Casting calls for young Bruce Lee in ‘Ip Man 2′

Until recently, it was unknown whether or not a young Bruce Lee character would be appearing in director Wilson Yip’s IP MAN 2 but now it’s confirmed that producers have begun a talent search for two different actors to portray the martial arts legend in the upcoming sequel to the hit kung fu semi-biopic IP MAN.

Producers are looking for an 8-to-12 year-old to portray a young Bruce Lee when he first meets Ip Man and an 18-to-22 year-old to play Lee as a young adult studying under the Wing Chun master.

I’m a little confused here because Bruce studied Wing Chun from age 13 to 18 and then moved back to the U.S. to attend college in Seattle. It’s possible that Yip will have the adult actor playing a younger Bruce if he can look the part or focus more on the end of his training. Either way, it should be interesting because we’ll have to see Donnie Yen prematurely age to play an older Ip Man. My concern about this is that Yen is bulked up quite a bit and pictures of Ip Man in his later years reveal him to have a very lean frame. Unfortunately for Yen, he has cultivated the build of a modern martial artist who incorporates body building into his regime. The old kung fu masters relied more on firm stances and internal strength and were less concerned with their image.

In describing what they’re looking for in a young Bruce Lee, Yip was quite specific. “Resemblance in appearance will be considered first and foremost and then the resemblance of manners and last martial arts and acting skills,” said Yip.

In other words, it looks like they want young versions of Danny Chan, the KUNG FU HUSTLE star and Bruce Lee look-alike who portrayed Bruce Lee in CCTV’s popular TV series THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE. Chan started out as a dance choreographer hired by Stephen Chow for SHAOLIN SOCCER but due to his resemblance to the ENTER THE DRAGON star, he landed a small role in that film despite having no acting experience and eventually starred in the TV series.

This talent search appears to be an open casting call as Chinese media reports that anyone can apply for an audition through Hunan Satellite TV and BTV-8.

Unfortunately, I have no contact information for either business but if you can read Chinese you can visit the official site for Hunan TV and try to find more information there. (If anyone does have more information, feel free to post a comment below.) They’re obviously going to want a fluent Cantonese speaker but it would be foolish to rule out Asian actors outside of China if some of them can look and act the part.

The producers are capitalizing on the reality TV craze by planning to select ten finalists from each age group and having them compete for the roles on a martial arts TV show called WU LIN FENG. The episode or episodes will air on Hunan Satellite TV at the end of July.

IP MAN 2 is scheduled to begin production in August. Yip mentioned that IP MAN 3 is already in development and that if the older Bruce Lee actor is good enough, he will be asked to reprise the role in the third film as well.

Source: Xinhua