When you see the final product, it’s incredible how they do with very little rehearsal. Tan, as Gaius Chau on 'Into the Badlands.' AMCīut Cheng and Master DiDi are “masters” in shooting and cutting fight scenes. By the time they present it to me, I have ten to fifteen minutes to learn it.” “They walk around the room and design the action, their guys go off on their corner, and I’ll just be watching. He and the other actors sometimes learn their moves just minutes before shooting. Tan says the master choreographers - Huan-Chiu Ku, also know as “Master Didi,” who trained under the legendary Yuen-woo Ping of The Matrix and Kill Bill, and Andy Cheng - don’t hold rehearsals for the very intricate fight scenes. Since its premiere in 2015, critics have hailed Into the Badlands for having the most impressive action choreography on TV. It’s like samurai Game of Thrones, but with flashier style. Set in the distant future after a devastating war, Into the Badlands is a post-apocalyptic steampunk martial arts fantasy in which the last vestiges of mankind are ruled by feudal lords, called “Barons.” The people who fight on behalf of them, “Clippers,” live and die by the sword (or whatever sharp edges are within reach). It’s just as important as the emotional aspect.” I always try to add, like I did in Iron Fist, my own element with the martial arts. “Because of my body and my size, I move differently. “I have a familiarity with the sword, but Gaius has a very aggressive fighting style that is different ,” he explains. “Let me just leave it at that.”įor Badlands, Tan trained with Dechelle, a champion martial artist with 90 NASKA World Titles, to become Gaius. “Gaius is a hopeless romantic,” he teases. That’s why he’s in jail in the first place.” (“Cogs” are foot-soldiers enslaved by duty.) “He has a heart for seeing people be free, and he’s looking at the future of the Badlands being a place of freedom than tyranny. “He was put in jail for releasing Cogs,” Tan explains. AMCįor Into the Badlands, Tan picked up the katana to play Gaius Chau, a prisoner released by his feudal lord sister, Baron Chau. Lewis Tan as Gaius Chau, on 'Into the Badlands' Season 3. It was time well spent that’s now paying off. It was in this time that Tan refined his disciplines, including kickboxing, Muay Thai, jujitsu, kung fu, and more.
“It was at that point in my career where I’d been in this game eight, nine years, focusing, working hard, head down,” he says. After that, it was 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, as “Korean Commando.” By the time Iron Fist came, Tan had already been working for years but little to show for it. His biggest film credit was stunt work for 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which he worked on with his father, a veteran stunt coordinator. Prior to Iron Fist, Tan’s IMDB wasn’t as dense as some of the internet’s other, higher-profile boyfriends, like Oscar Isaac or Michael B. It just so happened when Iron Fist happened, things started to snowball.” I turned down shows and I turned down films. “There was a lot of stuff in talks before Iron Fist. “Timing is very important when it comes to life,” says Tan. And, he trained with Gal Gadot’s stunt double on Wonder Woman, Caitlin Dechelle, to sharpen his skills with the Japanese katana. But two weeks before shooting wrapped in “cold, muddy” Ireland, Tan tells Inverse via Skype that his biggest projects were already underway prior to Iron Fist. On April 22, AMC will premiere the third season of Into the Badlands. Now, a year later, they’ll have more time, as Tan enters the newest season of AMC’s kung fu fantasy Into the Badlands as Gaius Chau, as well as the summer blockbuster Deadpool 2, playing the mutant Shatterstar. While lead role ultimately went to Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones), Tan was hard to ignore as he chewed up eight minutes of screen time as a drunk kung fu master.
Into the badlands season 3 series#
Lewis Tan, the half-British, half-Chinese, all-abs actor and martial artist, is grateful for the viral fame he stumbled upon last year from his minor role in the Marvel/Netflix series Iron Fist.