Interview: Action Choreographer Marcus Young

If you’ve seen THE MATRIX RELOADED, UNDERWORLD, THE LAST SAMURAI, SPIDERMAN 2, CONSTANTINE, ELECTRA, or xXx:STATE OF THE UNION, you’ve seen the work of Marcus Young. The martial artist turned stuntman and action director has an enviable track record in Hollywood. His work in the chateau fight scene in THE MATRIX RELOADED was honored by a Taurus Award nomination last year (this article was originally posted in July 2005). Young’s latest project is as fight choreographer and action producer on ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY TAO, a kung fu comedy/drama for the SPY KIDS set. Written and directed by former TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLE Kenn Scott, JOHNNY TAO stars Matt Twining, Matt Mullins, and Chris Yen. Marcus Young spoke with kungfucinema.com correspondent Jean Lukitsh recently on the JOHNNY TAO set.

KFC: How did you first get interested in martial arts, and what styles have you studied?

MY: I was kind of raised in the martial arts. My father was a black belt in judo, and in Shotokan karate as well. So I started off training in judo, back in Hawaii, and then moved to Shotokan. In the tournament circuits, I had a chance to compete with, and train with, a lot of different styles. You know, I did a little wushu, a little capoiera, a little kung fu, escrima – mix and match. Then you start working in the film industry and you realize everything is a crossbreed of each other, kind of goes hand in hand, as well as complements each other. The more versatile you become with the different styles, the better it is to a) help choreograph, and b) create a character for the story.

KFC: How do people with different styles communicate in stunt work? Like if the fight choreographer wants a certain kind of kick, and say you have a wushu person and a tae kwon do person.

MY: Right.

KFC: How do you get them to do what you want?

MY: For me, I like to adapt the moves to the person who’s doing the moves. For example, maybe for an outside crescent kick, a wushu person might be able to do an aerial outside crescent kick. So I like to use the strengths (of the style) of the person who’s doing the kick, according to the character they’re playing. And I’ll actually use that to help make the fights more dynamic. And also there’s some weaknesses as well (in every martial art) that you can give the protagonist and the antagonist – they both now have a strength and a weakness that they have to find in themselves, or defend against.

KFC: Then the storytelling is part of the choreography too.

MY: Definitely.

KFC: You have to advance the characterization through the action.

MY: Definitely. I think it’s very important. I think there are story points, just like in any script. A script has a beginning, a middle, and an end. A fight should have a beginning, middle, and end, as well. And we try to keep that in mind when we go through the choreography, and create that drama, and that tension. And that influences the way you choose to shoot it, and the way you choose to edit it as well. I think two people could go into an editing room and have the same fight (footage), and come out with completely different fights. And that’s due to the way someone chooses to tell the story.

KFC: There are a lot of different titles for what people in your profession do: action director, fight choreographer, stunt coordinator, and variations of those. Is there one title that you prefer, or does it change according to what your job is on a production?

MY: I like to think of myself as a filmmaker, first of all. I did go to film school, because a) I needed a degree, and b) if I knew what they want behind the camera, I could give it to them in front of the camera. My focus now is as an action director. On this film (ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY TAO), though, Kenn’s given me the title of action producer, because I facilitate the position of stunt coordinator as well. And I had an excellent team including Mike Gunther, who helped out as co- stunt coordinator, and JJ Perry, who helped out with the fights – we’re giving him a fight coordinating credit. People on the team helped create some of the characters’ styles – (stuntwoman) Ming Liu definitely helped bring out some of the Mika character – and we had an excellent reaction team. On a smaller budget, we had a great team. It was like a big budget team. So I’m very happy. Matt Twining did an excellent job, Matt Mullins did a lot of his own stuff – he’s very talented, and I’m very honored to work with all of them.

Marcus Young choreographing the action in ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY TAO.

KFC: One thing I learned from watching you work – probably I’m like a lot of fans who think the filmmakers get someone like you to choreograph the fights, and your job is basically to come up with these movements and make sure that everybody knows how to do them. But it seems like safety measures are a really big part of your job too – all the padding people have to wear, and making sure that, if they are going to fall, what kind of surface are they going to hit. Do you learn that by experience? You know, learn by doing?

MY: Yeah. When I started doing stunts, it was a passion with me, something that I always wanted to do. So I got an opportunity to do stunts on low budget films, and from there moved on to bigger budget films, all the way up to major (productions). But I didn’t understand, I didn’t know about padding in the beginning. But through experience, I realized that you’re not only going to do it once, and you’re not going to only do it twice – they may ask you to do it 15 times, and if you’re banged up and you’re bruised up, and you can’t go again, well, that just takes away from your performance. So safety measures are very important to me, and – if you don’t see the ground, then let’s put a pad down there. And I think that’s part of being a filmmaker too, or an action designer, is that you design the action in a way that you may not see the ground, OK? Because as a filmmaker, you know you’re going to cut away to something else. Safety is of the utmost importance, because our job is about longevity. We don’t want to be here for just one job, you know? We’re here to keep going in our profession, and we want to stay as healthy and safe as possible. Everybody watches out for each other.

