New Horizons
As the years went by James decided to make the difficult
transition from films into acting (once you're categorized in the motion
picture industry, it's very hard to switch over). By combining his acting,
martial arts abilities and stunt work, he has turned himself into a triple
threat, and starred in several low budget features. However, his big break
came when he had the opportunity to serve as both fight choreographer and
associate producer of John Carpenter's Big Trouble In Little China. Although
this film was somewhat less than a success critically and finacially , it
had a very high budget which gave James "A" level experiance. Unlike lower
budget films, where all too often fight choreographers are given a few hours
to map out the fight scenes, which are the highlights of the films, there
was extensive time and money to plan every detail. With his new "A" film
experience, he moved on to work with major studios. His most memorable scene
to date was when he fought Charlie Sheen in the hilarious opening sequence
of Hot Shots, Part Deux. He also fought Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground
and helped coordinate one of the fight scenes, and performed the knife fighting
scene in Jean Claude Van Damme's Time Cop. |
Looking forward
James has continued to pursue his acting efforts, and has
rapidly become one of the most well known male Asian actors in the business.
Although he owes a great deal to his stuntwork, he feels that being "pigeonholed"
as a stunt man can hold a person back. "We talk about it all the time,"
James admits. "That stigma that's kind of grown up around martial artists.
Because a lot of martial artist with little or no acting experience starred
in a few low budget films, and this 'martial artists cant act' stereotype
sprung up." Therefore, at this point in his career, he has choosen to focus
on performing with lines, not just jumping spin kicks. "It's very difficult,'
according to James. "You work all those years and cultivate a reputation
and people remember you and want to hire you, or refer you to others. Then
the offers to do stuntwork come and you say 'no', and you're turning away
money. But the film business is a fickle mistress, and if you don't stay
totally on course, you end up back where you started from. It's a long,
hard road ahead, but James has the determination to succeed. And, obviously,
he also has the backing of our readers. |
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