Donnie Yen on Filming “x X x: Return of Xander Cage”
With the release of xXx: Return of Xander Cage earlier in January, Donnie Yen (甄子丹) has been busy promoting his new film. Filming several Hollywood movies, Donnie discussed his experience and compared Hollywood to Hong Kong productions.
Happy with the overall production of xXx Return of Xander Cage, Donnie expressed, “The cast and crew and I got along very well – they even told me that their new action stunts crew used my movie, Flash Point <導火線> as reference material. When filming stunts and action scenes, they would also ask for my opinion so a lot of the scenes encompassed a lot of my own ideas. It definitely allowed me to showcase my own personal style.”
While praising Hollywood productions for paying attention to the smallest of details, Donnie said there is definitely room for improvement in Hong Kong films. “In the recent years, I feel that we’ve been slightly lazy when it came to filming. For example, with my recent film for Wong Jing (王晶), I heard people talking in the background while we were filming. In Hollywood, everyone was very respectful – once the cameras start rolling, everyone would stop talking. Even when I wasn’t the one in front of the camera, I couldn’t help but to tell everyone to shut up so the actor could concentrate.”
In the past, Asian actors have been racially discriminated against in American films, and were often cast in unattractive roles. Having worked on xXx: Return of Xander Cage, Donnie revealed that this was not the case for the movie, and found the experience highly enjoyable.
Source: On.cc
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
He is the only thing that drawn people to see this stupid movie. From Rogue One to this..Sigh..He should and could choose better films
@itsmeg
I initially watched Rogue One for Donnie Yen, but, I found the whole movie highly enjoyable. It made me interested in Star Wars that the previous films were never able to do.
Just curious, what kind of film should he choose in your opinion? What is considered a better film?
@kidd
Rogue One was good, which is why I don’t get why he is in XXX. His was the only good part in that dumb movie, which dialogues consist mostly of recycled witty one-liners and retorts.
@itsmeg
Oic. I thought you said both Rogue One and xXx are bad. My mistake.
Well, there can be a lot of reasons why Donnie chose to be in xXx. Maybe he wanted to work with Vin Diesel, or maybe he likes xXx 1 and 2, or maybe the initial script they showed him is not that bad.
Donnie mentioned that Asian actors were discriminated in the past in American films but this was not the case now. Of course is different now as they need China market and audience now.
@hayden You make it sound like it’s as bad as letting Hollywood portray Asians stereotypically in movies. Asians have complained how they have been portrayed in Hollywood movies because Hollywood didn’t PAY ANY ATTENTION. But now they do. If the big market the only way to keep them in check, then so be it. It’s better than nothing.