Cung Le Stars in PANDORUM

by Gene Ching

PANDORUM is the latest in Cung Le's run of feature film appearances. In April of 2009, he had a non-speaking villain role in FIGHTING with Terrence Howard and Channing Tatum. It was the best fight of the film, but only teased at what Cung might have to offer Hollywood. Still to come (and all allegedly in 2009) are TEKKEN, which promises to have a major international release, and two from China: Yuen Woo Ping's TRUE LEGEND and Donnie Yen's BODYGUARDS AND ASSASSINS. Both of the Chinese films are major productions in China, but might have a limited release in America, and that might not be until later. John Woo's epic RED CLIFF was released in Asia in July 2008. Its American release is convoluted: Video-On-Demand, Xbox Live and Amazon on October 22 and in select theaters on November 20.

PANDORUM marks a major departure for Cung. All the rest of his films are well within the martial arts genre. PANDORUM is science fiction horror. Most martial artists never escape the martial arts genre. Earlier this year, Jackie Chan starred in SHINJUKU INCIDENT, which probably won't have an American theatrical release. While there are some fights in that film, it's not quite the martial arts mayhem the world expects from Jackie. Jet Li recently announced he would star in OCEAN PARADISE, scheduled for release in 2010. Press releases have made it clear that this will be a non-kung fu film.

So far, MMA champions like Cung have only dabbled in film. There have been a few feature films, but most have been direct-to-video releases, typical of the martial arts genre for the last few decades. Gina Carano has recently been tapped for a Steven Soderbergh project called KNOCKOUT. Early press releases have dubbed this a spy thriller, which - strictly speaking - lies outside the martial arts genre. However, there's a longstanding history of martial artists appearing in thrillers, such a Bruce Lee in MARLOWE or Ed Parker in the PINK PANTHER series. The biggest crossover today is Chuck Liddell competing on DANCING WITH THE STARS this season. While there have been other marginal crossovers, Cung starring in PANDORUM marks a major breakthrough, especially for only his second national release.

GC: Tell me about PANDORUM.

CL: PANDORUM is probably my biggest movie, because that's the largest part I've got as a supporting actor. That movie, the fights are going to be exciting - and has a lot of potential to be one of the best fights of the year on the big screen. That's what Mike Gunter, who is the action director in that movie, and also the action director in FAST AND FURIOUS, told me: has plenty of potential to be the best fight of the year. Moving on to PANDORUM, doing a horror movie with a real science fiction twist, with really awesome cast - Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster - it has a lot of potential to do really good in the theaters because it's really different with all it's twists and turns in the plot that no one really knows. People are really guessing at what it is right now, and I'm kind of laughing whenever I read some of the comments what people are saying. They're in for a big surprise. They are way off. They're not even close to being on with this plot. A lot of people tried to get it out of us at WonderCon. I think we did a really good job of steering them in the direction that the studio wants.

GC: What I've seen of the sets, they remind me a lot of ALIEN.

CL: When I walked onto the stage, when I walked inside, the hallways of the spaceship, I was blown away about how long they were and how big the sets were. That one was in Berlin.

GC: I imagine there will be a lot of great special effects. How was working with that for you?

CL: In PANDORUM, I did some wirework. I did 97% of my own stunts. This one stunt I did where I ran up the wall - the director said, "Okay, run up the wall, jump and grab this chain, and then we'll cut and we'll put the wires on because you fall off the chain. Plus when you're climbing up, the wires [are] on to keep you safe in case you slip." I'm so in the moment in my first take, I jump and grab onto the chain and naturally I just start climbing. And when I got to the top, I didn't hear the director say "Cut." Everyone was more like, "What the hell did you just do?" I was stuck way up there and I'm like, how do I get down? My hands were hurting and I just didn't want to climb down on the chain. It was just this rush of adrenalin that I got to the top. That was just an awesome experience.

GC: This is a very different role for you than your other films this year.

