If you’re a fan of Donnie Yen and want to hear him share some fantastic behind-the-scenes stories about his life, career, and the way he changed his priorities from focusing on directing action to being a better actor, you’re going to be very happy. That’s because on a day off from filming John Wick 4 in Berlin, I landed an extended interview with Yen to talk about his latest film, Raging Fire, and his career.
During the conversation, Yen talked about why John Wick 4 has been his favorite Hollywood movie to work on, why he loves working with Keanu Reeves and Chad Stahelski, how Yuen Woo-ping discovered him when he was looking for a new Jackie Chan, why he’s frustrated with movies not doing a better job portraying Chinese people and their culture, what it was like making Rogue One and being part of a Star Wars movie, his favorite Chow-Yun Fat and Jackie Chan films, how he gets ready to direct action, why he’s been so focused on getting better as an actor, why The Monkey King was a nightmare to shoot, the status of the Sleeping Dogs movie (based on the video game), and so much more it would be impossible to list it all here. But for me, the real highlight was hearing Donnie Yen talk about the Raging Fire director Benny Chan. If you didn’t know, Chan died from cancer when the film was in post-production.
Yen shares what happened in the editing room and how Chan worked till the very end trying to make the film better. He also talks about the mixed feelings of having this big hit but the person who directed it is not here to see it. I’ve done a lot of interviews and it’s rare to have someone be this honest and share their personal feelings the way Yen did in this conversation. Trust me, if you are a Donnie Yen fan you are going to love watching the interview and you’ll learn a lot of things you didn’t know. Check out what he had to say in the player above and below is a full list of everything we talked about including the time index. Raging Fire is now playing in theaters and stars Yen as a highly respected hardline cop whose past comes back to haunt him when a sting operation is attacked by a mysterious group of criminals led by Ngo (Nicholas Tse), his former protégé. It’s then a race to see who can stop who first.