25 JAN 2016
DONNIE YEN TALKS IP MAN 3 AND ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
The first Chinese star to join the Lucasfilm franchise.
BY JIM VEJVODA
We recently spoke with action icon and Chinese box office star Donnie Yen about his new film, Ip Man 3 (now playing; see our positive review), as well as his role in the upcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Yen had initially been somewhat reluctant to reprise his role as Ip Man, the legendary real-life Wing Chun Kung Fu master who mentored Bruce Lee, for a third film, but changed his mind with time. "After the first two were so successful, I wanted to top those as an actor. Also I was waiting for the director to come up with the right direction and the right idea," said Yen. Five years would eventually pass between Ip Man 2 and the third installment.
Donnie Yen reprises the title role in Ip Man 3.
Without getting into spoilerish territory, Ip Man 3 may ostensibly be about Ip Man facing down a thuggish American property developer (played by Mike Tyson!) encroaching on his community, but it's also an intensely personal tale for Ip Man as he also faces a dilemma at home that all his fighting prowess is powerless against.
"The first one was about survival during the Japanese occupation. The second one was about a particular time in China when we overcame a lot of obstacles," recalled Yen. "I think the audiences will like this because it’s about the problems that surround us every day. It’s not just a martial arts movie. It can be enjoyed that way, but it’s also got a lot of heart and soul. Hopefully you’ll come out of the theater feeling a lot of grounded values."
Yen did boast, however, that he and Tyson "have a great fight scene onscreen."
What will arguably be Yen's most high-profile role for Western audiences is yet to come. He's a part of the ensemble cast of the forthcoming Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Gareth Edwards-directed prequel to A New Hope that chronicles how the Rebel spies stole the plans to the first Death Star.
Yen was understandably reluctant to say much about the highly secretive film. "I’m very excited to be the first Chinese actor to ever be in the biggest movie franchise in the world, Star Wars. My children love Star Wars and I saw Star Wars as a kid [Editor's note: Yen spent part of his youth in America]. It’s so great to be a part of it and I’m sure it’s going to be great."
Star Wars, though, is a largely new phenomenon to China. Indeed, younger Chinese audiences reportedly aren't flocking in droves to see the film the way they did other Hollywood imports such as Furious 7 or the Transformers sequels.
Yen dodged the question of how much of a role he will play in helping to promote Rogue One specifically to Chinese audiences. "How they’re going to sell it and how they’re going to market it I think is best for Disney to answer that," said Yen. "They’re the best marketing company in the world and I would imagine they’re going to pick out the best parts of it. Everyone knows China’s this big market now. It’s going to be overtaking Hollywood so that’s just business sense, right?"
This is our first look at the resistance fighters at the heart of Rogue One, the group who band together to steal the plans to the Death Star.
Felicity Jones will star in Rogue One, which is the first Star Wars stand-alone film. She was nominated for an Oscar for 2014’s The Theory of Everything, where she played Jane Wilde Hawking, Stephen Hawking's wife (seen here on the right). While it is not currently known who she is playing in Rogue One, some rumors have pegged her character to be Boba Fett’s daughter. No disintegration!
Jones also played a supporting role in 2014 in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as Felicia Hardy (seen here). While Hardy is the Black Cat in the comics, Jones never got the chance to don that feline anti-hero’s costume and claws. She also won a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival for the movie Like Crazy, has appeared in films like The Tempest, The Invisible Woman, and Cheri, and even showed up in a 2008 Doctor Who episode (‘The Unicorn and the Wasp’).
Diego Luna is also part of the Rogue One team. He's been in Elysium, Milk and the upcoming Blood Father (alongside Mel Gibson). He's also a filmmaker in his own right, having directed films such as Cesar Chavez.
A crazy but fun fan theory floating around at the moment pegs Luna’s Rogue One character as Biggs Darklighter, Luke Skywalker’s friend from A New Hope. Hey, the timeline makes sense -- as does that mustache!
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Riz Ahmed was most recently seen as Jake Gyllenhaal's unlucky partner Rick in Nightcrawler. He’s also appeared in the films The Road to Guantanamo, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and the BAFTA-winning Four Lions, among others. Reportedly it was his 'chemistry' screen test with Felicity Jones which won him the part in Rogue One.
Chinese actor and filmmaker Jiang Wen looks to be a particularly fearsome, armor-wearing member of this resistance group. He’s co-written, directed and starred in films such as Let the Bullets Fly, Devils on the Doorstep, and The Sun Also Rises.
Hong Kong action maestro Donnie Yen would appear to be playing one of the more intriguing characters in the Star Wars universe. It looks as though his character is blind in the Rogue One group photo, and is that a walking stick that he carries with him… or something much deadlier? Yen will forever be remembered for his Ip Man films, based on the Wing Chun master who taught Bruce Lee.
Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn, who was nominated for an Emmy for his role in the Netflix series Bloodline, also stars in Rogue One -- but his character is apparently not a part of the resistance. Word has it that he’s one of the film’s villains, in fact. Mendelsohn has also made his mark in films like Animal Kingdom, Killing Them Softly, The Place Beyond the Pines and The Dark Knight Rises. In the latter film, you may recall that things did not go well between Mendelsohn's character and Bane.
Forest Whitaker surely needs no introduction, especially if you’re a Fast Times fan. And while we’ll never forget Charles Jefferson’s football field rampage from that classic, Whitaker of course has been a constant presence onscreen ever since. He won an Academy Award for his turn as dictator Idi Amin in 2006’s The Last King of Scotland.
These days Mads Mikkelsen is Dr. Hannibal Lecter on NBC's Hannibal, but soon the Danish actor will be making the jump to a galaxy far, far away for Rogue One. While Mikkelsen got his start in Danish films, making a mark in the great Pusher series for director Nicolas Winding Refn, he eventually went on to find Hollywood success after playing the villainous Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. And let’s face it: He’s probably not playing the nicest guy in Rogue One either.
Alan Tudyk is no stranger to space, having piloted the titular Firefly spaceship Serenity in that Joss Whedon TV series and movie. He’ll be playing a performance-capture character in Rogue One, something which he did previously in the good old days of motion-capture... in 2004, when he appeared as Sonny the robot in I, Robot. He's also an experienced voice actor, having provided character tones for the Disney films Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen and Big Hero 6. Only time will tell what creature, monster or droid he’ll bring to life in Rogue One…
And what about those colored contact lenses we see his character's wearing in the only officially released Rogue One cast photo? Was it difficult to do action scenes wearing them? Did they obscure his vision at all? "I can’t really talk about that because of the arrangement between Disney and I, but I’m sure in a few months we’ll be able to talk about it."
Ip Man 3 is now playing. Rogue One opens December 16.