Tenet spends

the entire film explaining one scene.

Tenet’s biggest flaw is not its story but how it’s told. The lack of visual storytelling in the first half is cumbersome. Fortunately the narrative opens up around the halfway mark and we can finally start to piece things together. In fact, the second half of this movie is both masterful and highly enjoyable (as long as you’ve been following along up to this point). Nolan actually repairs so much damage that I actually think I ended up loving this movie.

The director knows how to craft action sequences that are stubbornly inventive and composes them in a way that feels like we’re watching a ballet dance on screen. At times, our viewing experience just turns into an attempt to figure out how these scenes are actually filmed, and wrapping our head around what exactly is going on on a technical level. In that sense, it’s an enjoyable puzzle to solve, especially once we finally do.

For hardcore time travel buffs, Tenet will be a fun one to study. It poses an interesting, if not dangerous, way of traveling through time–moving literally rather than instantaneously.

As people in the world move forward in time, they can watch others in

Tenet/Warner Bros./Christopher Nolan

the literal act of physically traveling backwards. At times the film almost feels too narrow within the confines of its premise, not really exploring the immensity of the world that’s been created as well as we would like it to, but Nolan has a vision here, and the payoff at the end is well worth it (again, as long as you’ve been following along).

Despite Nolan’s conviction, Tenet lacks a certain verisimilitude, not because of its obtuse content, but the absence of an emotional connec-

tion we have to it. As plausible as the events may seem within this world, the characters don’t. Nolan’s film proves to have some potentially deep and emotional moments, but the underdeveloped characters often feel like mere chess pieces that haven’t earned enough of our investment for us to care as much as we should.

Despite a lack of weight, the film boasts some strong performances.

Branagh, who seemingly spends half of the film with his jaw clenched, is a highlight as the insidious Sator, putting his Shakespearean background to work, fluctuating between highs and lows with complete control, yet total surrender. Pattinson shines once again with another effortlessly nuanced performance, totally embodying Neil as a fully lived-in character moving through his scenes with an impossible calmness and almost otherworldly demeanor as though he’s possibly only a figment of our protagonist’s imagination.

However, Washington as The Protagonist is an odd choice. While he defi-

nitely has enough screen presence to carry this film, it’s hard to feel that he’s right for the part. His delivery is never on the mark for the mood that Nolan is going for. When things are casual, he’s too intense. Then when things are serious, he plays it too cool. I love the actor in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, but here he recites lines like he’s reading cue cards.

This wouldn’t be a Christopher Nolan movie without its share of captivating, jaw dropping, and blissfully haunting twists. And he delivers them here more than ever. However, you might have to replay some scenes over (and over) again in order to get the full effect, but it’s a reward that’s well worth your time.

Nolan’s greatest achievement here is how he maintains his cinematic power in spite of his flaws. Tenet might very well be one of the greatest technical achievements ever displayed in cinematic history, but it’s more than just a big budget diversion.

Able to have his cake and eat it too, the filmmaker assembles one of the most perplexing plots in existence, but also one of the most pleasingly mind-blowing. Things like perspective and logic become distorted, but Nolan treats his movie like time travel itself: by making it so abstract that you have to rely on some level of credence in the truth, even if you can’t fully understand why that’s so.

It’s not an easy thing to do in a world where everything we watch needs to make sense, but somehow Nolan establishes an amount of ease over his ambiguities. It may just be too abstract for the casual viewer, but the director challenges us every step of the way for those who are willing to accept.

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Nolan actually repairs so much damage that I actually think I ended up loving this movie

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wonder woman 1984 Directed by: Patty Jenkins Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig

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meek and nerdy type who is working to identify artifacts stolen in a recent black market robbery. One item in particular, the Dreamstone, supposedly has the ability to grant you one wish. Diana secretly wishes for her dead lover, Steve Trevor (Chris Pine), to return from the dead. However, in a Monkey’s Paw twist, she also begins to lose her superpowers. You see, whenever you make a wish, another quality that you deem valuable is taken from you.

Meanwhile, Barbara also uses the Dreamstone to wish that she could be like Diana. Starting out as a kind, intelligent, and personable woman with very low self-esteem, she soon Wonder Woman 1984/DC Films/Warner Bros.

Patty Jenkins had so much success with 2017’s Wonder Woman that DC decided to bring her back for the sequel. The first installment breathed a great deal of life into a previously-catatonic DC Extended Universe, not only making people finally believe that a competent film was possible, but that it could be very, very good.

DC has had a nice run with their latest outings, and while their sequel Wonder Woman 1984 isn’t up there with some of their more visionary endeavors, it’s not necessarily the giant step backwards that everyone thinks it is.

In recent years, DC movies have begun to push the boundaries of superhero moviemaking. Recognizing that they don’t have the same inherent vision of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, nor the trust of their fans, they’ve decided to go about things differently. Like them or hate them, their previous three films (Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey) have each provided a unique vision or some spin on the typical format. Perhaps Wonder Woman 1984 suffers from being a sequel to arguably the only decent DCEU film that was made “the old fashioned way” with familiar conventions and fulfilled expectations.

The follow-up is much of the same, but the expectations are different this time around. There’s an actual reputation to uphold now, which means a lot less room for experimentation.

It also doesn’t help that the special effects look pathetically silly.

In 1984, decades after the events from the previous film, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is working as a researcher for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. There, she meets the new employee, Barbara (Kristen Wiig), a

transforms into a confident stunner with superpowers. While the idea behind why Barbara loses her quality of kindness, as opposed to some of her other qualities, is a bit flimsy and convenient (along with the unrealistic bone she eventually has to pick with Wonder Woman), Wiig handles the serious character without her typical hints of laughter behind her eyes.

Reminiscent of Jim Carrey’s turn as Riddler in Batman Forever, Wiig is very convincing as she harnesses a palpable anger and vulnerability underneath her expressions. Much like Carrey, the film around her won’t have the same lasting impact, but audiences should see the buds of what she’s capable of doing on screen.

Wonder Woman is pushed to her emotional and physical limit here, but we never quite feel her struggle with it. Gadot gives us some raw acting as it pertains to her lover, but then we realize that he, too, has commandeered another man’s body in order to return from the dead–an easily-avoidable and morally inexcusable issue that literally never gets addressed.

For a movie about a hero, this film is more about its villains–specifically its main villain, Maxwell Lord (Pedro Pascal). Lord is the charismatic face of an oil investment company.

The only problem is his business is failing, despite the lavish exterior he surrounds himself with. He steals the Dreamstone and wishes that HE becomes the Dreamstone. So now

every time he touches someone and they make a wish, he grants it to them. However, he also takes something from them as well, making his power theoretically infinite.

Easily the most fleshed out character, Lord seems to be on screen more than anybody else. We really see his arc and what’s driven him to this point in his life. We experience, with him, his ups and downs, as well as his caustic relationship with his son. Inevitably, Lord’s company starts becoming successful, but he doesn’t stop there. He fuses his television influence with his new genie powers and is suddenly able to connect with people all over the world and grant their wishes, becoming stronger from their qualities. Needless to say, society is in a total state of chaos. Apparently everybody wants something and is willing to destroy the world in order to get it.

Wonder Woman 1984 takes a very pessimistic view on humanity, yet tries to sympathize with it at every turn. The movie ignores the fact that there are people in the world who would actually wish for world peace.

The “everyone gets a wish” premise naturally opens up a giant floodgate of plot holes. Not the least of which is the unreferenced paradox of two people making contradicting wishes.

What would happen then?

If you weren’t clear about what year this is all set in, it’s 1984. The ‘80s milieu is on full display here with Porches, fanny packs, triple decker shopping malls, roller skates–you name it! The film is always very aware of its setting and Jenkins and company have a lot of fun with designing this world. The only thing missing is an adequate ‘80s music soundtrack.

One of the co-writers, Geoff Johns, also has a story credit on 2018’s Aquaman, and I can’t help but notice some similarities–both good and bad.

