Marcial Arts films
Text: Pedro Conde With the collaboration of Salvador Múgica Photos: Courtesy of John Benn Cover: Courtesy of Miguel Tudela
W ith the current t e c h n i c a l d e v e l o p m e n t, nowadays there are no distances. This interview has been made possible thanks to technology.
The first screen role of John Ben was an extra in " The Magnificent Seven " of 1960, where he played one of the villains fighting against Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Eli Wallach and Yul Brynner. He also appeared in " The night of the Iguana ", 1964, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, but the role that granted him fame worldwide was that of the Mafia godfather in " The return of the Dragon ". When Bruce Lee first met him, he told him, " John, I won ' t make you rich with this film, but I will make you famous..." " And right he was! I ' ve enjoyed the fame ever since ".
John Benn was born in 1935, so he is 78 years old now. He lives in Shanghai, and for him, acting is an amusing hobby with which he earns money. He has appeared in 51 films, most of them shot in Asia. He has also participated in 14 CCTV( China Central Television) series. A long list of fellow performers accompanies and thickens his career as an actor. He has worked together with the great celebrities of the Far East, like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Yuen Woo Ping, as well as with some of the biggest stars of the West. For instance, in " The man with the iron fist " he shared filming with Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu and Pam Grier, in a Hollywood production recently filmed in Shanghai. In his own words: " My job as an actor was not something I had planned, but it ' s something I enjoy, I have the opportunity to meet many famous actresses and I ' m glad of that." Although John has a long career as an actor, he doesn ' t live to and for interpretation, as he himself admits: " My work as an actor has always been part time, I do it for fun and I really like it."
Indeed, John is a businessman who has his own company, Unison China Ltd., of which he is consultant, business advisor for food and drink, licenses etc. John knows well the world of business linked to restaurants, in fact, he ' s run several throughout his life. As a curiosity, he directed for a while three " Spanish tapas " restaurants in Hong Kong, which were the first ones of the kind in all of Asia and had a great success.
John is constantly involved in a lot of projects: " Lately I ' ve been working on a big project, preparing a Japanese style lounge with a restaurant, below the JW Marriott Hotel, in Tomorrow Square in Shanghai ".
As for his film career, owing to his physical features, he usually plays the villain. When asked if it is because he is bad, ugly or really a wicked guy, he replies: " A combination of these factors, yet I don ' t dislike it. But not all of my roles have always been featuring the bad guy; a few years ago I worked on a film with Fan Bingbing, one of China ' s most famous actresses. The movie was called " East wind rain "( 2010), and I played the role of a good priest."
As discussed above, John Benn has been the only actor( an occidental, to make matters worse) who has shared set with Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the great three names in the genre of martial arts films. For this reason, it has been inevitable insist in he stablishes a comparison between them. In the case of Jackie Chan, he met and worked with Bruce Lee. Jackie played a part in " Fist of Fury "( 1972) and " Enter the Dragon "( 1973). Both have been number one stars in Southeast Asia, Bruce first and then Jackie, who has become the most famous oriental actor in the West. However, the roles they have played on screen are completely different: as Jackie Chan himself would confess John: " I ' m a specialist. Bruce Lee was a martial artist."
John had a cameo in the documentary titled " Jackie Chan: my stunts ", 1999. " I ' ve known Jackie for a long time, we met in Hong Kong. Recently he came to Shanghai for a TV interview. I was among the audience, and he saw me, came up to me and gave me a big bear hug. He still remembers me!"
John worked with Jet Li in " Fearless ". How can you possibly compare the martial skills of Jet Li ' s, a Wushu champion of China, that is, classical Martial Arts, with those of Bruce Lee ' s, a master of entirely innovative and revolutionary ideas, who publicly criticized traditional Martial Arts? Bruce Lee created and perfected a style of fighting. Jet Li was champion of Wushu, which is an established style, in a number of competitions in China; however, both of them were, and still are, the best in their style, yet John does not seem to have doubts: " Definitely, Jet Li is an extremely good martial artist, comparable to Bruce Lee, but I think most Martial Arts practitioners would
Marcial Arts films
think or say the same thing: many tried to get up to where Bruce Lee had arrived, but no one was able to make it... "
John has explained to us how he met and worked with Jackie Chan and Jet Li. But, how did the opportunity arise to work on " The Way of the Dragon "?
- " It was by chance, one day I met a producer at a party, Raymond Chow, and he asked me: ' Would you like to participate in a movie with Bruce Lee?' At that time, I had no idea of who was Bruce Lee, still I said ' Sure '. I thought it would be fun to appear in a Chinese movie, so we negotiated my salary and the very next day they came to picked up at 8 am. After signing the contract, I was taken to the set, where we arrived at 9 am. They gave me a cigar and I had to sit behind a table to play the role of a Mafia godfather. In the meantime, my assistant explained to me that Chuck Norris was on his way to fight with Bruce Lee in the movie. Shortly after, we shot the first scene in just about 20 minutes, with no problem." Perhaps this way of shooting, and the absence of a pre-production is amazing to some. On this subject, John tells us: " Bruce Lee never used the typical script of a film, all he had was some handwritten pages. He directed as he felt, so everything was reduced to ' O. k., now say this, or do that '. And it usually it looked good, so we then got ready for the next scene. I guess this will surprise many, obviously films in Hollywood are not made like this, but it was the way all films were shot in Hong Kong in 1972 ".
John witnessed a totally unknown facet in the life of Bruce Lee: that of film director. This was the first and only film he directed; on this issue he states: " He was very good... he worked very quickly and very efficiently. He was sure it was going to be a great film. I remember he never shouted or got angry with no one, but being a perfectionist, he kept everybody working until things came out ok. He was highly selfdemanding, so he used to rehearse many times any sequence before filming, however, although he made everybody work, he was always joking, turning the set into a pleasant and fun place. He often suffered from severe headaches. When this happened, he normally sat and waited for the pain to pass, he then apologized for the delay and we continued with the shooting. The first encounter John Benn had with Bruce Lee was in the Golden
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