"I consider myself the Bo Jackson of entertainment." Martial arts cinema and actual mixed martial arts collide in the form of pro fighter/actor Cung Le, who continues his rising Hollywood action career with a furious turn as Bronze Lion in RZA's The Man With The Iron Fists. But his wild-maned, lethal work as the Lion clan henchman (who finds his toughest opponent in Lucy Liu's Madam Blossom) is just Le's "part time" job, of course; on November 10, a week after Iron Fists debuts in theaters, Le will face off against UFC fighter Rich Franklin in one of the biggest fights of his career.
The kickboxing and sanshou champion, now fighting in the UFC, built up his Hollywood resume in recent years with supporting appearances in Fighting, Pandorum, Bodyguards and Assassins, Tekken, and True Legend. He's also increasingly in-demand as an actor who can ably, and believably, fight; while filming RZA's Iron Fists on location in China, Le was simultaneously filming Wong Kar-Wai's Yip Man biopic under the tutelage of legendary choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping and shooting Dragon Eyes with Jean-Claude Van Damme, which he also choreographed.
Le stopped by the Movieline/ENTV studio for a new recurring Movieline video series to discuss RZA's martial arts epic, his childhood Bruce Lee obsession (and the unfortunate homemade nunchucks mishap that set him on the course to non-weapons based fighting), and his burgeoning second career as a martial arts action star and fight choreographer. As for his Franklin fight, broadcast by Fuel TV 6 on Nov. 10 from Macau, Le hints that his Iron Fists persona may make it into the octagon, and vice versa: "You will see a Bronze Lion with a Cung Le flair in action.
Watch the Movieline interview on YouTube!
You had multiple choreographies in your head at the same time while shooting Iron Fists, Dragon Eyes, and Grandmasters pretty much at the same time – how hard was that to keep straight? And does your fight training help somehow?
Because I’m a professional fighter and I train all year round, I was probably the most in-shape on set, endurance-wise. The only thing that was tough was the weather, it was so cold. But I was excited to come to set and I was ready to put in extra hours – I did whatever it took. But martial arts, fight-wise, going from one movie to another didn’t really bother me. I felt like the transition was so natural and it came so easy to me, so everything was smooth, from one character to another, from one style to another – no problem. I think it’s so easy because my real job is stepping inside the octagon, looking up at my opponent pacing back and forth, who’s looking to take me out. That’s probably more nerve-wracking and more dangerous than what I’m doing in the movies part time. When I’m on a movie set it’s like, let’s do this! When I’m inside the octagon, oh, man – he’s got the look and he wants to kill me.
Doing both actual fighting and movie fighting, does it ever get confusing? Do your fight instincts ever take over during a fake fight, or do blows accidentally land here and there as you’re performing rather than fighting?
Of course my natural instinct is to connect with my punch or my kick or my knee, but I’ve been doing martial arts so long that it’s natural for me. I can pull the punch at the last minute, I can make it look big or small, I can shorten my punch – it’s just years of training. So that part, I don’t need to think about it. On The Man With The Iron Fists, when Corey Yuen broke down a fight scene I could almost see what was going to come next. With Dragon Eyes I choreographed all the fight scenes, and I knew working with Van Damme was going to be a bit limiting because he wants to do so many of his own kicks and punches. So I let him do all his stuff, but of course he didn’t want to take any punches or kicks – but in the movie we came real close, and sometimes we did connect, just to make it more realistic. We wrapped Jean-Claude and brought in my trainer and Jean-Claude’s stunt double and I unleashed on him, so it looks like a great fight inside the jail cell, but before then it was all him trying to throw hook kicks and he was really trying to knock me out. For some reason I see the whole fight scene, then I write it on paper. Most people will write it on paper then try to piece it together, but I see not just fight scenes but action, how it plays out, before I can write it.
Bronze Lion, like all the characters in Iron Fists, has a distinct martial arts style – what sort of discussions did you and RZA have about his form and how much additional research did you have to do?
Bronze Lion’s is not as popular as the Tiger Style, so we were open to using things like the claw from Tiger to Lion, but there were also the weapons. They didn’t just want Bronze Lion to use Lion technique because my specialties are my kicks and scissor kicks. Corey Yuen wanted to incorporate all my strengths into the movie so he let me do a lot of kicks – I did the jumping side kick back kick without landing, the spin-around wheel kick, the running up the wall and grabbing someone by the head, scissor kicking the other guy’s neck and flipping him… so I got to do not just the Lion technique, I also got to put the Cung Le flair in there. So Bronze Lion got a chance to use Cung Le’s technique!
Working with Corey Yuen and acting as Bronze Lion, did you pick up anything you think will help you in your actual fighting career?
Working with high level martial artists, you see how they work and put things together, how things are planned out and how things come naturally. It gives me my own flavor and variety and the more variety I have, the more I can pull from. When I’m in a fight and I need to use a different technique, the transition is much quicker. But I can’t say that it does or it doesn’t, I can just say that with the years of being a student and a teacher and a fan I feel I can adapt to any situation with the training that I’ve had.
Who’s your favorite martial artist of all time, the one you grew up watching?
I grew up watching Bruce Lee. Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Chinese Connection. I think hands down now, since I got a chance to work with Donnie Yen he’s one of my favorites now because he’s so open to doing different things. Not just the same kung fu, but he’s open to doing MMA in his movies and a lot of other things. I kind of look at what he does to mold my own style.
Were you one of those kids growing up doing Bruce Lee moves in the mirror?
When I was growing up I was really into nun chucks, and since my mom didn’t buy me any, this old broom that broke, I cut it in half and cut that half piece in half and drilled a hole through it with one of those hand drills. I tied it with some rope and I was working and doing pretty good, but I must have not tied it good enough so when I flipped it, it came around and hit me in the head. I had this big knot – and after that I just figured I’d do things with my hands and legs. [Laughs]
Who’s the best fight scene partner you’ve ever had in a movie?
