Eddie Peng interview on Black Dog at Cannes Film Festival 2024

I'm Sarah from The Upcoming. Such a pleasure to have you here with us in beautiful Cannes. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Thanks for taking the time. Maybe you can begin with a brief introduction to The Black Dog. For people who don't know anything about the film, what can they expect? It's a story about, simply put, it's a story about a man and a dog. They kind of marry each other and their relationship serves as a reflection of each other and then ultimately becomes a source of salvation for both. My dog is here. And then I kind of... So the story is about a man and a black dog, this particular black dog. And I think I have this strong bond of relationship with the dog and then turn out in real life now. I adopted the dog right after the movie wrapped. So I think that's simply enough to tell the people about the story. And when you first read the script, what jumped out to you, in particular, about playing this character of Lang? To be honest, I wasn't, I haven't done anything in two years before doing this character. So once I read the script approaching this character, when I got the script during the pandemic, I think, and I just found out it's so special. And this storyline I have. And then, of course, I'm a dog lover. The reason it's a script is something I have never read before. And the director is Guan Hu. I call him Tiger. Tiger is one of, I think, the outstanding director, respected director in China. And I always wanted to, it's hard to resist. So that's the main reason I took this job. And I mean, not an easy character to play. I mean, not much dialogue to work with, for example. Yeah, that's one thing. Yeah. And also the physicality of it. I mean, when we're saying, you know, you're too handsome. Not a problem that most people have. They have to rough you up a bit to make you look like you fit in a bit. So what was that process like for you? Thank you. Thank you. It's just, I think the, right, when I read the script, I felt he was a mute or something. Right. And then because I did a movie about doing a hand sign movies called Hear Me. So I thought, is he going to do some hand sign? Otherwise, how is he going to, you know, communicate with others? Right. And this is something I, at that moment, I really wanted to change because after pandemic, post-pandemic, I feel there's something, the outlook on life changed, my outlook on life changed and my perspective of life changed. I just feel like this is some, the the risk, the task I need to do. So that's why I take on. You mean, you know, I do change a lot of things, you know, the skin color to be able to immerse myself in that region, the region, the Northwest people, they have this accent. And gladly, I'm not talking a lot of lines. Right. So I don't need to do that many lines. The accent should be kind of, so I have simple lines. And that's one thing, accent I need to do. And the physicality. Yeah, I'm a stuntman, motorcycle stuntman. I need to learn that, you know, train months beforehand to do a motorcycle stunt. And what about being on the shoot? I mean, being in the Gobi Desert, I mean, quite a harsh environment. So that must have been kind of challenging. And then also working with animals, you know, which is, they always say, working with kids and animals, it's like the thing you're not supposed to do. They always say like there are three things you cannot touch, right? One is the animal, kids and water. I did a movie called Rescued with Water, right? And then the kids, yeah. And then this time, animal is the toughest one I've ever taken. And I think another one is the landscape is something I think no one was part of the movie, didn't know we're taking us, we're signing up something really experimental, very at this rough, tough, tough city, you know, city is broken down and then we're there to shoot it. And lots of dogs and all the dogs and animals are real. And then we have to do this rehearsal over and over on set and before shooting. So I have to train and learn training dogs before shooting. And then after every day finish shooting wrapped, I have to go back to the dog camp to train with the dogs and the motorcycle stunts. I mean, all these things kind of like you just feel like you're not acting. You're not simply living there. And it kind of helped me to explore more possibilities for this character. I think, yeah, it's kind of I'm kind of I'm not sure. Am I saying it correctly? Kind of forget a lot of things. But I just feel this character is definitely there's some fascination about him. You know, his loneliness is you just kind of want to be part of it. Did anything go terribly wrong at any point or did you have any funny moments on set working with the dogs? You know, the the the the the the bit bitten thing that she bit me or he this couple of dogs, right? So it's real. We train that too. We rehearse that too. So I have to put this this protection, this this thick, thick protection under my costume. And I