I took what worked for me and found I had a system that others were interested in and seemed to work for a wide number of people. It was recognised by other martial artists, grandmasters and such, and they gave me the recognition. I'm proud of my work in martial arts. I still teach but only once a week in a private class, and I train a couple more days a week.
I train about four or five times a week. I guess I am addicted to it. I also do a lot of martial arts. More than I have done in awhile. I like to go back to martial arts because it makes me feel good.
I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves.
I wanted to know what exactly martial arts is. When you look at martial arts films, the later ones became more and more exaggerated. It's like, wow, is martial arts only a show?
If you are afraid of other people take a martial arts class. The best way to overcome fear is learn to be proficient in martial arts.
Miles and I had been looking to do a martial arts show for some time. Our first two movies that we wrote were "Lethal Weapon 4" and "Shanghai Noon" with Jackie Chan. Then we sort of got pulled into the superhero world, but then you look around at what's not on television and there wasn't really a martial arts shows. There are shows that do martial arts to a degree, but there's not a martial arts show.
Martial arts, for me, is not just some kind of job to gain some money or whatever. No, martial arts, for me, is my lifestyle, my religion, my philosophy... Martial arts are everything for me.
I had someone call me this morning telling me they had somebody who would only work a certain number of hours a week because if they worked too many hours a week, then they couldn't get their government assistance.
But I think we're going to have people who work from home a couple of days a week, three days a week, four days a week. And I'm perfectly comfortable with all that.
I am so happy because I want more people to like martial arts movie not just martial arts audience. Even martial arts can be used in comedy, in drama, in horror movies, in different kinds of movies.
Above all things, Strikeforce is a stable, established business that has experience with live events, and it has the martial arts culture. I worked closely with EliteXC and they had no martial arts culture. They didn't really understand what they were doing, so the odds of them being successful were kind of a crapshoot.
To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is.
I had someone call me this morning telling me they had somebody who would only work a certain number of hours a week because if they worked too many hours a week then they couldn't get their government assistance. And that person has multiple cell phones, and gets them new every month with new minutes.
On 'Black Lightning' I have a stunt double who's a lot younger than me. The fighting style on the show is heavily martial arts-based, and I know boxing; I don't know martial arts. I also have a really bad knee, and he's been doing martial arts since he was 6 years old, so I'm not thinking, 'No, I can do that! I can make that look cool!'
I've always been a fan of martial arts, even before I did jiu-jitsu tournaments. I did point karate tournaments and wrestled in high school. To me, it was just an evolution and mixed martial arts was the next step. I just wanted to compete and train in it. I had no illusions of it being a paying gig.
A lot of people don't realize, when you are acting in a martial arts film, you're not just performing martial arts. You're not just performing martial arts. You're actually acting as much as any other actor.
When I learn martial arts, my master will have me try a punch for a week and he will keep saying, 'No, you don't have it. No, that's not right.' When he finally says, 'Yes, you did it,' it's a wonderful moment. You worked on it. You got it.