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The scene progression is bouncy–a streamline of engaging plot points, from Wiig deadlifting three plates to Diana and Steve flying their airplane through a blaze of fireworks. But however fun these sequences are, they only serve as garnish to the overall story. Wonder Woman is skilled, often masterful, in its storyboarding, but so much so that it often forgets to actually fill out its plot.

The objective is very narrow-minded at almost every angle and lacks a clarity to go along with the inherent issues with the script. The ideas of love conquering selfishness are so trite and anticlimactic that we sit there waiting for more to happen. We’re fooled into thinking this film has a much more insightful outlook on life, but these sentiments are far from thought-provoking. They mean well, but they’re ultimately empty and cheap. Any other themes that get touched upon leave just as quickly as they come, never getting fleshed out.

To its credit, the film tries to tackle a lofty premise, albeit with an unseasoned plot, and admittedly stays

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mostly within the ballpark of its ambitions. Even if Wonder Woman 1984 doesn’t fit in with the current landscape of comic book movies, it would have fit in perfectly among hypothetical contemporaries like Batman Returns, The Rocketeer, and even 2000’s X-Men with its old school pacing and smaller narrative scope.

There’s almost a purity, if not a naivety, to its approach.

This isn’t a think piece, folks. Is it incompetent at times? Sure. However, Wonder Woman 1984 survives on, and is often driven by, pure entertainment and adrenaline, highlighted with solid performances and a delightfully vivid ‘80s aesthetic (though a curious lack of ‘80s music). Your enjoyment of it will hinge solely on how high you prioritize those qualities.

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For a movie about a hero, this film is more about its villains

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Soul/Pixar/Disney/Nomadland/Searchlight Pictures/Chloe Zhao/Love and Monsters/Paramount

Other Notable Releases soul

Nomadland

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onward (2020) Directed by: Dan Scanlon Cast: Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

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fantasy aspect is at the forefront visually, but truly comes second to the incredibly thought-provoking story underneath.

16-year-old elf, Ian (Tom Holland), lives in a world much like our own, but instead of humans, there are cyclopes, pixies, and elves, like himself. There’s a rumor that this land was once filled with magic, but after the creatures invented electricity and modern technologies, they found no need for it. And thus, centuries later, Ian’s high school life and the world around him are much similar to yours and mine.

One day, while wearing his deceased father’s college sweater, he’s approached by a stranger who knew his dad and begins telling Ian stories that he never knew. Struggling with assertiveness, Ian decides to make an effort to be more like his father. He never met him and only knows as much as his mom (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and brother, Barley (Chris Pratt), have told him.

Despite the paint-by-numbers and amateurish exposition, along with the seemingly uninspired banter early on, the rest of the film contains a captivating series of events with masterful storyboarding and direction by Scanlon and his team. Ian and Barley’s mom reveals that their father left them a magical staff that can bring him back to life, but only for one day. Barley, who is enthused by magic card games and Onward/Pixar/Disney

At first glance, Pixar’s recent endeavor, Onward, might seem like a step down for the studio.

The opening scenes feel like something out of an animated teen drama, but with a gimmicky exterior. Characters look similar to those of DreamWorks movies like Trolls or Madagascar–all humor and appearance, but with half the depth. While the atmosphere and the backgrounds look aesthetically impressive, filled to the brim with fun in-world details, the texturing of the animation looks very un-Pixar. However, once we dig a little deeper, it’s clear that this is one of the studio’s deepest and authentically heartwarming films yet.

Conceived by writer/director Dan Scanlon after hearing an audio clip of his father who died when he and his older brother were very young, Onward has an inspiration behind it that transcends typical conceptualization exercises, and it shows. The

believes that magic still exists, tries the spell but it doesn’t work.

Ian, who had always written off his brother as clueless, half-heartedly tries the spell for himself and it works…sort of. Their father comes back to life alright, but only from the waist down. Unable to speak to him or see his face, Ian and Barley are determined to find a Phoenix Stone–the only thing that can fulfill the spell. So they set off on a journey, guided

by Barley’s knowledge of magic from his card game, to find clues in a world that has become long-overgrown with a very realistic outlook.

Not necessarily as funny as it seems like it should be from its more modern patois, one of the things setting Onward apart from the Pixar pack is its humor, which often falls flat despite itself. Most of the laughs come from Ian and Barley’s torso-less father whom they’ve placed balled-up clothes upon to serve as his limp upper half, so he runs around like one of those floppy balloon men outside car dealerships. It’s very funny.

Pixar has always proven to be masterful at crafting unpredictable stories, and one of the biggest strengths of Onward is that you never see where it’s going, right up to the finish with its unbelievably touching resolution. The twists serve a higher purpose than to simply surprise an audience. There’s an introspective depth and growth that

not only justifies them, but makes them the most unique part of this already high-concept premise.

The narrative is not necessarily as tight or kinetic as, say, Toy Story 3 or Up, but there’s a beauty to the looseness, and the filmmakers use this to their advantage. Ian and Barley are venturing into unknown territory, so typical story conventions are used only as a blueprint, with the surprises being found within that framework rather than without.

The writers have found the best way to fuse modern day devices with a high fantasy universe, and have quite the understanding of the latter and all of its minutiae. With today’s technology, a story like this could have been told in a live-action medium, but not in a way that would have felt this congruous and seamless. Instead of smart phones and automobiles standing out like a sore thumb among elves and pixies, the animation is used as a device here to matte the two elements together.

The fantasy, itself, isn’t used as a gimmick, but with a definite passion behind it. With unique spells and specific rules to accompany them, the writers keep things intricate, yet simple, not overloading the audience with too much magic or using it out of convenience (although some of the more “realistic” action sequences feel improbable). Instead of fantasy being at the forefront, it’s used to garnish this world. As Ian

and Barley make their way, the awareness of their world’s magic increases more and more around them, but there are bigger things that this film sets out to do.

There’s a simplicity to the journey only featuring Ian, Barley, and a version of their father. There aren’t really any side characters who come in and out of the picture in order to manipulate the dynamic–it’s only them. On a tangential note, the film’s weakest point just might be that lack of fun one-offs. Our protagonists are on a road trip of sorts, with road trip antics, but without all of the typical quirky road trip side characters. The filmmakers try including them here and there, but none of them really work or are memorable enough.

Although not always feeling like a typical Pixar film, Onward’s strengths might just lie in that very fact. There’s a refreshing detachment from those certain expectations that have always accompanied the legendary studio and its output, and for the most part this film allows us to experience it with a fresh lens. The flaws do help us separate it, at least subconsciously, from the weight of being a Disney project as well. While not necessarily the best Pixar film to date, its authentic heart and thought-provoking twists make it just as indelible.

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The writers have found the best way to fuse modern day devices with a high fantasy universe, and have quite the understanding of the latter and all of its minutiae.

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in its own right, including Anthony Forrest, who played a character named Fixer, featured in a deleted scene as one of Luke’s best friends. The scene was cut from the film entirely, much to the disappointment of Forrest. However, he also had a helmeted role playing a sandtrooper who gives us one of the most iconic moments in the movie.

So Forrest wound up in the film after all, but the bittersweet irony is, he was hidden under a mask.

Some weren’t aware of their diminished and virtually non-existent roles until they watched the premiere. Think about how excited you would be that you were playing the best friend of the main character in the biggest movie of all time, telling everyone you knew about your part, just to have all but two of your lines cut, and left with ten seconds of screen time. This is exactly what happened to actor Garrick Hagon who played Biggs, an ace pilot whose role in the film got infamously truncated. Actors have some of the biggest egos, and their profession is extremely

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elstree 1976 (2015)

In 1976, George Lucas began filming his first Star Wars movie at Elstree Studios in England. The documentary Elstree 1976 tells the story of ten actors who were featured in the groundbreaking sci-fi opera, even if only for a moment, and how their small roles affected their lives and careers afterwards. If you’ve ever wondered who was underneath the helmet of a stormtrooper or fighter pilot, then look no further.

