Jason Scott Lee wreaks havoc on “Mulan” as the villain B. Khan.But achieving the prestige of a warrior has been an epic adventure for the actor who starred in “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” 27 years ago.
Lee, 53, was shocked at how much director Niki Caro and coach Bojan Mladenovic were looking to do their B-i Khan for the live remake now airing on Disney (as a $ 30 premium add-on).
“Bojan said to me, “Hey, can we make a deal?” I think it can be reduced to 4% body fat,” Lee recalls with a smile, talking on the phone from his home in Hawaii.”I said, “Good heavens! You know I’m fifty-something.”But he said age does. It doesn’t matter we shake hands.It’s the end of my old self.”
“Then I was tortured to death every day,” Lee adds.”I walked crooked for months.”
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Caro was going in a slightly different direction from 1ninenine8’s animated original “Mulan”, which featured the villainous executor Shan Yu, Lee’s five-foot, nine-inch cast.
“If they were looking for this great Shan Yu guy, they would have had another actor,” says Lee. “They wanted me for being narrow and naked. A nervous and cunning character.”
Khan is a ruthless tribal leader seeking revenge for his father’s death at the hands of the Chinese emperor (Jet Li) as he fights for the land and culture of his people.Khan with fluent hair nevertheless confronts the titular warrior Mulan (Yifei Liu).
Caro admits that the American actor of Chinese and Hawaiian descent hardly did so because of his gentle behavior.
“Jason is a great man. He needed a smashed assassin,” says Caro, “but he’s such a smart actor and I knew he would take his training very seriously.”
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Lee has already come to pack his beard and moustache — “I let it all grow,” he said – while Khan’s loose locks were a visibly thick hair tissue.Khan’s appearance with many scars began with a genuine scar on Lee’s chest due to an injury he suffered while filming a film in Kazakhstan that inflames and increases impressively permanently.
“It’s amazing and they did better. They liked it so much that they used it as a style for others,” says Lee, who spent two hours in the makeup chair for his scars.in the face.
He worked continuously in his frown, even on the street.The actor knew he was hitting the villain’s gold through the expression of passers-by’s faces.
“I would walk and look at my frown, saying, ‘What if I did something like that?'” Lee said.I looked up and saw other people looking like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to tear me apart.'”off.'”
Khan’s frame was the hardest part, requiring two-and-a-half-month double painting sessions organized through Mladenovic, warming up only part an hour of grueling bear ramps.Then genuine education began.” I mean, intense,” he said.Lee, who hung out at home with his 12-year-old wife, Diana Chan.”I said to my wife, ‘I have a little concept of what paintings look like.'”
The regime is just as rigorous. Lee finished her typical dinner of 10 egg whites with a banana for dessert, and Diana brought home fragrant Chinese food, which she may not touch.
‘It was like, ‘You’re torturing me!’ But she couldn’t.He was having dinner like me,” says Lee, who tried precisely a wonton noodle to try.”I was so proud of myself for keeping up with my plan.”
The effects were transparent even before it reached the mark of 4% of the frame fats.He was thinner than he represented Bruce Lee and, at 145 pounds, was below his 150-pound frameweight at the best school.Everything went well for Lee’s great revelation as a shirtless Khan bleakly prepares for war in his yurt with Xian Lang.Even Lee was surprised when she took off her dress for the stage.
“You’re torn, you look at yourself and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s all there,'” Lee recalls.”Niki came to me later and said, ‘Thank you for your hard work, she’s in the movie.It’s forever.'”
Lee can concentrate on scenes of villainy, raid, murder and a memorable scene in which the Khan on horseback grabs an arrow that shoots him and throws it back.While riding real “Mulan” steeds, this scene showed a aid horse in front of a wind turbine.Lee was surprised when he perfectly turned the arrow in his hand to temporarily retaliate.
“The wind turbine was blowing so hard that it blew the arrow back, so I was able to stay in control,” Lee says.”I was very lucky. It seemed so natural.”
The actor has stayed smart after production, including the COVID-19 quarantine. But it is not torn by Böri Khan. So he’s excited to show his Hawaiian friends and former classmates how he rocks him in “Mulan.”
“In Hawaii, everyone relaxes after 35 years.My classmates from 1984 to high school are going to be very surprised and envious when they see me in this movie,” she says.