He’s actually my trainer, because we know each other so well – his name is Scott Sheeley, he played a Russian in Dragon Eyes and helped me put the fights together and teach the actors who didn’t know how to punch and kick that well, just to make sure that the guys I was fighting against were on the same page and didn’t throw a wrong punch or kick. But when we had our fight scene, everything flowed like how a real fight would.
On Iron Fists you were surrounded by a lot of martial arts legends – Kuan Tai Chen, who played Gold Lion, your clan leader, is a veteran of the Shaw Bros. heyday. What was it like to be immersed in this atmosphere, in China, on these elaborate sets, with so much history and homage around you?
It was everyone there, not just the legends of Shaw Bros. – you had Russell Crowe, who’s Maximus, but I think when I realized that Gold Lion was in that movie Executioners from Shaolin… the one scene I remember the most is this couple who got married, and they’re both masters in kung fu. But it’s time to get busy on their wedding night and the lady’s like, “You must get through my kung fu!” He hits some pressure points and her legs open and I think that’s when I realized, hey – you did some cool stuff! I was like, “Gold Lion, we have the same hair! You’re my real dad, forget about X-Blade!” We had a good time, and after a while he was like, “I want you to be my son!”
We have to talk about your hair.
Okay.
RZA described it as ‘80s-influenced. I might describe it as Tina Turner hair. What was it like to see yourself in Bronze Lion’s glorious mane for the first time?
You know, when I got my wig on I was like, “How do men or even females deal with all this hair?!” I was working some kung fu moves out and it kept getting in my eyes. This would not work in a real fight! Everyone was like, “You should do a shampoo commercial!”
Have you considered entering the ring as Bronze Lion in any of your real fights?
I’m getting people on Twitter and Facebook saying, “You should walk out as Bronze Lion!” I would do that, but you don’t understand that you have to put glue all in your hair and it takes two or three people to help get that armor on. So I’d walk to the cage and have to say, "Wait, hold on -" Pull the hair out, get the armor off, and by the time we’d get inside that octagon I’d have to warm up again. So I don’t think that will happen. It’s a great idea though.
You have a big fight scene in Iron Fists against Lucy Liu, who’s obviously done action before in Kill Bill. She’s one tough lady. What was it like filming that and what she was like to fight with?
Let me tell you how this all happened. My fight scene was supposed to be with Russell. I was in full armor, I had my hairdo on, and Russell had just come to set. I came out and RZA introduced me to him and I was like, “Maximus! I’m a big fan. Looking forward to doing battle.” When I got back on set RZA’s all, “Brother Cung, I have bad news and I have good news: Russell only has 10 working days here and he won’t have time to rehearse. So I changed things around; Russell now is going to fight someone else… but you can fight with Lucy Liu.” I go, “Oh! Is there a love scene?” Kidding! It was that fast. There was one scene Lucy was getting ready to do and she was on wires, running away from me and jumping over these stairs and table. She got over the stairs and crashed into the table, and it looked like it hurt. But she got up like, “I’m ready to do that again.” Corey Yuen was ready to put in the stunt double but she wouldn’t let him. She wanted to do that scene. I was like, “Oooh, tough lady!”
Does that make Lucy Liu tougher than Jean-Claude Van Damme?
[Pauses] Because it’s Lucy Liu, I’ll say yes.
Looking forward to your fight, how have you been preparing and juggling your movie commitments at the same time – and what are the chances we’ll see glimmers of your Iron Fists character come out during the fight?
I’m getting ready to fight former UFC champion Rich Franklin, most likely a Hall of Famer when he retires. It’s a main event fight, and main event fights are five 5-minute rounds – 25 minutes of battle. My last fight I was supposed to fight Rich Franklin but they changed it so Rich could take another fight, so I fought Patrick Cote. That was a three-round fight. Now the biggest thing is preparing for a five-round fight because my last camp, the first six weeks I spent preparing for Rich. So I had a change-up against a different opponent who was a standard fighter which is left leg lead, but Rich is a right leg lead, which is a southpaw. So since we prepared for it we just went back to our old game plan, pushed hard on my cardio – I recently ran a 4’8’, which is NFL-speed, and I’m 40 years old, so I’m pretty happy about that. I’d say my condition is the best it’s been in a long time and maybe that it’s ever been, but only time will tell. When I step into that octagon we’ll see how good of a shape I’m in. Rich is known for his cardio, he’s big for the weight and fights at 205 and I’m 185. so he’s definitely going to have the size advantage, but what I see is the bigger they are, the harder they fall. And you will see a Bronze Lion with a Cung Le flair in action.
You’ve worked with many of the contemporary greats in martial arts cinema, but once folks like Jackie Chan and Jet Li officially retire are you ready to step up and follow in their footsteps?
Jet Li has broken into the film world in a different way than Jackie – one’s more serious and one’s comedic. But they have paved a path for other Asian actors to follow. But I feel like for me, I consider myself the Bo Jackson of entertainment. I’m an actor, a martial-artist, and a real-deal UFC fighter that fights and headlines events. I have something that’s a little more unique. So when I do a move or throw someone, the audience can really believe that I did that because I can do that without the help or assistance of a wire. So I plan to follow in their footsteps but pave my own way when I cross that path where I don’t need to go in the same direction. I feel like I have a different direction, I bring a different element to the screen. I understand movement and flow and am versatile in different martial arts. I feel like I’m growing as an acting but I’m a better athlete than Jackie and Jet. But I look up to them. We’ll see where it goes, but from how I look at it, you go big or you go home. And I’m going big.