The narrative is fluid and the

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different stories are interwoven seamlessly with one another, even when the interviewee seems to have no connection to the next.

Director Jon Spira guides the overarching story in a linear way, first showing how each performer started out in show business, then how they got cast in Star Wars. Some were already from England, while others found their way to the London area to eventually wind up in the 1977 groundbreaking blockbuster. We watch on as these people tell tales from on set, later giving us their feelings about their respective roles and the perspective they’ve gained since those days.

Some were under the impression their characters would have a greater importance in the film, while others were satisfied merely being an extra, even making a career out of it later on.

Almost each case is interesting

Elstree 1976/Star Wars/Disney/Lucasfilm/Jon Spira

Directed by: Jon Spira Cast: Paul Blake, Jeremy Bulloch, John Chapman

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competitive. So a blow like this can be embarrassing in the moment, but can also affect you forever–for better or worse.

While some were devastated by the end result, others were thrilled. One of the extras, Derek Lyons, claims he never wanted to be a star, desiring only to make a living being involved in film at any level. And that’s what he’s done throughout his career. He’s been in some of the biggest movies of his generation, yet has hardly ever had any lines.

These ten individuals have gained a lot of wisdom over the last forty years and can now look back at their experience with the hindsight and incisive perspective of someone who’s been through the ringer and out the other side of the Hollywood machine.

Perhaps the movie makes too many esoteric references and implies too much for those who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of Star Wars, such as the deleted scenes at Tasche Station or the random alien in the background at Chalmun’s Spaceport Cantina, but this is a documentary for those biggest fanatics of the franchise.

I think the issue some people have with Elstree 1976 comes from their expectation that the film is supposed to provide

commentary on the Star Wars movies themselves. But Spira knows that there is already an abundance of content and behind-the-scenes information on the trilogy, so he creatively finds a new spin, providing for us original content we may not have been already privy to.

Elstree 1976 expands the much-expansive Star Wars universe in a unique way. But it’s not only intended to be a Star Wars film. Spira uses his project as a way to convey the complicated dynamic of working actors in the industry, using the groundbreaking 1977 classic as the backdrop to get the audience familiar with and invested in people they may not have been otherwise. And by the end, we not only know that they exist, but care about them as well.

Some were under the impression their characters would have a greater importance in the film, while others were satisfied being merely an extra, even making a career out of it later on.

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It’s always fun to watch a movie that has a tone unique only to itself. As long as it’s done intentionally, you can’t help but admire what that film is trying to do. Night of the Creeps operates under a very specific and intentional feel, becoming a wonderfully weird mishmash of genre cliches that fully functions under an umbrella of several sub-genre categories, while never feeling like it’s spoofing any of them. Writer/director Fred Dekker keeps the tone of his 1986 film firmly in his grip the entire time, crafting one of the more original horror movies of the era.

Night of the Creeps opens on board an alien spacecraft where one of the aliens is attempting to release a dangerous canister into outer space, but gets chased down by two other members of his species. The evil alien succeeds and the canister eventually crash lands on Earth. We then cut to a black and white world in 1959 where a sorority girl is being courted by her boyfriend when they witness a weird meteorite crashing nearby.

The boyfriend investigates, leaving his girlfriend in the car. He quickly finds the canister, from which a small slug-like creature jumps into his mouth. Meanwhile, the girl falls victim to an axe-murderer who, simultaneously, is on the loose throughout town.

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Night of the Creeps (1986) Directed by: Fred Dekker Cast: Jason Lively, Tom Atkins, Steve Marshall While at its best when sending up classic ‘50s horror films during the first 15 minutes of the movie, Night of the Creeps mostly operates in 1986. That’s a step down atmospherically that should have ruined the rest of the film. Instead, we forget all about it once we’re sucked into this bizarre modern world created specifically for this production.

Once we jump to present day we meet two college friends, Chris (Jason Lively) and J.C. (Steve Marshall), who are attending a sorority party when Chris spots the beautiful Cynthia (Jill Whitlow) who he’s terrified to talk to. He and J.C. decide that the only way they will get the sorority girl’s attention is if they pledge a fraternity themselves.

This takes them to the antagonistic Beta Epsilon fraternity, who

tasks them with stealing a corpse from the medical center and placing the body at the doorstep of a rival frat. Chris and J.C. sneak into the lab and take a cryogenically frozen body that’s being observed in a secret room. The audience sees that it’s the body of the infected boyfriend from back in 1959. He comes to life briefly, scaring off Chris and J.C. who flee the premises. The reanimated corpse then heads into town infecting countless others with the slugs that have been incubating inside his brain for 27 years.

schlock for any of us who care to uncover it. He never hands us the plot on a plate, but rather allows it to unfold slowly over the course of the movie, letting us have the reward of piecing some of it together ourselves. It’s truly a wonder why Dekker has only been in the director’s seat for a feature film only three times (the other two are Monster Squad and RoboCop 3), this being his debut.

The filmmaker is obviously a fan of classic horror, providing subtle nods to some iconic films such as The Blob and Plan 9 From Outer Space. He also has an obvious passion and respect for horror in general, with a very

aware perspective of what the genre was accomplishing around that time–every character who has a last name shares it with one of Dekker’s contemporaries–a mere microcosm of the self-awareness present throughout the project.

If you can observe any flaws in this film, I’m almost positive that Dekker is already aware of them.

An attentive and clear-thinking director, he not only knows that Night of the Creeps is jocular and goofy, but has made that the intention. It’s the campy horror-comedy so many filmmakers in the ‘80s aspired to create, but few were able to succeed (The Blob remake or TerrorVision also come to mind). This one executes its goal more efficiently than just about any other.

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The impetus for all of this havoc being wreaked throughout town is admittedly shaky. From the protagonists’ perspective, the life-threatening risks greatly outweighs the reward. Furthermore, the boys never bother to explore any other options for getting the girl, like maybe Chris just walking over to Cynthia and actually attempting to talk to her first. But instead, they impulsively and hastily decide to join a frat and steal a corpse.

Chris and J.C. meet up with Detective Cameron (Tom Atkins), who, it turns out, we saw earlier in the film as a teenager in 1959. He was the ex-boyfriend of the girl who got axed that night. Cameron is no-doubt the highlight of this movie, and gives us easily its best moments. The brash, yet sympathetic character toys with hard-nosed ‘80s cop stereotypes, but Dekker gives him more depth than that. We see his sweet side on several occasions, but it’s never shoved down our throats either. A lot of what Dekker and, in turn, Atkins convey is subtle.

As for Lively’s performance, you wish it were a little more compelling, especially considering the emotion he’s required to

show during one particular moment, but that’s one of the only things that holds this movie back.

Fortunately, Dekker holds the importance of the brotherhood between Chris and J.C. in a high regard, and it shows. He never haphazardly develops their relationship or forces the issue, yet does so with a maturity and sentimentality that’s pretty rare for 1986.

At times the pacing is clunky, but this just adds to the offbeat charm of the film as a whole. Dekker executes some great directorial decisions, hiding a deceptively deep movie underneath B-movie

At times the pacing is clunky, but this just adds to the offbeat charm of the film as a whole.

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Directed by: Steven Caple Jr. Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Tessa Thompson The Rocky movies probably won’t ever go away. It’s one of those rare franchises that won’t ever have an installment shelved due to a lackluster effort. The series has seen its fair share of duds, most notably with Rocky IV, but still lived to tell perhaps its best story two films later. The Rocky movies are essentially invincible.

While Ryan Coogler’s 2015 spinoff Creed is a whole lot of fun, benefitting from the director’s indie sensibilities, it’s not quite the perfect film that people make it out to be. In fact, its sequel Creed II, directed by Steven Caple Jr., is better in a lot of ways, even though the movie misses Coogler’s focus.

Connecting the plot to the tragic events that took place during the aforementioned Rocky IV involving Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago, this follow-up is more than just a cash grab. And since there are seven films to reference up to this point, the premise for Creed II pretty much writes itself, so there’s not much need for

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any crafting of story.

