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‘Star Wars’ actor initially reluctant to take on role
You’d think pretty much any actor alive who can do a halfway decent flying kick would jump at the chance to play a martial arts-fighting, Forcesensitive monk in a “Star Wars” movie. But internationally known action star Donnie Yen initially resisted the idea of signing on to play Chirrut Imwe in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” To put it in Jedi terms, Chirrut was simply not the role he was looking for.
Chirrut has now become one of the major breakout characters in “Rogue One.” And it’s safe to say Yen is glad he came around.
We spoke to Yen, 53, at Lucasfilm headquarters in San Francisco. The following is an edited transcript.
Q: How did you get involved in “Rogue One”?
A: My agent called and said, “Disney is looking for you, and they want you to be in ‘Star Wars.’ ” At first I said, “OK, they probably want me to swing the lightsaber against Darth Vader or something.” Then (director) Gareth (Edwards) called me and started telling me that there would be no Jedi in the movie and about this particular character.
It’s crazy, but I was hesitant about taking this role. I was flattered, but at the same time I didn’t want to leave my family for five months to go to London, because I just got off another movie.
I turned to my children and I said, “Do you like baba’s ‘Ip Man’ series?” because I’m known to Western audiences for “Ip Man.” “Or do you want baba to be in ‘Star Wars’?” They went, “‘Star Wars,’ of course!”
Q: The original “Star Wars” trilogy wasn’t released in China at the time. Did you have any connection to the franchise growing up?
A: I spent some years living in Boston as a teenager, and I saw “A New Hope” and “Empire Strikes Back” there. But I’ve been in the business 35 years, and I never expected to be in “Star Wars.”
Q: How did Gareth initially pitch his take on the movie and who Chirrut would be?
A: I asked him a very blunt, frank question: “Why do you want me to be in your film? The China market? The Asian market?” Because originally I thought, “Oh, they just want me to kick some storm trooper’s butt.”
And he said no, that he watches all my films and he wants a very specific persona in Chirrut by Donnie Yen. That was very flattering, and that was the answer I was looking for.
Q: How was it actually performing the fight scenes without really being able to see?
A: I’ve done choreography all my life, and that, to me, was not a problem. But having the contact lenses and having to take them off every three hours and have a rest, and on top of that every 30 seconds they have to put drops in my eyes. It was very irritating. It was very blurry. It was hard to judge distance. But that was OK because I’m supposed to be blind anyway.
The most difficult part was not being able to interact with my fellow actors. I wasn’t able to look them in the eyes to inform the action. I didn’t want to look robotic, no offense to Alan (Tudyk, who plays droid K-2SO). But at the same time, I had to have that kind of blank state of mind.
Q: You said you didn’t want to be cast simply to boost the Asian box office. But have you gotten any sense that audiences in China are more excited about “Rogue One” because you’re in it?
A: I would like to think so (laughs). If I’m a producer, I would put Chinese actors like myself in a film; it just makes sense. It’s the right thing to do.
Also, I think, morally, the world we live in today should be this way. It should be diverse and in peace and unity to make a better place.