 HKCinemagic: Recently you played a supporting role in Bodyguard: A New Beginning and also produced the film. Could you tell us about the movie? |
Mark Strange: The story begins with a rivalry between two gang bosses in Hong Kong, played by Richard Ng and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. As the war escalates, one boss sends his bodyguard to London to protect a mysterious woman, given only a photograph as his guide. When the rival boss hears about this, he sends his own men to the UK to catch them! With this film we tried to create a really mean Triad gangster film with very brutal action.
I was very happy to work with Anthony Carpio and Chan Man Ching from the Jackie Chan Stunt Team which was fantastic. They’ve worked with Jackie Chan for so many years, dating right back to films like Project A 2 so it was so valuable to bring their level of experience to the action scenes. For me, it’s also important to work with people who are passionate and really care about the work they do. |
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 Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Mark Strange in Bodyguard: A New Beginning |
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| HKCinemagic: The film was directed by Chee Keong Cheung, with whom you’ve now built a strong working relationship. (See our interview with Cheung) What’s it like working with him? |
| Mark Strange: He’s a fantastic director and has a great eye for detail, especially when it comes to the intensity of the drama and characters. This is great in a fight scene because it means you can bring the character and story to the action scenes as well. He really pushes the actors to give it everything they have and this drives us to go the extra distance. I’ve really enjoyed working with him and we have a lot more we’d like to do! |
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| HKCinemagic: Tell us about your character in the film... |
| Mark Strange: I play one half of an assassin team sent to catch up with the bodyguard. My partner is played by three times World Kickboxing Champion, Nathan Lewis, who is a good friend of mine and who I’ve worked with before. This was a great opportunity for us to play very sinister villains! |
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Mark Strange is half of an assassin team |
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| HKCinemagic: You shot a lot of the film in Hong Kong. What were the conditions like over there? |
| Mark Strange: It was very exhausting and it really took it out of you! It was extremely hot and one particular scene out on a rooftop with Vincent Sze, Nathan Lewis and myself was very hard work. Filming action is very tough as it is but under those conditions it’s even more draining and this is one of the reasons it’s so important to be in shape for shooting action! |
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