In the three years since the events of the previous film, Apollo’s son, Adonis (Michael B. Jordan), has become a household name winning the World Heavyweight Championship. The fighter still has doubters, like always, who think he’s just riding the coattails of his father and Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone), who’s now his trainer.

Up and coming Russian fighter, Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), the son of Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren), who killed Adonis’ father in the ring years ago, challenges Apollo to a fight.

Adonis sees the opportunity as poetic justice for his father and agrees to the fight, going against Rocky’s sage advice.

Rocky doesn’t think Adonis is ready, which causes a rift in their friendship, influencing Adonis to leave Philadelphia to be with his mother in Los Angeles. He proposes to his girlfriend, Bianca (Tessa Thompson), and they soon find out she’s pregnant, changing the young fighter’s perspective about life, especially as it pertains to fighting. Does he want to avenge his father’s death by taking the same risk in fighting a human machine? Or should he swallow his pride for the sake of his family?

After the last movie–the first of which he didn’t write–I stated Stallone’s absence was obvious. Here, he’s back to pen the script (with Juel Taylor), which helps in creating depth and passion behind the story, but also

Despite tackling some deeper issues than literally almost every one of its predecessors, Creed II tends to just go through the motions.

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Creed II/MGM Studios/New Line/Warner Bros./Buckaroo Banzai/20th Century Studios/Earl Mac Rauch

creed II (2018)

reintroduces Stallone’s occasional cringe-worthy dialogue. Jordan and Thompson are really good actors, but even they can’t save some of these lines, which often feel like banter ripped from a soap opera, even equipped with characters obsessively addressing one another by name.

On the bright side, Creed II possesses themes that are much less straight-forward than Coogler’s installment, becoming more complex and nuanced as a whole. However, the film gets bogged down by this increased depth at times and has trouble organizing its own thoughts, never quite able to juggle everything it’s trying to do.

Caple Jr. is no doubt a lesser director than Coogler, but may actually understand the spirit of Rocky a bit better–and it shows. But this proves to be a blessing as well as a curse as he finds himself falling in love with the series’ rote-like formula a little too often, preventing any sort of inventiveness or originality from blossoming.

Despite tackling some deeper issues than literally almost every one of its predecessors, Creed II tends to just go through the motions. Fortunately the stakes here are much higher, yielding an even more satisfying conclusion, even if the actual post-fight ending is somewhat of a letdown. It’s not exactly the follow-up many Creed fans had in mind, but this sequel definitely contributes to the overarching lore of the Rocky-verse, which is honestly all you can ask for.

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The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) Directed by: W.D. Richter Cast: Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension has all the makings of a writer mishmashing years of different ideas he’s come up with, figuring a way they can all work together cohesively inside the conventions of a movie. The script is written by novelist Earl Mac Rauch and feels just like a sci-fi novel that has already built up this preexisting world starring a character that has intricate origins covered over several volumes.

But Buckaroo Banzai is a one-off movie that rushes through some very intriguing character history all while being more preoccupied with its less interesting main plot.

The titular Banzai (Peter Weller) is a renaissance man: a neurosurgeon by day, a rock star by night, and all the while pursuing his hobbies of martial arts and particle physics. Everyone in the country knows who he is and he’s even interviewed on talk shows as though he’s a celebrity.

With the help of his team, called the Hong Kong Cavaliers, Banzai has just stumbled upon a great discovery. A device called the oscillation

overthruster has just been perfected, allowing man to venture into another dimension right here on Earth. His discovery was a long time coming.

His mentor, Dr. Hikita (Robert Ito), first built the prototype back in 1938.

Hikita’s partner, Dr. Lizardo (John Lithgow), became stuck between dimensions all those years ago and is now currently living in a mental home where his brain is also occupied by a member of the evil alien race, the Red Lectroids, who are currently living in this other dimension and trying to break free and return home. I think.

The plot is pretty convoluted and much of the crucial information is given during a two minute hologram message, a la Princess Leia, where a member of a rival alien race, the Black Lectroids, tries to explain what’s going on. The premise seems like it would have been pretty interesting if we were made privy to it along the way. We spend so much of the first act trying to piece together implied background information that we miss crucial details of the already-confu-

sing plot it’s attempting to set up.

In reality, Mac Rauch had written some dozen Buckaroo Banzai stories prior to this one. However, none of the others ever came to fruition, and oftentimes during this movie you can tell that the author thought he’d have the chance to tell more of Banzai’s story, not feeling the need to include much background info in this one. As a result, the film relies way too much on information given about our hero’s history during its opening text crawl– another one of the many Star Wars similarities.

This may have been more interesting if it spent the beginning setting up who Banzai is, perhaps focusing more on him as a character rather than competing with major plot development at the same time. We

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overthruster plot with dialogue exposition.

Director W.D. Richter does a great job utilizing creative storytelling devices to convey an admittedly intricate and unusual plot, but has some trouble assembling suspense during the final battle scenes, which ultimately feel void of excitement. This may be a result of a lack of urgency behind what’s at stake for our characters.

The only time we get any clue as to what’s motivating Banzai and his crew is during the brief hologram message that informs them that the world will be annihilated if they don’t succeed at stopping the Red Lectroids. Pretty dire, huh? However, we don’t feel any more pressure following this telegram than we did leading up to it.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension is confusing, yes. But it’s also cool and stylish and I want to watch it again and I don’t know why. There’s really nothing else like it. The intermittent and usually out-of-place humor makes for an even more bizarre tone. Together, Richter and Mac Rauch concoct

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feel robbed of an interesting personality. Even a lot of James Bond movies open with the secret agent in the middle of some fight that has no relevance to the main plot. It’s just to get us into the vibe of what we’re about to watch. Buckaroo Banzai doesn’t even do this.

The story takes a minute to get hold of its footing early on. The first scene features Banzai testing out the overthruster device and we have no idea what’s going on yet. We would rather see him playing with his band and then rushing to perform surgery afterwards–all while setting up the

Director W.D. Richter does a great job utilizing creative storytelling devices to convey an admittedly intricate and unusual plot

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Buckaroo Banzai/20th Century Studios/Earl Mac Rauch/Dumbo/Disney/Tim Burton

a self-aware and intentionally campy B-movie that has the budget of a mainstream studio picture. The end result is a masterclass on pop-surrealist filmmaking, a product of a creative individual with unhinged and unrestricted boundaries, yet just enough instinct for what’s entertaining on a broader level. Simply put, the oddity and individuation that is Buckaroo Banzai would have never gotten made in today’s world.

dumbo (2019)

Directed by: Tim Burton Cast: Colin Farrell, Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito

Disney’s iconic 1941 animated feature, Dumbo, was 64 minutes long. Many consider the film to be perfect. In comparison, the 2019 remake clocks in at 112 minutes.

The extra time is spent expanding the big-eared elephant’s story and adding (a lot) more human involvement.

Before criticizing these Disney live-action reboots, let’s ask ourselves, “How good can they actually be?” But also, “If they can only be so good, then why are they getting made in the first place?”

More than any other recent remake, Tim Burton’s Dumbo is meant for children. Largely because it features children as its main characters. As for the first question that was posed, I think this movie, itself, is the answer–at least in Dumbo’s case.

In 1919, young brother and sister Joe (Finley Hobbins) and Milly Farrier (Nico Parker) are awaiting the return of their father Holt (Colin Farrell) who was overseas fighting in the War. Their mother has just died from the Spanish influenza and Holt doesn’t know how to talk to or connect with his kids like she did.

Milly is interested in science, and Burton always makes sure that we know this. While Joe is...there.

Holt and his kids travel with the Medici Brothers Circus, headed by the spunky Max Medici (Danny DeVito). Medici has just purchased a pregnant elephant, Jumbo, who eventually gives birth to our titular character. Jumbo eventually gets sold due to her violent behavior while defending her son when he gets ridiculed. Dumbo, just like in the cartoon, has ginormous ears which enable him to fly. The kids help him realize his talent, taking on the role previously held by Timothy the mouse, but nobody believes them. That is, until he actually does

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it.

