David Carradine’s ‘True Legend’ interview

The official web site for Yuen Woo-ping’s upcoming kung fu actioner TRUE LEGEND has posted a video interview conducted with actor David Carradine before his untimely death in Thailand on June 3.

In the interview, Carradine discusses his role in the film as a villainous fight promoter and his relationship with the director since first working with Yuen on KILL BILL.

Back in June, Yuen reacted to Carradine’s death by posting a eulogy on the official site.

I was just finishing a new piece of diary when the sad news of David Carradine struck me. David, my good friend, passed away in Thailand on June 3.

David and I knew each other from the movie KILL BILL. Before that, I have of course seen a lot of his work. He is among the first Hollywood actors to perform Chinese martial arts on the big screen. In real life he is also a genuine kung-fu fan, and knows Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Chinese medicine. He wrote several books on Tai Chi and Qi Gong, spreading Chinese wisdom to the English-speaking world.

David has acted in more than 200 movies and TV drama. In early years he was a brilliant stage actor too, acting in various Shakespeare’s plays. Same as I, people shall always remember his role Caine, “the grasshopper,” in TV drama KUNG FU in the ’70s, which was a really unforgettable performance.

It was Quentin Tarantino who had the great eye to cast David as Bill in KILL BILL, for which I trained Uma Thurman and other actors to do the action sequences. With David, the training was like practice sessions between friends. It was great fun working with him, and he often had a lot of fresh ideas for the actions.

I feel both great honor and regret that TRUE LEGEND is one of David Carradine’s last works. I certainly feel proud that he is a part of our movie, and hope he would feel the same.

TRUE LEGEND, which stars wushu actor Zhao Wen-zhou as martial arts folk hero “Beggar” Su Qi-er, also features Michelle Yeoh, MMA star Cung Le, pop star Jay Chou, and Andy On.

The film wrapped production back in January and is scheduled for release later this year, to coincide with the first Professional Championship of the Wushu Masters Association (WMA). In June, brief footage from the film was unveiled at a WMA Championship ceremony in Beijing.

Source: Wu-Jing.org