OpenRoad Driver Volume 18 Issue 1 Nov. 2022 | Page 13

Volume 18 Issue 1 » 13

Is that at all related to your martial arts background ? How long have you been practising , and what draws you to it ? Before I started acting professionally , I had every intention of opening my own Wushu school . I wanted to be a teacher and work in movies as a stunt performer on the side . I grew up watching action movies and cartoons , and wanted so badly to emulate them . After begging and pleading my parents to let us take karate or taekwondo classes for years , my mom finally found a Wushu teacher that was offering free classes at Queen Elizabeth Park . Again , my mom jumped at the free classes . My younger brother Owen and I were immediately obsessed . That first summer we did two classes every single day . I was 13 at the time , and I knew that I was late at the game compared to everyone else who started when they were young children , but I had every intention to catch up . I don ’ t know where that compulsion to train as hard as we did came from , but Owen and I just wanted to be the best in the world , and we treated it like it was our job . At the height of our training , I did a semester at the Wushu School of Beijing Sports University where we trained eight hours a day every day , and we would study other athletes when we weren ’ t training . It was our life , and looking back now I still can ’ t really believe that I was able to live that life at some point .

What ’ s one thing you miss about Vancouver when you ’ re travelling abroad for work ? My family . The older I get , the more I cherish the time I have with my family . It ’ s such an odd thing , too , because I spent most of my younger life trying to get as far away from them as possible , but now the thought of being away for too long seems painful . There are so many shiny things in life that you might want to chase , but those things all eventually become dull , even if you get them . For me , at least , my family ’ s the only thing that ’ s grown more precious with time .

You ’ re vegan . Have you always been from a young age ? If not , what was the reason behind making the switch to a plant-based diet ? It ’ s been 11 years now . I was filming a movie in America , and I went with the cast to see this film called Forks over Knives , which detailed the many positive health benefits of eating a plant-based diet . The director of the film told us it was a nice idea , but we wouldn ’ t be able to do it and that it ’ d be too difficult . I took that as a challenge and