This point comes at the very end of the original film as its denouement, but here it’s the climax–simply the launching point for the last half of the story.

Because of Dumbo’s talents, Medici’s small traveling circus becomes famous and he’s offered a partnership by theme park mogul, V.A. Vandemere (Michael Keaton), an eccentric tycoon who owns the utopian Dreamland amusement park– futuristic even by today’s standards and where Burton can really stretch his wings with set vision. Medici and his crew all move up to New York to join Vandemere’s circus.

Where the original Dumbo didn’t really have any villain (society in general was the antagonist), this remake has an actual bad guy. His arc is a slow build and we’re not exactly sure if he’s completely unlikable at first, but Vandevere ultimately has his own plans for Dumbo. He wants his trapeze artist, Colette (Eva Green), to ride the elephant while he’s flying–something he’s never done before. Dumbo’s desire to succeed is driven by his hope that he will earn the circus enough money to afford to buy his mother back.

You could argue that Burton had to be the guy behind this project.

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Anyone else would have created a world, no doubt, inspired by circus cliches and generic carnival ethos, but lacking any sort of originality.

Instead, the director gets inventive with his setting, even within the confines of Medici’s run-ofthe-mill circus, but deliciously so when showcasing Vandemere’s Dreamland–a quasi-steampunk futuristic theme park that rivals no other. It’s the landscape that Disney’s very own Tomorrowland flop promised us it would deliver.

Despite himself, Burton may still not have created the magical atmosphere of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure or Edward Scissorhands–largely due to his unfortunate shift to gra-

tuitous CGI–but the world inside Dumbo is just as inventive. He’s also never really worked with a script this saccharine and trite. And for what it’s worth, Burton does really well within the confines he’s given.

In the 1941 film, there weren’t really any human characters. However, Burton’s movie implements humans and makes them the catalyst for every event. Which is a good idea, in theory.

But if you’re going to suddenly bring humans into the picture, you have to let them breathe. These people don’t ever feel real. They feel like cringe-worthy Hallmark Channel archetypes delivering equally eye-rolling dialogue.

Very much falling in line with the preachy and disingenuously feel-good stories so prevalent in today’s era, the film’s depth is either fabricated or not

Dumbo/Disney/Tim Burton

m at the

there at all. In a movie that tries so hard to be profound, we can’t help but notice how little it makes us feel.

Yet, we still get goosebumps when Dumbo flies, and teary-eyed when he gets separated from his mother–feelings the original film evoked as well, even if on a purer level, which proves that maybe we don’t need the humans there after all. However, there was a talking mouse to serve as an audience surrogate in the original. Maybe the extra characters and 48 minutes of runtime isn’t as necessary as the filmmaker thought.

How is it that the biggest emotions come from CGI characters? For one, the acting isn’t great–perhaps Burton’s biggest flaw here. Between trying to decipher what Keaton’s accent is supposed to be and whether he’s trying to be funny or sinister, his performance is distracting. He has conviction as the villain, but is so over-the-top that his idiosyncrasies aren’t believable in the slightest. Likewise, Farrell gives probably the worst performance of his career.

At times we can’t tell if he’s delivering his lines poorly or if the dialogue is just that atrocious.

The two performers who stand out in a good way out are DeVito and Green– the only two actors who actually seem

like they’re immersed in this film universe, not merely acting with the conscious thought of “I’m acting!”

Ehren Kruger’s screenplay isn’t all bad. While being flooded with truisms, mediocre themes, and paper-thin characters (and dialogue made worse by bland performances), Dumbo’s macro story does a pretty good job expanding within the limitations of the preexisting material. And we have to remember, Tim Burton’s live-action version is targeted at children. And considering that, it does a pretty good job accomplishing that objective.

However, 1941’s Dumbo showed the world how much emotional investment we can have in animals (and ones that don’t even talk, no

less). Disney’s first two animated films (we’re excluding the anthology concept film Fantasia) featured human characters, but Dumbo opened the door for the potential of a plethora of different ideas involving non-humans, its influence still felt in modern times with the likes of Finding Nemo, Zootopia, and How to Train Your Dragon. The inclusion of humans is not only evidence that this “updated” Dumbo misses the point of the original, but that perhaps nearly 80 years of technology in cinema has made us forget about why that technology exists in the first place–to connect us with and bring us closer to the emotional impact of a story–instead focusing only on how it makes a movie look on the surface.

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Jasper Mall/Amazon/Bradford Thomason/Brett Whitcomb/Mank/Netflix/The Vast of Night/Andrew Patterson/Nomadland/Searchlight Pictures/Chloe Zhao

Ethan’s top 10

Love and Monsters/Paramount/Soul/Onward/Pixar/Disney/The Rental/IFC Films/ Dave Franco/Run/Hulu/Lionsgate/Aneesh Chaganty/The Devil All the Time/Netflix

movies of 2020

jasper mall

#1

mank

#2

the vast of night

#3

nomadland

#4

soul

#5

onward

#6

The rental

#7

love and monsters

#8

run

#9

the devil all the time

#10

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The Karate Kid series and have likely acted out the infamous “Crane Kick” a half dozen times. The new Cobra Kai series brings back all the nostalgia of the original adventures of Daniel-san while breathing new life into the Karate Kid universe.

While Cobra Kai does an excellent job of explaining the history of the Karate Kid through flashbacks and exposition, it doesn’t hurt to rewatch the old films to get a sense of the characters and where the show is heading.

1984’s The Karate Kid was the first of the series and followed Daniel LaRusso as he moved from New Jersey to a little area in Los Angeles called Reseda. When Daniel first moves there with his mother, he meets “Ali with an ‘i’” and that’s when the epic rivalry that we now know in Cobra Kai starts. After a threatened and jealous Johnny Lawrence bullies Daniel relentlessly, the secret karate master Mr. Miyagi

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decides to take Daniel under his wing in order to help him defend himself.

Mr. Miyagi teaches “Daniel-san” the art of karate under unusual conditions (illustrated by the famous line “Wax on, wax off”) up to the momentous All Valley Karate Tournament.

The Karate Kid II is an entirely new adventure for Daniel-san: we find out at the beginning of the film that high school sweethearts Daniel and Ali are no longer together as they parted ways after prom. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Miyagi receives some bad news regarding the health of his father in Okinawa. Upon learning of the news, along with his master’s unresolved issues he has with a former friend, Sato in Japan, Daniel decides to come with Mr. Miyagi for moral support, using the money for his college tuition for a plane ticket to Japan. While there, Daniel finds familiar obstacles to Reseda in the form of local bully, Chozen,

Cobra Kai/Netflix/YouTube/The Karate Kid/Sony/ Columbia Pictures (Previous Spread)

if you were a child of the ‘80s then you’re more than familiar with

as well as a new love interest, the beautiful aspiring dancer, Kumiko. The film (of course) culminates in an epic karate battle with Chozen, resulting in Daniel’s victory.

All these events have led up to Cobra Kai, a Netflix series (formerly YouTube Red/Premium) that follows the lives of Johnny Lawrence and Daniel LaRusso. We see that Johnny is now a down-on-his-luck handyman and Daniel has grown up to be a successful car salesman in “the Valley.” While the initial trailer for the series depicts Daniel as the newfound bully and Johnny as the underdog, we see them change roles several times throughout all three seasons of the series. We also see how their high school rivalry now impacts their families and loved ones, such as Samantha LaRusso (Daniel’s daughter) and Miguel Diaz (Johnny’s first karate student). In addition to new plot lines, the show also features many callbacks to the films which usually include flashbacks as well.

Cobra Kai is sure to please fans of the Karate Kid films while gaining new fans with its own entertaining and well-written storyline.

Season 3 of Cobra Kai is now available on Netflix.

