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
7