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Quotes
Lot of the scripts I've been in with other
non-white actors haven't been great. Lot of non-white actors ain't all
that great.
It's cool
to have some black belt in martial fighting but it doesn't mean you can
fight. To fight you need heart and I'm lucky that I have that, and
that's all you really need at the end of the day.
In the beginning, all I wanted to do was to be a singer and a dancer. That was my real groove, my real interest. When it came to doing films, my biggest goal was to do a commercial.
I don't understand the mandate of being
together forever. The idea that you should do that is wrong. It makes us
slaves to a societal mandate. You can still love, but it doesn't mean
you have to be tethered to the flesh [His reference on marriage].
[9.14.97: Toronto Sun newspaper: Interviewed by Liz Braun]
I have a whole other side that has yet to be seen on screen.
The girls. It’s the reason I went to college and studied so long. The money was spent well. I actually wanted to be a dancer. It was in my drudges, I’d still be a dancer
I used to do puppet theatre and also mime
and musical theatre in Florida for competitions and festivals, which was
great. I was very much involved in theatre when I was in college. It's
funny because all I wanted to do when I was young was to become a dancer
and then I went to acting school, where they taught me great drama! And
that was it, I became an actor and the rhythm went through the door. But
I can still do some dancing, some choreography in my films and that's
cool.
I read that Asian women were bedroom
generals. Some people think that means they're great in bed, but that's
not the issue. They're talking about a place where the man is at his
most vulnerable, where they have the most control. They don't have to
beat him over the head to mow the lawn. They can whisper it in his ear
and give him a kiss on the cheek and it's no problem. That's a general.
?(August 1998: Jet Magazine v.94 #13 pg.58)
Lot of the scripts I've been in with other non-white actors haven't been great. Lot of non-white actors ain't all that great.
Certain roles are more challenging than
others, but I haven't come across one yet that I can't tackle.
I used to do puppet theatre and also mime
and musical theatre in Florida for competitions and festivals, which was
great. I was very much involved in theatre when I was in college. It's
funny because all I wanted to do when I was young was to become a dancer
and then I went to acting school, where they taught me great drama! And
that was it, I became an actor and the rhythm went through the door. But
I can still do some dancing, some choreography in my films and that's
cool.
It's true that at the beginning there was a little bit of hesitation with him because he is know for more gory, dark and depressing kinds of horror films like "Mimic" or "Cronos" and this one, "Blade 2", had to be a comic tale full of speed and action. But Guillermo had so many good ideas with the monsters, with the vampires, with the weapons of Blade, he is so detailed oriented that we thought he would be perfect. Also, we wanted to pump up the level of emotions in this film, you know, it's like a Greek tragedy with lots of dramatic conflicts between each characters and Guillermo gets the emotions, he knows how to make them stick in the middle of all the action scenes.
I think that there are things that I have
weak areas in my craft. Tonalities, sometimes the choices I make could
be a little bit more emotionally full. The problem is that we are doing
a lot of work and with films back to back you don’t have a lot of time
to prepare. Then, even in this business, you don’t know if the project
is going to go.
I was filming Undisputed, a boxing movie, just before we started Blade 2, so I was already in training and pretty much in good shape. And I trained in Prague a lot. But you know, because I've been doing martial arts, and yoga, and mediation, and following a good diet, it doesn't really take me too much time to be in shape and ready for a film like this. When you have a regular health discipline, your body stays in shape all the time. I've been lucky to never stop exercising and in this film it's cool to have incorporated all kind of fighting and physical styles, from a Hong Kong style in the opening, to a more "Wesley style" which is more ju-jitsu, African, kick-ass whatever I feel like, so it was intense but fun.
I have a great deal of fun playing Blade.
The lifestyle of it, the controlled rebelliousness, is wonderful to me.
And it's therapeutic, too. A role like this lets you vent.
It was not difficult. The guys were very
respectful and helpful. I’ve worked in a few prisons before so I had
some familiarity with being behind bars.
I never really planned on making action
films. It just kind of happened. I've focused primarily on acting and
developing characters, but that has blossomed into a whole new venue I'm
still young and fit enough to do. My love is still drama, though. Even
if I play a straight action guy, I want to give him some depth and
substance.
There are some similarities regarding
balance between this character and me. Certain things just don’t
bother me and I don’t worry about certain things. I don’t allow
myself to get involved in things that “movie stars are supposed to
do.” Does it make me a better actor? No. If I never do another movie
again, will I still act? Yes. Can I still be happy? Yes. If I don’t
have a career, will I jump out the window? No! If I quit acting, I will
just become a DeeJay. I’m a flip it. If you mess with my records that
will make me cry.
I love the idea of the man to man, against
one another. I like that. I don't know why. - On why he loves the sport
of boxing.
I got stabbed in the hand. I got a bruise up here
[points to forehead]. I think I got a little fracture. War wounds. I'm not trying to be
Jackie Chan. I'm not interested in Jackie Chan's lifestyle. I don't even understand Jackie Chan's lifestyle. Why would you want to do some of that, man?
I've been quite busy with other business
ventures and with my production company, Amen Ra, we've been forging
relationships with HBO, New Line and various filmmakers. I've created
also a VIP personal protection company and trying to create a few
businesses for my friends and partners in order for them not to depend
only on my film successes.
The demands are rough to do boxing films. Besides the training before you actually start the movie, usually we are doing like 3-4 minute rounds. We do rounds based on the dialogue. You have to do it like 5 or 6 times. You have to stop, your body cools down, and they come over and sprit water on you that feels like they just threw ice on your scrotum. You feel terrible. Then you come back and do that for 3 days back to back.
I love the idea of the man to man, against
one another. I like that. I don’t know why.
I trained in a lot of martial arts styles, worked with a lot of different and good martial artists. So we thought, "Well, you know, since Blade is already a kind of hybrid type of a film, mixing genres, mixing styles, mixing music genres, why don't we mix the martial arts styles as well?" [Bringing co-star and fight choreographer] Donnie Yen in [gave] us a little bit of that Hong Kong flavor, like you see in some of the opening scenes. And then move from there into more of the Wesley Bronx/Brooklyn style stuff as the film progresses, and he gets a little more emotional. We ain't got time to pose. It's about handling it and getting it done. So we put everything in there. I threw everything in there. The criteria was that it had to make sense and be in sync with the emotional state of the character at the time, and that it just couldn't be there for the sake of being there.
They should be very versatile. Versatility
is what's going to give them the longevity. The world is opening up and
a lot more stories and a lot more interesting scenes to portray in film.
Versatility will help them. They must be able to see the world, learn
the world, and bring it to their craft. - His advice to aspiring actors. |