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BY Matthew McLachlan

was the ultimate geeky dream. And of course it was. The lightsaber is a work of pure unbridled geek-genius and is hands down one of the coolest weapons to have ever been portrayed in cinema. However, there comes a time in every child-geek’s life where you’re struck with the reality that… maybe having a real-life lightsaber isn’t such a great idea. Think about it, how many times have you and your friends play-fought with pool noodles and you end up whacking one of them in the ear or the mouth?

A lot, huh? Now imagine if that were a lightsaber. No child should have to explain to their friend’s mom how and why their friend is now in pieces.

Point is, even as kids we understood

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the very real ramifications of what a REAL-LIFE LIGHTSABER would actually mean. So, let’s do a deep dive on why this wondrous weapon should never ever EVER exist in the real world.

Here’s something you probably never realized: people are stupid. You and I both know that if these things were invented for real, within the first day of Elon Musk selling them, at least 40,000 people would be reported dead, triple that would have their wangs cut off, and the average time before someone experienced a serious injury would be immediately. It’s science. But the fact is, regular people aren’t supposed to be wielding lightsabers anyway. People in Star Wars who want to use a lightsaber are required to have years of Force-training, mental fortitude, as well as complete control over their body so as to not accidentally chop their bits

off. And we all know how diligent this country is with making sure everyone who wields a weapon is properly trained. Here’s another concept that will make any sane person’s butt clench: Lightsabers + Florida. How long until you hear about someone in Florida trying to turn a lightsaber into a bong and accidentally killing themselves? I promise you, within the first 24 hours of their release, you’ll see a newspaper headline that reads, “Florida Man High on Saber Crystals Attacks Wife with Squirrel.” And this is coming from someone who grew up in Florida, so I know what I’m talking about.

Another reason why lightsabers should never be invented (because, remember, that’s a terrible idea) is that even if we somehow stopped everyone from cutting off dongs, accidentally killing friends, and bongin’

Star Wars/Disney/Lucasfilm

as a kid, the idea of owning a real-life lightsaber

up that sweet saber-kush, lightsabers are just kinda dumb as real weapons, anyway. Never in a million years did I ever think this would be a real response I’d have to anything, but why not just use a f*cking gun? Let’s say we can master our mind, body, and emotions to wield this thing, we would just end up with a whole bunch of “Indiana Jones shooting the bad guy” situations. And we would be the bad guy! No, no you could not deflect the bullet. And even if you could, how long before you’ll screw up and take a bullet in the thigh-meat just to prove you can deflect a bullet, which you couldn’t? Pretty soon!

Let’s just say that I’m sure the government’s got a lot more interest in funding other weapons, such as a sound-gun that can make you crap your pants. I don’t actually know if that’s true, but it’s still a much more useful weapon than a lightsaber.

And to all the people making lightsabers on YouTube that take 14 tanks of gas and twice as many people standing by for safety regulations just so it can be turned on…stop it.

Just…stop. A lightsaber would need the energy of a nuclear powerplant to maintain stability, not whatever your friend Reg could find in his uncle’s junkyard. And hey, we get it, videos like this get you millions of views and likes and subscribes and tweets and follows and whatever else makes you feel good about yourselves, but you are going to create something you can’t control. You’re gonna pull a full Goldblum: “You were too busy thinking about whether or not you could, you didn’t stop to think whether or not you should.” And listen, I love lightsabers. I think they’re easily the greatest fictional piece of machinery to ever be dreamt up. But please…please….let’s do the world and everyone’s dong a favor and keep them fictional.

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O

instead of ver the holidays we had a lot of down time. So, I suggested to Clark that, games. Clark doubling the frequency of our “order out, movie in” nights, we add board I could find was liked that and I went searching the apartment for a game. The only one about words. game Scrabble. Clark said he’d never played it, but he liked the idea of a up for us,” he said. “I “We’re both reporters. We both write for a living. This is a perfect match a moment and said, for t though can’t even remember the last time I played a board game.” He classmates and “Oh, I remember. It was in grade school. I was playing Trouble with some plastic bubble.” when it was my turn I got too excited to pop the dice and I crushed the yes, I DID get in As I took a breath in, Clark said, “And before you make a stupid joke, before. I hadn’t been trouble for it because it was the one kid’s birthday present from the week invited to the party, so everyone assumed I broke it on purpose.” strength during a “Jeez, Clark, I’m sorry. All that grief because you lost control of your through the mail and silly game.” I walked up behind him at the kitchen counter as he sifted I said. ,” though I wrapped my arms around his waist. “It could have been worse, he asked. He I felt him let out a small sigh and he hung his head for a moment. “How?” doesn’t know just he g, comin is ous had the tired tone of a man who knows something ridicul “Who’s ceable irrepla what. My dear, tease-able Clark. He is the reliable, indispensable, and there?” to my “Knock, knock.”

“You could have been playing Twister.” but his shoulders Clark wouldn’t laugh out loud—he wouldn’t give me the satisfaction— started to shake as he held it in and I knew I had gotten him. the plastic bubble “Imagine the carnage,” I said in a shocked whisper. “Instead of crushing on red.” hand right your g trying to roll the dice, you could have broken his hip puttin Clark turned around and pointed to the Scrabble box on the coffee table. play?” he asked.

“Are we gonna

just put on a Christ“I definitely want to,” I said, “but if you’re not up for it we can always mas movie. We have plenty of classics to get through.”

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Man of Steel/Superman/ DC Comics/Warner Bros.

“I told you I want to play. Why wouldn’t I be up for it?”

“Well, with your board-game based childhood trauma we just dredged may be in a vulnerable state right now.”

up, I’m worried you

“Thanks for your faux concern, Lo.” He said in a flat voice. “Ok, explain It’s just making words, right?”

this game to me.

from this bag.

“Sort of,” I said. “You have seven tiles at a time that you take at random is also about game This turn. your after You should always have seven tiles, so, replace them wins. points most the strategy. You want to maximize your points because the player with or word scores. And That’s why there are panels on the board that double or triple your letter you cannot use proper nouns like names or brands. Got it?”

“Got it.” as a kid, but the I explained a few other rules, then we started. I liked playing board games g up— growin lot a one game that stuck with me even into adulthood was Scrabble. I read words in the game more than the average kid, at least—and the challenge of formulating than reading them. more even words was appealing. I think it’s what made me want to write word strategy. my What made me a good writer (and a great Scrabble player) was honing I just needed the most The word didn’t need to be elaborate or long. I didn’t need a lot of words. benefit from the words impactful word in the most valuable place. If I did it right, I could even I think that asplay. my e around it. And using the other player’s words could only improv this Scrabble thing pect also made me a good interviewer. What’s funny is I was pretty sure five turns into the was a big part of my speech when I won the Pulitzer Prize. So, after about (I had double his score the with and game, when Clark was getting frustrated with his letters le proficiency.

Scrabb points already) I thought I’d mention my speech to remind him of my get rid of some of the“Dammit, Lo, I have NOTHING here!” Clark lamented. “I’m trying to into the bag and reached he se letters…there!” He added an “I” to the board to make ‘IN.’ When of them!” pulled out a tile he cried, “Oh come ON! How is it another ‘I’?! I have three “You know, honey, when I won the Pulitzer—”

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“Oh, you won the Pulitzer?!” Clark interrupted excitedly. “How come you never told me today?!”

I quietly went back to looking at my tiles. Then I remembered that I won the Pulitzer before Clark started working at The Daily Planet; therefore, he wouldn’t have heard that speech.

He kept struggling. Clark would make a decent word, but then I’d go and snag a bunch of points and he’d get demoralized. After his turn, I used his word to reach a triple word score with “ZOO” and I scored 36 points. That broke Clark.

“This is nuts,” he moaned. “Look at that. I just used six letters for one word and then you swoop in and benefit from it because of ‘Z.’” “Hey, I told you it was about more than just making words. It’s about

strategy.”

“It feels unfair,” he said.

