I played with everybody really, but my favorite character would be Kung Lao and Smoke, besides the obvious two favorites that everybody plays with. I’ve played with every different character, but I played a lot with Kung Lao, a lot with Smoke. I played the game when I was a kid, played the game with my brothers, played the game with all my friends. You played the game, right? Who did you play? And I don’t know what that is, whether it’s fate or destiny or whatever, but it’s important and I’m happy to be here and I’m grateful for it. I don’t want to say destiny or anything like that, but it’s just like, it lined perfectly with something that I care so much about. It was a very emotional experience to look at that and to feel the energy of the time and how I can be a part of that. The contrast of that was very emotional for me. But at the same time that I was scrolling through that, and I was looking at that poster, I was then also looking at the news about people targeting Asians and the violence towards the Asian community. How does that make you feel to see your face as tall as a skyscraper? We saw that Mortal Kombat billboard on the side of a building that you posted on your social media. Let’s just see it happen.”ĭen of Geek caught up to Tan to chat about his role as our eyes and ears into the world of Mortal Kombat. We’ve got to use slow-mo really carefully. Don’t get too foxy or fruity, or crazy, and I don’t want loads of slow-mo. “From the get-go, I said to Kyle, the stunt coordinator, and Chan, the fight choreographer, I want these to feel real and I want to be just there with them. McQuoid insisted that the fights be as authentic as possible. It’s one of the greatest fighting game franchises of all time, in fact. After all, Mortal Kombat is first and foremost a fighting game. Not only must Tan carry the central role dramatically, but he must also deliver on the fight scenes. According to McQuoid, Young’s role is “so anyone who’s not a Mortal Kombat scholar or doesn’t have a PhD in Mortal Kombat like a lot of people do, they’ll be able to enjoy it as well.” The character serves as a device to introduce the world to a new audience. ![]() “We felt it was okay to have a new character in a game that brings out new characters all the time,” explains director Simon McQuoid. In Mortal Kombat, Tan takes on the role of Cole Young, a new addition to the massive fighting game franchise. A feature length film follow up titled Fistful of Vengeance is premiering later this year. That series’ cast was also stacked with martial arts actors, including Iko Uwais, Celia Au, Mark Dacascos, Juju Chan Szeto, Katheryn Winnick, and more. ![]() In Netflix’s Wu Assassins, Tan landed the lead role of Lu Xin Lee. Into the Badlands brought top-notch fight choreography with a Hong Kong approach with veteran martial talent, including Daniel Wu, Stephen Fung, Huen Chiu Ku (a.k.a. Tan soon really started to show his stuff in two martial arts driven TV shows though. Tan followed that with another appearance in a Marvel project with Deadpool 2 where he played the short-lived character of Shatterstar. Tan portrayed Zhou Cheng, a drunken Kung Fu master, and his fight scene was the only one in the entire series worth watching. However, Tan’s guest appearance was exceptional. The Netflix series was berated for its lackluster fight choreography, especially because the titular character was supposed to be a martial arts expert. Tan’s fighting skills also caught the attention of the martial arts fandom in Netflix’s Iron Fist. Due to his lifelong dedication to the martial arts, he insists on doing his own fights and stunts, just like Jackie Chan did when he was younger. Outside of acting, Tan competed as an amateur fighter in Muay Thai and trained in Kung Fu, Jiu-Jitsu, and Japanese sword. His father set him on the martial path too, teaching him how to fight at an early age. He was only three when he appeared in his first film, China Cry: A True Story. He’s a second-generation Hollywood martial artist, with his father Philip Tan being a British Taekwondo champion who’s been acting and working in stunts since the 1980s, eventually rising to be a distinguished action director in his own right. And Mortal Kombat star Lewis Tan has paid his dues. ![]() To become a leading martial arts movie star, you must fight your way to the top.
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