Thank Donnie’s kids for ‘Rogue One’ role
HONG KONG: If you’ve been wondering about who to thank for having martial arts actor Donnie Yen in a Rogue One role, high-five his kids.
When the phone call came from Disney studios, Donnie wasn’t sure about accepting the part.
Recounted an amused-looking Donnie: “I got a call from my agent, saying, ‘Disney just called me. They want you to be in a Star Wars movie.
“I was like, ‘Are they going to make me a lightsabre or something?’, you know. Bad idea. ‘Are they going to ask me to get Darth Vader?
“I asked my kids, ‘Do you like Papa (more) in Ip Man’...or Star Wars?’ Without a doubt or a pause, they shouted, ‘Star Wars!’ I was like, ‘OK, wait a minute! I need to be a cooler dad.’”
In the movie, Donnie takes on the role of a blind warrior monk who takes down a group of stormtroopers with just a wooden staff.
Just like the sort of jawdropping scenes he had played in Ip Man.
Donnie, 53, can still kick butts like he’s fresh out of a Shaolin monastery.
I asked my kids, ‘Do you like Papa (more) in Ip Man’...or Star Wars?’Without a doubt or a pause, they shouted,‘Star Wars!’ I was like,‘OK, wait a minute! I need to be a cooler dad. Donnie Yen, martial arts actor
As a child, he had studied martial arts, including Tai chi and Taekwondo. His mother is a martial arts master.
Before Star Wars, Yen’s movie career, which consists of over 30 films was mostly in Hong Kong and mainland China martial arts films.
His career “kicked off” in 1984, when he starred in a film titled Drunken Tai Chi, directed by the legendary action movie director Yuen Woo-ping.
“Of course, I knew Yuen’s work, and realised it was a great opportunity to work with him,” Donnie said. “I always treat him as my ‘sifu’, which means ‘fatherly teacher’. I learned a lot from him, and then later moved on to develop my own style.”
An off-cited story from the late Nineties, covered at the time by Hong Kong news outlets, tells of how Donnie was standing outside a nightclub with his then-girlfriend, when a group of men began harassing her.
The gang later tried to corner and attack Donnie, and all eight members ended up in hospital.
Asked how Rogue One’s choreography measured up to his previous work, Donnie reckoned: “I don’t make comparisons between any movies. I compare characters. All my actions, performances, all my films, they are driven by the characteristic.
“If I’m playing a cop, then I give him a particular style – I may not know that style, but as an actor I have to be responsible; to do your homework and do your research and training and stuff like that,” he added.
“To play this character, he lives in this world. He’s blind. He is, I believe, the spiritual centre in the film. Therefore, automatically as an actor, without ever thinking about it, it slowly forms together.”