Donnie Yen Says He Corrected ‘Generic’ And Stereotypical Asian Character Traits In ‘John Wick’ And ‘Rogue One’
etcanada.comDonnie Yen isn’t going to let his characters be stereotypes. In a new interview with GQ, the action star revealed that he actually had some changes made to his character in “John Wick: Chapter 4” in order to avoid typical Asian depictions. READ MORE: Keanu Reeves Has Got Himself A Gun In ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Final Trailer In particular, it was his assassin character’s name, Caine, which came as a result of Yen’s objections, because at first he was going to be called “Shang” or “Chang”. “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang?
Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic?” he said. “Then the wardrobe again – oh, mandarin collars.
Why is everything so generic? This is a ‘John Wick’ movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?” In the end, Yen spoke with director Chad Stahelski and they worked on changing the name and updating his look to be sleek and modern. READ MORE: Keanu Reeves Says ‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ Brings More Action Than Ever Before, Admits It Was The ‘Hardest’ Role He’s Trained For That wasn’t the first time Yen called out similar issues on a film, either, having previously brought up concerns about his “Rouge One” character Chirrut Îmwe the the production.
In Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. “One thing I pointed out is he was a stereotype. Typical master. Doesn’t smile,” he told GQ, revealing that he was the one to suggest making the fan-favourite character blind and giving him a great sense of humour.
Read more on etcanada.com