CL: I didn't just get the role in PANDORUM because I was a fighter. In FIGHTING, I got the role because of what I showed - how to punch and how to kick. I even did some flips for FIGHTING. In TEKKEN, I came in and did a read. I didn't do much physical, but they had my DVD. In PANDORUM, the part began so big. The director after the film told me- Well, I thanked him for the opportunity and he said, "Why are you thanking me? I saw your fight against Frank, and I thought that was an amazing fight, but the first thing I said was, CAN HE ACT? I'm more of an actor's director. If you can't act in my film, you're not going to help me at all." So I had to audition for it. The role was Tanaka and I couldn't speak Japanese, so I ended up auditioning in Vietnamese. They auditioned a lot of people - I don't want to mention any names - but he said that after he saw my read, they took the part and changed the character of Tanaka to Manh, which is a Vietnamese name. That was like a great accomplishment. It was almost like I won a shot to a title. Going to the movie was the title shot - how I delivered in the movie.

I'm not just up against martial artists or up-and-coming stars. They're seasoned actors - people known not for their action in their movies, but their acting like Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid. Most of my scenes were with Ben Foster, so I definitely had to deliver, and I had to be at that level so I didn't get dwarfed in his shadow as an actor. After I was done, the producers Jeremy Bolt and Robert Kulzer said I handled my own, and they were very happy about casting me for the movie.

GC: Did you ever think you would get into acting?

CL: I never envisioned myself being an actor. I always thought it's all about ass-kicking and jumping through windows and dodging bullets. But I read the script and was like, "Ooh. This is demanding." Not only as a physical lead but this is like you got to have a lot of emotion. You're a survivor. You're searching for food. You're searching for alliance. You're searching for how to stay alive - searching for the next day. It's day by day. Who can you trust? You're always looking over your shoulders and you just don't know who to trust and who to believe. My character Manh in this film has survived for a while, so I know what's going on. I'm seasoned at staying alive, using things in that environment as weapons, almost leaning on my animal instinct. That was the part I knew my martial skills would not help me at all. But the martial discipline came in big because I disciplined myself to become an actor so when it came to the acting part, I was able to hold my own against someone like Ben Foster.

GC: Being a fighter, you learn to read people quickly, and deception is a key element. I imagine that helped.

CL: That's awesome. That's the answer right there. I was able to read Ben, his emotion, and play off of it. There's a lot of fighters out there that have great potential, but are they willing to take that next step? Because for me, I took this on like - okay, this is a part where I'm going to train in the morning, put myself on tape, and I'd go through all my scenes. Then I'd study all my scenes, what kind of state I'm in. Then I got to have my lines down and have it ready for different ways, how I'd have to play off Ben. If he was in a certain kind of emotion, I'd have to feed off of what I would do in that situation. Then I'd work with an acting coach and I'd come home and watch what I'd done on tape and critique myself. I'd have my acting coach critique it and whoever I'm working with critique it. Then do that again the next morning.

GC: That's like fight game strategy.

CL: It's just like your studying a game. You're dissecting it. Instead of into a cage or onto a ring or onto a leitai, you come onto a set and you got to be ready to go wherever. And you got to be able to expect the unexpected from the other actor. You got to feed off him. And if you don't have anything to feed off, you have to feed off yourself. After I left that set, both my agent and manager said I came back to the States with this aura, more confident. It was like intensive training, and I'm ready for the next project.

GC: And that's not getting back in the ring. I've heard you've given up your Strikeforce belt.

CL: After 18 months, I haven't been able to defend it. I figure the best thing to do is to release the belt out of respect for all the other middleweight contenders in that division of Strikeforce. They don't have the same opportunity that I have, so I think the right thing to do is to vacate it.

GC: That's honorable. So you have another film project coming? .

CL: There's a few things in the works. I don't want to announce anything until it's set and done.

PANDORUM opens on September 25, 2009.

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PANDORUM opens on September 25, 2009.