Wednesday, August 14, 2002

COMIC-CON INTERNATIONAL: BULLETPROOF MONK PANEL

By Rob Allstetter / The Comics Continuum

SAN DIEGO - Like so many movies, MGM's Bulletproof Monk had an unveiling of sorts at the recent Comic-Con International.

The film's trailer was shown for the first time, and stars Seann William Scott and Jamie King appeared in person.

In Bulletproof Monk, Chow Yun-Fat plays a mysterious monk with no name zigzagging the globe to protect an ancient scroll -- a scroll that holds the key to unlimited power. Now the monk must find a protégé, the next guardian of the Scroll of the Ultimate. Kar (Scott) is an unlikely candidate, a streetwise young man whose only interest is himself, but when he saves the Bulletproof Monk from capture, the two become partners in a scheme to save the world from the scroll's most avid pursuer.

Together, with the help of a sexy Russian mafia princess called Bad Girl, they seek out, find and face the ultimate enemy in a final battle.

Scott and King answered several questions about Bulletproof Monk and following are some of their comments:

* King on first-time director Paul Hunter: "He had an incredible vision about what he wanted the movie to be like. And every single day he came into work, it just grew and grew and grew. He watched so many different movies and had so many references for this movie that it was pretty incredible to see what he had in his mind and then see it come to life. It's really an amazing process to work with a director who is doing his first feature film because there's so much enthusiasm and so much loving and so much generosity and so much excitement to their work.

* Scott on working for Hunter: "This movie is a huge dream come true. I never really anticipated doing comedies and American Pie was so exciting. I was surprised at just getting the job. I thought I was going to get fired every day. I figured that they would figure out I didn't know what I was doing. But my whole goal on that was just to try to give myself into as much of that movie as I could.

"I was hoping to some day get something like this, which kind of had all the elements that made me want to be an actor. I used to work at a movie theater, and I used to love Indiana Jones and I loved Chow Yun-Fat's movies. This was huge. For Paul to believe in me, as much as I believed in myself, was a big thing. He was a very cool, kind of mellow guy, but he knew exactly what he wanted.

"I had the luxury of going to the editing room about a week-and-a-half ago and I couldn't believe what I saw. It exceeded my expectations big time. I was like, 'What do I do after this?' I'm excited for everybody to see it."

Scott on his acting success: "I'm just a lucky guy. I don't even know. The only thing I've got going for me is that I'm obsessed with movies. That's all I do, is watch movies. And I'll able to point out things that I like and that I don't like. Hopefully, I can recognize with every part that I get, if I get more parts, what to do and what not to do.

"I kind of approached this movie a different way. I thought this character should be a little more darker. But I'm the jackass guy in a lot of movie. I thought this guy should be much darker. And Paul said, 'No. This character looks on the bright side of things. He's always loving life.' Even though he doesn't have a family and he doesn't have any money. He has to find money, pick pockets, and he trains by watching movies.

"That was actually a good thing. Because being obsessed with movies is a good thing. I realized, 'I did American Pie 2. I don't think the next step should be Philadelphia: The Sequel.' This is perfect. I get to have some funny things and some action and working with Jamie everyday was an amazing thing."

* King on training: "We did so much training for this movie. We did about four months training before we actually started doing the movie. Just to even get this movie, I did like five auditions, a screen test and then a physical test.

"I came into this huge gymnasium one day and there were 10 Chinese action King-Fu people. I was like, 'So, guys what do you want me to do?' And none of them spoke any English and I was sitting there terrified that I was going to have some crazy Kung-Fu move with these people just to get into the movie. I walked in there and they started training me even before I knew I had the movie.

"We really busted our butts for this movie. We did Kung-Fu, we did Hong Kong street fighting, we did gymnastics for six or seven hours a day before we even began doing the movie. Then when we were doing the month, we were trained a month beforehand and then trained everyday as we were filming. It was a constant process. We pretty much did all our own stunts that we could. We did all the wirework. We were running up walls.

"That's an amazing thing about acting and being a part of this kind of movie. I get to learn from the best people in the world and fly around on wires and learn Kung-Fu. It's the coolest experience. I'm training with masters."

* Scott on training: "I was just fat, so I had to lose all this weight. I gained all this weight for American Pie 2 because I had this great idea, 'Gee, I bet Stifler's fat now.' He's not playing sports anymore and he's packed on some pounds. So I had to lose all that for this.

"We trained hardcore. The thing we realized was there's Matrix, Crouching Tiger, Charlie's Angels and Dark Angel, all these movies and shows involving martial arts. It raised the bar and you can't fake martial arts. This movie has got a lot of it. It has to believable."

GIVE'EM A CLICK

* King on an injury: "I broke my finger when I was making the movie. But I broke my finger when I was running up the stairs, and I was on the phone with the director. People would say, 'Did you do it on the set?' And I didn't have a cool story like I broke my finger during a big fight."

* Scott on injuries: "The cool thing about getting injured on this movie was that Chow Yun-Fat was a bad-ass. He would come up and was like a medicine man. He would know how to fix people.

"Everyday, you'd be in the makeup chair next to Chow Yun-Fat, and he's like this god. He would be like, 'Let me fix. Let me fix.' Then he would touch me, and it be like, (screams in pain). And so every day my goal would not to get hurt because he would try to fix it."

* Scott on action vs. comedy: "I don't know. I was really nervous with American Pie. And after that, all that came my way was comedies. With American Pie, that was such a dream come true, with the whole experience and the fact that everybody liked it so much, I felt like I didn't need anything after this and I could go back to Minnesota very happy.

"But I realized I really liked what I was doing. But every movie that came my way were like Road Trip and Dude, Where's My Car? It's a pretty amazing thing to be a theater and hear people laugh at something. If there's an accident or something on set that you came up with and it works, it's a really great payoff.

"This movie was so much fun. To work with Chow Yun-Fat and Jamie and to work on something you don't really know well like martial arts and then to do it for a movie, it's pretty rewarding."

* King on working with Chow Yun-Fat: "Really cool. It's like walking on the set when he's there, I'm hovering about. 'Should I go talk to him now?' 'Am I cool enough to talk to Chow Yun-Fat?' He exudes so much grace. Half time the we were talking, I didn't know if he was serious or not serious. He was always messing with us, always joking around. I was also falling for his little tricks on set.

"But he's really, really professional. He was always getting his job done just like that. He would come on set and he would get everything done in two takes. And I was like, 'Oh, my God, he must be practicing in his trailer for like five hours.' He just had everything down."

* Scott on Chow Yun-Fat: "He was like the Godfather, but not a killer. That cool. Everybody would surround him because he has this incredible grace and is extremely nice. I was a neurotic bastard about this movie because it was a big movie for me and I didn't want to screw it up. And his motto was, 'Hey, it's a movie. Just have fun.' And I was like, 'The Killer? This is Hard Boiled, man? And he wants me to just have fun?'

"He was taking care of everybody, making sure everyone was safe and healthy. He was just unbelievable. I don't know if I'll ever have another experience like this."

* Scott on getting the role: "This is the one movie that I went after. Everything else, I dunno. Road Trip, I was worried, because it was like American Pie. This one, a lot of kids wanted. It was one of those really cool parts. It had a lot of martial arts and it was based on a comic book and it's really cool.

"I went to Paul, the director, and said, 'I don't know a lot of things, but any other person you have that wants to be in this movie, just put them in the alley, and I'll be the only one left standing.' I fought hard for this movie.

* King on getting the role: "We both fought really, really hard to get our roles. That's why were so excited that it actually happened. It was such a blessing."