got real. I got I really got bitten because while we're doing rehearsal, they just went. The time when the trainer said, oh, go. And then he just bit me right in my ass. And then without the camera rolling, that's the whole. And then I have to go to a hospital right away because I have to take that. What's it called? Antibiotics shots. And it's during pandemic. So everything is going to, you know, you have to line up to get into a hospital. So this was quite a journey, quite experience for me. And now I'm kind of immune of any any bites now, because when I see dogs, I'm not afraid of they biting me because there are a couple of scenes of me getting bitten by the dogs, right? I think those are the scenes I remember the most. And one scene particularly is I think we did 80 or 70 times with one take. Yeah, because Tiger, right? He is this he's tougher than anybody. He he has this meticulous, meticulous on detail. So he wants he wants this shot to be shot like this long shot. So there's any one detail that is not he doesn't like, you know, it's just he will do a retake. So I feel like in this whole movie, I am not acting. I'm just simply reacting with a dog. I'm simply reacting with a dog. Kind of changed my idea of acting. You know, it just, you know, get over with, you know. And so when you said, oh, this character is different than what people say is different than my my previous works, I think, yes, definitely. Because I'm not acting. I'm just simply reacting this in this, you know, remote, you know, beautiful black Gobi desert just to do this to survive. That's like the dog, the instinct of survival, like you say. So it must have taught you a lot about this amazing relationship that humans can have with dogs and the fact that you went and got one after the. You know, so what do you think is that's so special about that relationship? Do you have a dog? I don't. My mom used to have one. I just I'm I feel animal. Dogs are just like these so present thing, right? They if I go go out for, let's say, 30 minutes and I come back, they'll be like you haven't they haven't seen you for three months or something. They'll be like so happy. Oh, where'd you go? Right. Oh, what'd you eat? Would you go hunting? So they'll have this so present. They can be at one moment be dead asleep. And then all of a sudden just jump up like, oh, I'm having the best time of my life. I think all these kind of stuff is something I feel like they are so present. And unlike us, human beings are so worried about. We're living in the past. We're thinking about our past mistakes. And then we're, you know, looking at the future. What's going what's going what's going to happen tomorrow? What's my job? Right. Well, we're so worried about the future. And it was so kind of have this live in the past mistakes. Same as Mad Craig character, Erlang, right? He is he done something wrong in 15 years ago. He pays time, but he couldn't get out because he's mine. He cannot change his mind. The only thing can change your your yourself. Once you toss it out, you embrace your past mistakes. You move on. I think that's what I learned from animals, from my dog. Now, of course, the happy thing is once she joined our family, I have two sisters and a mom. They used to afraid of dogs. Now they are like every time they walk the dog three times a day and change kind of change the dynamic of the whole family, the relationship. We're all bound. We are all bounded together more, more. We love more to the dogs. And I think that's something unimaginable happened in my life before having a dog. And in terms of what people can take away from the film, I mean, just going along the journey with Lang, you know, they can sort of escape with him and go on his journey. But, you know, is also sort of probing. Graham was talking about how, you know, there's been such rapid development in China, and it's almost sort of envisioning. Well, what's happened to some people that have perhaps been left behind in that rapid development or perhaps a little bit on on the margins of that? Yeah, it's it's true that I mean, the whole world is changing rapidly. I think that the theme of this story is universal for everybody can relate. I actually didn't realize that while shooting. I think I watched it yesterday and I just feel like, oh, that's there's a lot of perspective of this movie we can talk about. But it's just it is true that we are moving too fast and we are somehow we don't really know where we're going. You know, we have this now. Nowadays, we have this A.I. coming, right? And the way of film industry is changing, too. What's going to happen in a cinema as well, right? We have TV, we have short clip, we have platform streaming. So even in the career of acting, it's changing. What's going to be? And then who knows? Five years later, what's this can film festival going to be? Imagine, of course, in China or the movie took place is this remote artist, artistically beautiful, poetic landscape. So I think this movie kind of make me wonder what's the meaning