Eddie Peng Discusses Jiang Wen
“Jiang Wen is one of my favourite directors. I always wanted to work with him. I learnt so much from him on set. Prepping for the role, I had to transform myself for the role. It’s set at the time of the Republic of China, in the 1920s. It’s based on a novel. I read the book first and then went to audition with Jiang Wen. The main character needs to speak with a Beijing accent. It’s not the Beijing accent of today, it’s the Beijing accent of the 1920s. I had to spend a lot of time trying to get that accent. It’s not something I love to do. It’s a tough one because Jiang Wen is an actor himself. Then for the choreography, I spent two weeks with Jackie Chan’s stunt team. I had to train hard and then diet to achieve the physical transformation to become the character. Jiang is more like an artist; he treats his craft very seriously. On set, since he’s an actor himself, you can’t fool him. He can understand immediately if you’re in the zone or not. He will wait until you’re there, until you’re ready. If the weather isn’t good, he’s ready to wait a whole week for the sun to come out! We went to Baltimore to shoot part of the movie. We shot the entire movie with natural light, isn’t it crazy? You have to give credit to him. We live in this fast-paced world obsessed with making money, but some people are still able to do what they really love. That’s something that inspired me. I loved working with him.”
Augustman speaks to Eddie Peng, who is poised for a resurgence as Andy Lau’s co-lead in their latest film.