“Sure. A competitor’s winning strategy must always in some way feel unfair to the losing opponent. Anyway, you said it yourself that we would be a good match up for this game.”

Clark gave me a long, curious look. “How did this game suddenly turn

you into Sun Tzu?”

“It’s The Art of Scrabble, Clark,” I said coolly. I tried to encourage him.

“Don’t just use what you’ve got for letters, Clark. Use the board. Anticipate. Have options.”

“I’m trying. Nothing makes a dent. I’ve been nursing this ‘Q’ for half an hour, waiting and hoping it will eventually get me a big point haul, you keep getting further ahead and taking every opportunity from me while I’ve had every vowel except ‘U.’” Clark went quiet and I looked up from my letters. He was staring at the bag of letters with a furrowed brow.

“No!!” I yelled and snatched up the bag. “No, you do NOT get to look throug h the bag to see if there’s a ‘U’! Do I actually have to order a lead lined box and lead tile holders so you don’t use X-ray vision during SCRABBLE, Clark?!”

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Man of Steel/Superman/ DC Comics/Warner Bros.

“Of course not!” he retorted, annoyed and a little embarrassed.

“You can skip a turn on the board and trade in letters instead,” I told him.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to lose the ‘Q.’ I want to gain a ‘U.’” “You already got a me, baby,” I said in a sultry voice.

Clark ignored me. As he held the “Q” tile, he looked at his letters and thought for a minute.

“Oh! What about Q-tip?” he asked excitedly.

“No, Sweetie,” I said gently. “Q-tip is a brand name.”

“Wait, what? No. They’re Q-tips.”

“Clark, I’m sorry, but they’re not. They’re cotton swabs.” I could see he was struggling with this news. Very delicately I said, “Go look in our bathroom. We have the store brand. The package says cotton swabs.”

With the “Q” still in his hand, Clark marched to the bathroom. I heard the cabinet under the sink open. Silence for a beat. Then I heard it close. Clark walked back into the room, sat down, dropped the “Q” tile on the table and said, “I skip this turn.”

“Ok,” I said. I put the tile in the bag after Clark took his replacement letter. He wouldn’t look at me.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked with just a hint of sass.

“I’m not mad at you. I’m just frustrated with your play.” He took a deep, calming breath.

“Uh-uh. This isn’t on me. Don’t hate the player, hate the GAME, Clark.”

“I do hate the GAME, Lois.”

I took my turn and then reached into the bag for my replacement letters as Clark was quickly taking his turn. I saw my selection and froze.

Clark counted his points and said, “Nine.” When I didn’t respond, he said it again. “Nine.

Lo, are you ok?”

“Mm-hm,” I said as I wrote down his score.

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Just as I finiI arranged my tiles, examined the board, and I began to place them down. shed, Clark glanced down from the tile holder in his hand.

“I…Are…Are you doing this on purpose?” he desperately stammered. had spelled “QUILL.” At the top edge of the board, using the “L” from his downward “LOCK,” I on the triple word The “Q” was on a double letter score. The second “L,” my “L,” not his, was score. that was MY ‘Q’!

“You got the ‘Q’ with a ‘U’?” Clark said to me as though betrayed. “But points!”

And isn’t that on a triple word score? You’re going to get like over 40 “MY ‘Q,’” I said emphatically, “is on a double letter score. So I get 72

points for this word.”

hiss. I looked up.

As I reached to write it down on the scoring pad, I heard a quick pop and of flabberinstead Clark hadn’t moved. He was still staring at the board, now stone-faced had been crushed gasted, but the tile holder in his hand, along with the seven tiles it held, each had a tiny, to dust. And the “Q” and the “U” at the beginning of the word “QUILL” smoking hole burned in them where Clark had shot his eye-beams.

“I guess that’s game,” I said matter-of-factly.

“You were obviously going to win, Lo.” Clark cupped the debris in his it to the trash.

hands and walked

“Don’t be a sore loser, Clark,” I chided him. and said, “I’m not He returned for the empty cups and bowls on the table, picked them up ation that I could implic a sore loser, Lo. I can lose. But with losing comes at least the tiniest have won. That wasn’t even competitive. I was doomed from the start.” and I had He walked back into the kitchen. I looked at the board on the coffee table king realization.

a shoc-

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“Oh my god!”

“What?!” Clark cried as he rushed into the room. against it!

“The presence of this game is a threat to you! You don’t stand a chance “And?” he asked impatiently.

?!”

“Scrabble is your Kryptonite!” I exclaimed a little too gleefully. “Right

The faucet turned on “I guess so,” he said with an eye roll and walked back in the kitchen. you should probably and over the noise of the running water he said, “For my safety, then, clean it up and put it away.” bag. I stopped and “Ok. For your safety,” I replied as I started to put the letters back in the you need to “Also, , kitchen the s examined the decimated “Q” and “U” tiles. I shouted toward nature of ntal’ ‘accide know that, based on recent events, I’m having serious doubts about the when you crushed the plastic dice popper on your classmate’s Trouble.”

The water turned off and Clark leaned his head into the room.

“They could still roll the dice,” he said.

“Yeah, but popping the bubble is what makes it fun, Clark.”

“True,” he said. “You know what else is fun?”

“What?”

“A birthday party.”

A moment later, I heard the faucet turn back on and I smiled.

--Lo

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EX MACHINA #47

Written by: Brian K. Vaughan | art by: Tony Harris | Colors by: J.D Mettler Set in March of 1980, the way this comic uses dates gives it a more balanced setting and timeline than most books which just imply that their stories takes place in the present day. Its Tarantino-esque dialogue featuring pop culture references is rare in comics.

There’s something funny about characters debating a universe where Batman and Catwoman had a kid together.

The bad

For those of you who are all about the action and gore, we’re really only gifted with one nasty blood bath of a sequence that’s sure to peak your interest, but this isn’t the action-packed story some of you might prefer.

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The Veredict

When characters in a movie are film geeks themselves, discussing funny topics we have with our own friends in real life, it makes them more relatable and, in turn, more likable. This is the first time I’ve ever seen that technique used in a comic. Comic book characters who love comic books might seem simple, and it probably is, but the comedic element that this brings to the story is what makes Ex Machina stand out from the majority that I’ve read. The use of humor is perfect for a non-horror/superhero comic. This one isn’t loaded with action, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s a comic based on characters’ relationships with one other, which is the best way to make us care about them.

Ex Machina/Brian K. Vaughan/Tony Harris/DC Comics/Wildstorm/Savage Dragon/Image Comics

The Good

score

8.0

THE SAVAGE DRAGON BATTLES BEDROCK #3

Written by: Erik Larsen | art by: Erik Larsen | colors by: Gregory Wright

The Good

I won’t pretend I gave a sh*t about any of the characters in this story, but the nonstop high-level action sequences are what many comic book fans LOVE to see. The hero and villain are your typical big, strong, tough guys, but avoid becoming cliched stereotypes with good art and a few original characteristics. In a lesser known comic like The Savage Dragon, this is something that really deserves its props.

The bad

I consider this the comic book equivalent of a B movie. It’s so action-packed that you have a good sense of where it’s going from the get, ultimately becoming stagnant in the 3rd act. While the

tail end of the book was a real snooze, admittedly the last two pages end on an interesting note that has me curious about where the story will go from here.

The Veredict

I may be in the minority when I say that a comic that’s all action is actually quite boring. It needs to have some heart for me to care or I end up feeling detached. That’s not to say this book doesn’t have any substance, but there’s also very little reason to root for any particular character. If heavyweight fights among heroes and villains are your thing, then this is sure to be a good read, but if not,

there are much better options out there.

However, this is a respectable comic and a quick read, so if you’re looking for something new to indulge in, then it’ll be worth your time.

score

6.0

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Strangers in Paradise/Terry Moore/Abstract Studio/Cinderella Fables are Forever/Vertigo/Bill Willingham/Chris Roberson

strangers

In paradise #50 created by: Terry Moore comics. I can understand why they’re made, but I can’t get over the bland vibe I get while reading them. If I didn’t want colors or art that jumps off the page then I’d read a novel, not a comic.

