I've been doing jiu-jitsu since I was 14 years old. It actually was the martial art that was really stapled in my mind that said, this is what I want to do... I want to do martial arts for the rest of my life.
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.
I have three things I really, really want to do. I want to do aerial trapeze, I want to do martial arts, and I want to learn Russian. And, because of my life, I'm not able to do any of these.
I tried martial arts classes for three weeks, but I quit because you actually get hit. I just want to do the movie kind of martial arts.
Mixed martial arts or whatever you want to call it, it is still martial arts.
When you're doing something like wrestling - wrestling is one of the toughest and hardest martial arts to learn - but it's still a form of martial arts. It's still controlled.
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.
There's always someone kicking guns. We wanted ["Badlands"] to be a world without guns and bullets, where martial arts was the form of fighting and defense and attack. Martial arts is king in this world. That was the first thing. We didn't want it to be a period piece either. We felt those are overdone and stuffy. That was what lead us to explore that area of science fiction and future, a world we can create and control.
I think Ang Lee is a very, very talented director. He used martial arts to talk about love and girl, you know... But Zhang Yimou tried to use martial arts film to talk about Chinese culture, Chinese people. What do they think, what do they want and what do they hope the world will become.
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.
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?
I came from doing Wushu and other martial arts, and then I got into movies, and I had to learn that as well - the language of martial arts movie fighting. It's a different thing; it's a different kind of logic.
I began to study martial arts because it was a great form of exercise, and I knew it would help my acting career. Martial arts reminded me of dancing. It has helped me learn fight sequences quicker.
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 didn't know anything about martial arts. I'm a big fan, but I never practiced martial arts.
You can't make someone learn something - you really can't teach someone something - they have to want to learn it. And if they want to learn, they will.