of this? We're kind of searching this poetic meaning in this in this movie. See, anybody can see that somehow. For me, I think it's just the character of man and a dog, you know, kind of redemption of each other, salvation of each other. But it's true. It's kind of pretty strong movie. Finally, you know, what does it mean to you to have the film playing here in Cannes? And I guess, how do you see this amazing platform to have international cinema and particularly to bring Chinese film, Chinese cinema to a European audience? To be honest, 13 years ago, I was here with a movie called Jump Aisin. And I was playing a troubled young man who pursues his dream to become a gymnast. So but then I was there. I was here just to market and sell a movie. And I kind of told myself, I need to work hard and come back, you know. So and then 2021, I did come back with a movie called Are You Lonesome Tonight by Wen Sipei. And and but it's during pandemic, so I couldn't make it here. And it's in it was in special screening in an official selection. And this year, I'm here with Black Dog, with Guan Hu director. And it's just me. It's just to me, it's interesting, my life, each step is like leap forward in manifesting my dream of coming here, you know. So I'm really proud that I have a project in competition this year. So I hope to come back. Do you think there's still any hurdles to sort of get Chinese cinema more in front of international audiences? Do you feel like things like streaming as well somehow maybe has helped kind of broaden people's horizons in terms of even watching stuff with subtitles, for example? Yeah, I think it's now. Nowadays, we do watch a lot of foreign movies from from the streamings, right? And and I think this year there's a lot of a lot of Asian movies coming. I'm not sure about that. But then I think I think it's a good thing, right? Because that's the only thing we can break the barrier, you know, transcends through our our artwork. I just feel like it's it's definitely a good thing if we can have more opportunity to let people to see our because I just feel Chinese film, we are we have so much culture, probably because of the language barrier. And nowadays, I think because of streaming, like you said, Western people are get more used to read subtitles, right? So it's possible that, you know, our work or my work or anybody can in Asia or in China, we can have this great platform to let more people to see our art. It's feel like it's kind of vibrant. It's getting getting back to to where we got a chance to let people see our work. And finally, you know, have you got anything else in the pipeline? And as you were sort of mentioning earlier, has making this film almost changed your perspective a little bit on what you might want to do in the future in terms of your acting career? To be honest, it changed really changed a lot because I don't want to be pretentious, but sometimes, you know, we we we do backstories of our acting. Right. Once we get a character, we do a backstory. We we we do homework. We prepare so much. And you all said you said, oh, I have to forget everything. But there's always something that I feel you have this awareness of the with the camera. You have to you always kind of feel this when you come from the camera. You you don't I don't feel like really naturally doing this acting. But this movie, just particularly this movie, just so many takes that it's a long shot. You don't even see the camera. I feel like it's and I have to act at the opposite of a dog. And and they are just so in the moment. I just I just feel like I have to get rid of get over it. I'm not acting. I'm just simply just react because she doesn't care about the camera or or anybody's right. It's just so just live in the moment. I think that's something I the moment I feel like I kind of feel I'm kind of reinventing the the situation. But the truth is, maybe this is like acting truthfully, people say. I think that's something in this movie I can kind of relate to it. I'm not sure about what other people think, but that's how I feel. But at the beginning of the shooting, I kind of forced myself to do some, you know, physicality change and, you know, look darker. Right. And to skinhead, to look to look more into that, immerse myself in the character, holding something tangible. Right. So you have, OK, I mean, this zone, I mean, in the moment during the filming, I have no lines. So something I feel maybe I'm not doing right. You know, I always can't go to the director. I said, is there any notes for me? I feel like I'm not acting. I'm I'm I'm worried. What's going on? And then he always said, Eddie, focus on the dog. Look at the dog. Everybody's looking, focusing on the dog, not on me right now. I'm my character. So at the beginning, I'm kind of I'm so doubtful of myself. This is this is something that I have never, I've never really encountered. You know, this is new. I guess that's how I've how I feel after I've I watched the movie. Well, thank you so much. I think you think much.