Star Movies VIP Access: Ninja Assassin - Rain

It's been two years since we last spoke. I gotta tell you, great job on the film. Huge fan of the genre, love the film myself. First of all, what's that? The chain. Did you see that? I've seen that! Yeah, yeah, I love it. I'm gonna learn to use the chain blade because of this film. For good, of course. It's amazing. It is amazing. Yep. I'm pretty sure. Go ahead. Okay, so. Not everybody gets their first Hollywood film working with the Wachowski brothers, no less. I mean, they're big. Not everybody gets that first shot. How did that happen? How did it come about? Yes. We were working on the Speed Racer. Larry and Andy Wachowski offered me. I said, yes, let's do it. Of course, yes. Yes, of course, yes. Why not? So it was through working with them at Speed Racer and they were very impressed with you. Now, obviously, we've seen a huge change with you, Rain, and your physical body and everything. The training regime must have been very, very intense. Six hours a day, I think, or more. Tell me about the training regime that you had to do for this movie. Okay, I'm gonna explain my training. First of all, I had to make my body fit like Bruce Lee. I trained for eight months, five days a week, and eight hours a day. I ate only chicken breast and vegetables and almonds. Yeah, it was horrible. No salt, no sugar. Wait, so not even Korean food? You couldn't even have your Korean food? Never. For eight months? Yeah, eight months. That must have been the hardest. I mean, the weightlifting and the training, that must be hard, but the not eating must have been the hardest part. Yes, yes. I can imagine. Yeah. Now, you do a lot of your own sequences here in this film. Minimal wire work. It's all you, thanks to your training. But can I ask you, with your pop star background, and obviously you're a very good dancer, do you think that your dancing helps or has helped with this movie? Yes, it helped. I think that dancing and martial arts are very similar. When I was doing drunk dance on the stage in Asia, it was so amazing. And when I was doing stunts, even though everybody took care of me, I still got hurt. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. For real? Yeah, and burn. Wow. So, I mean, sometimes we see the blood and the scars. That's real. That's real, huh? Hey, that's real, okay? That's not fake blood. No, I'm just kidding. Oh. I'm sorry. You're supposed to help me out. But, you know, it helped. Your dancing background, it definitely helped. Yeah, definitely helped. Now, I've got to ask you, as well, you also worked, obviously, on top of the Wachowskis, you worked with a great producer in Joel Silver and a fantastic director in James McTeague. What was it like working with James? Was he good to work with? First, Wachowski brothers, you know, they have amazing abilities to make dreams come true, powerful imagination. They're the best. And James McTeague, you know, we had a good relationship. He's very humble to everybody. I love his directing style. You know, there's nothing to talk about. They're the best. Yeah, so the actor-director relationship was excellent. The crew and actors was, you know, fantastic. How different is it from a Korean crew? Korea and Hollywood? I guess the movie-making process is very similar, but the scale is very different. Hollywood much bigger. That is, you know, very different. That's the main difference. Yeah, yeah. One last question, Rain. And you mentioned this earlier about, obviously, you have a lot more lines in the movie. There's a lot more speaking now that you're in the starring role. In English, as well. But you had to channel your emotions to get the facial expressions right. You talked about getting the facial expressions to convey for the camera. Where do you find, as an actor, where do you find the emotion in you to be able to, you know, put yourself in that state of mind for that scene? So if you want to be angry or sad, how do you do it? Where does it come from? You know, I learned ninja expression. That is reason. And then I had an English coach and acting coach. Yeah, that's it. That's all. That's it? Yeah. Well, it worked. Yeah. And work hard. Work hard. Yeah. That's the most important thing, right? Yeah. Well, it paid off. Excellent film. I can't wait for the rest of the world to see it. Congratulations once again, Ray. Thank you. Thank you for coming.