The Veredict The Good

Superheroes are great, but it’s nice to change up the pace sometimes. I didn’t know anything about Strangers In Paradise going in, so I wasn’t prepared for all the talk of threesomes and sexual promiscuity, but this comic does an excellent job of incorporating those details. Two women discussing their experimenting over the years is enthralling, I don’t care who you are. The conversations bring a real life element to the characters in a way I was certainly not expecting.

Despite my disdain for black & white comics, Strangers In Paradise is able to overcome that prejudice simply by being original and showing a bond between characters that makes them feel real, almost like the comic is based, or at least inspired by, a true story. If you’re looking for a series that incorporates real life interactions instead of action and violence, then this is right up your alley. It’s not just a smut

comic, but one that’s not afraid to explore the same feelings and motivations that are common in movies and TV, yet rarely ever used in your standard comic.afraid to explore feelings and motivations that are common in movies and TV, but rarely ever used in your standard comic.

score

7.0

This is a comic that’s essentially nothing but dialogue, which I know is a turnoff to a lot of readers. Visually, I typically have a prejudice against black & white

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Silver Surfer/Marvel

The bad

CINDERELLA

Fables Are Forever #6

Written by: Chris Roberson | art by: Shawn McManus | colors by: Lee Loughridge

The bad

The Good

I’ve read more than my fair share of comics over the years, but I never thought I’d read one that involves Cinderella and Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Personally I was never much of a fan of either, but like most people, I did see both movies as a kid, and knowing the characters’ backstories made the read much more entertaining. This isn’t your typical Cinderella story. This is a totally original retelling. Dorothy seems so sweet and innocent in the movies, but I dare you to read this book and not call her a raging b**ch. That might seem harsh, but I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. So kudos to the creators for executing such a unique reimagining.

If it weren’t for the oddity of these household names coming together I wouldn’t have been interested in reading this at all. It’s awesome to see girls kick ass in a comic since it’s not quite as common, but the notoriety of these characters seems to be the only thing preventing it from just being your typical back and forth. What makes the book unique is Cinderella and Dorothy as opposed to the actual plot itself.

The Veredict

I’m a grown man with no kids, so I’m not a fan of Disney princesses, not even a little bit, but seeing the comic book version, I felt like I had to at least give it a chance. Incorporating such well

known and popular fictional characters, the comic does a great job of staying true to its story and not becoming played out or overly predictable. I think most people would enjoy this one, no matter who they are, but especially female readers who looked up to these characters as kids, since they get to see what the badass versions of these ladies would actually be like.

score

6.5

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Cerebus Guys/Aardvark-Vanaheim/Dave Sim/The New Avengers/Marvel/Stan Lee

CEREBUS: GUYS #1

Written by: Dave Sim | art by: Gerhard | Colors by: Gerhard

The Good

If the protagonist of your story is an alcoholic pig I think it’s fair to say comedy is a must. Fortunately, Cerebus Guys delivers on that front. It’s vulgar and clearly written for mature readers, and that’s why a lot of it works so well. For a comic that relies so heavily on keeping us interested through dialogue, it does a decent job with its pacing.

The bad

The overuse of slang in the dialogue is pretty cool to an extent, but it tends to go a little overboard to the point where the reader is left guessing what the characters are actually trying to say. There are times when it’s flat out annoying.

The Veredict

I didn’t connect with the characters the way I had hoped to, but from an entertainment standpoint the writers do a pretty good job. It’s not easy to make comic book readers laugh more than a half-hearted chuckle, but

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Cerebus delivers a couple of moments where I literally laughed out loud, which just might be the best thing about this book.

Despite the occasional laugh and a very unique protagonist, there’s not much else to say about Cerebus Guys. Indie and Rated M comic fans should give this a chance, but the average comic book fan can do without it.

Maybe it’s the black & white art, but there are too many moments where I found myself bored.

score

5.0

THE NEW AVENGERS #5

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis | art by: David Finch | colors by: Frank D’Armata

The Good

Action, explosions, and an abundance of elite superheroes, this book has everything your average comic fan looks for. Although I’m a pretty big X-Men fan, I’ve recently had a run of Wolverine comics that were just huge letdowns. Thankfully The New Avengers has put that cold streak to bed. Now, this is not an X-Men comic, it’s Avengers, but Wolverine takes the lead in this issue and displays all the attributes that make him the badass we all know and love. This book also boasts some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a while. Every panel jumps off the page in this book, and with superhero juggernauts like these guys, I’d say that needs to be the case.

doesn’t exactly bring anything new or unique to the Avengers universe. However, few comics do. I’m just happy it delivered the goods and kept me interested from cover to cover.

The Veredict

These days, the Avengers might be the most beloved heroes in the game. You can thank the Marvel Cinematic Universe for that. Because of those movies, the comics now have a clear advantage of drawing in new readers. With fantastic artwork and a great narrative, this comic is an absolute must-read. If you’re a fan of the movies but new to the comics, you’ll be sure to enjoy this one as well.

score

9.5

The bad

To say anything bad about this book would just be nitpicking.

But for the sake of being fair, it

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DEADPOOL’S SECRET Secret Wars #1

Written by: Cullen Bunn | art by: Matteo Lolli | Colors by: Ruth Redmond

The Good

The bad

If I’m going to say something bad about this comic, there’s only one thing I can think of... Cullen Bunn’s done better, which isn’t really a knock, because it’s all relative.

He’s the Barry Bonds of Deadpool comics—all he does is hit home runs, and that’s exactly what this

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is as well. It’s just that he and his team are so damn good that he’s done even better.

Deadpool/Marvel/Stan Lee

A Deadpool comic has to be bloody; a Deadpool comic has to be funny; and most importantly, a Deadpool comic has to be on par with the unique style and cleverness that’s always made him stand out from other heroes.

Deadpool’s Secret Secret Wars #1 delivers on all three accounts, but so does any one of Cullen Bunn’s Deadpool comics. The Regenerating Degenerate is not a typical superhero—he’s the anti-superhero, which is a huge factor in why so many of us love the character and why he works so well in the movies too (shout out to Ryan Reynolds for being more like his character than any actor we’ve seen aside from MAYBE Hugh Jackman as Wolverine).

The Veredict

I want to be up front with you and admit that Cullen Bunn just might be my favorite comic book writer in the game right now, so it’s possible I’m just a wee bit biased. However, he’s my favorite for good reason, and that means I have higher expectations with him than I do with almost anyone else. Anytime Deadpool’s thrown in the mix with other high profile members of the Marvel universe, I expect something special, and that’s exactly what this comic is. I implore you to read it ASAP!

score

9.5

DEADPOOL’S SECRET Secret Wars #2

Written by: Cullen Bunn | art by: Matteo Lolli | colors by: Ruth Redmond need to either like the Marvel universe or at least know a little bit about it to fully appreciate this one.

The Veredict

The Good

Deadpool is “just like Spider-Man, but with guns and charm” (his words, not mine). That’s about as spot-on of an assessment as I’ve ever heard, even if it does come straight from the horse’s mouth.

The Merc with a Mouth is at his absolute funniest in this issue and it makes for an excellent follow up to #1. Just like in the best Deadpool comics, he always seems to rub his peers the wrong way, which just adds to the constant humor he’s able to effortlessly churn out. Whether he’s taunting Wolverine or commenting on how big a woman’s “balloons” are, there’s never a dull moment.

Saying these characters go to war is putting it mildly. It’s so action packed, and yet, Deadpool’s ability to break up the tension with humor makes you never lose interest in the story or feel like things are becoming repetitive. Again, I’m a little biased, but I can’t imagine a comic book fan (let alone a Marvel fan) reading any book in this four-part series and thinking it’s anything short of fantastic.

Issue #2 leaves the reader excited to see what’s to come in the final two.

score

9.0

The bad

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