KFC: Because even with the best intentions, something can still go wrong.

MY: You can’t foresee everything.

KFC: What’s the scariest stunt that you’ve ever done?

MY: Recently – this wasn’t supposed to happen – we were doing a film, and there was supposed to be a mine shaft caving in, and for some reason, we got engulfed in fire! There wasn’t supposed to be any fire. I don’t know if that was the scariest – well, it probably was the scariest, because we weren’t expecting it, and we got burned. I burned my face and my hands, second degree, almost third degree burns. So – safety measures are important!

Marcus Young supervises a JOHNNY TAO rehearsal.

KFC: I also realized, from watching you work, that you are responsible, to a great extent, for keeping track of the continuity of the fight scene. If the shoot moves on, and then comes back for reverse shots or whatever, they turn to you and say, “What was this guy doing? What hand was where on the weapon?” So, is everything all worked out in advance, and you know all this, or do you improvise on the set? And if you do improvise, how do you remember it?

MY: I like to try to be a step ahead, and have everything planned out, but of course, when everybody is there on the set, there are things that work for the camera, and things that don’t, so you have to improvise too. And you either remember it through video, or writing it down.

KFC: So you can keep a record.

MY: Yeah, because there’s times when there’ll be 15 different changes. It can be difficult to stay on top of it. In this film – usually, in a normal, big budget feature, at the most we’ll have four fights. This one has about nine, something like that. So we’re very ambitious with this script. And if we didn’t have the talent and the people that we had, we wouldn’t have been able to get through all the fights. (Each fight) takes time to put together, and to shoot it, to create that tension that you want within the movie.

KFC: What do you look for in a stunt performer?

MY: You look at physical talent, which is kind of a given for the line that we’re in, but beyond that you want to see the heart and the desire and the passion for what they’re doing. I’m very blessed and very fortunate, I can get up in the morning and look at myself – as hard as the shoot may be – I can look at myself and say, “Hey! I’m living the dream.” So I try to look for that dedication within a stunt performer as well. Because there are so many talented people out there, and but without the heart and the drive, how do you harness the talent? We have a lot of guys who are just starting out on this crew, on this action team that we put together, and they rose above and beyond, they bring in a whole other level. By bringing along the next generation, it makes the action world stronger, and it gets more respect.

KFC: What should we expect to see in the fight scenes for JOHNNY TAO?

MY: We tried to create a certain style for each person. Mika’s character has more of the wushu style, which Chris just jumped right into, because of her background. Johnny’s character (played by Matt Twining) – he’s learned kung fu from TV, so he’s a little rusty, but he still has the moves. And he was more about heart. Matt Mullins has very clean lines, he’s a forms champion, and we tried to make him a little harder, a little grittier. Matt’s a phenomenal aerial acrobat too but we tried to keep him a little more grounded on this one, and more straightforward.

The one thing that I noticed, each one had something about them when they came in. I knew Matt Mullins from the tournament circuit, and I knew he was talented, so I knew that he was bringing something to the table already. We went through a lot of casting for the Johnny character, and when Matt Twinings came in, he just had that little something in him. I kept throwing little bits and pieces to him, and he would just take it and give us so much more, like, “Take a head reaction,” and he’d take a head reaction. “Now let me see you hit the mat,” and he would go and do it. “OK, take this one!” and he would do a Hong Kong twist. He’s got some skills! Not only was he a good actor, but action-wise, he was able to pick up very quickly, which made our job a lot easier.

And then there was the Mika character, which is a big character that Kenn really wanted to cast well. And when Chris came in – Chris kind of reminds me of a M1000 – a little firecracker, but when she explodes, she explodes! It was a pleasure to work with her, and to see her, just all of a sudden, turn from looking like a little Japanese anime figure, you know, all cute. But when she turns it on, it’s like, “Yeah,that’s where it’s at!” And that made her shine more than anybody else that had auditioned for the Mika character. Chris was by far the best. You can see it turn on like a light switch. She’s sweet and innocent, and then – “Action!” – and you see it in her eyes, she turns it on. That’s one thing that you cannot teach somebody. And Chris has it, on top of being a phenomenal athlete already. And then, through the direction of Kenn, pulling out and creating the characters. So – hats off to the whole crew!

ADVENTURES OF JOHNNY TAO is now available on DVD from MTI Video.

Tags: Adventures of Johnny Tao, Chris Yen, Marcus Young