‘It’s Time for Me to Show Different Sides of Myself’: Lewis Tan

“I just finished shooting for seven months in Budapest. Now I’m taking a bit of a holiday,” Lewis Tan, martial artist, movie and action star says as we meet on Zoom. Last year, his all-encompassing presence as Cole Young in Mortal Kombat left a lasting impression. That, and because I’m a sucker for action heroes, I have been pretty eager to speak with him.

Action heroes, in my opinion, are dynamic risk-takers with great bodies and great minds. Tan is no exception. His well-articulated answers made that clear, along with his disposition and demeanor, right from the outset of our interaction. “So, where are you now? Are you working or on vacation?” I inquire. “I’m in the mountains on an island in Spain called Majorca, up in an area called Valldemossa,” he shared, offering a personal anecdote about the location. “You know, Chopin, the pianist – this is where he composed a lot of his nocturns, and it’s a very beautiful countryside area surrounded by orange groves and wineries.”

A powerhouse on-screen, Tan is an explosion waiting to happen. He performs his fight sequences, action scenes and stunts in a way that looks like picture-perfect frames. I am curious about his creative approach that helps choreograph the brilliant visuals. “It started with my father a long time ago,” he recalls. “My father is a martial artist, a gymnast, a stunt coordinator and a fight choreographer who worked with Tim Burton on Batman and Steven Spielberg on Indiana Jones.” Tan Sr. also worked in films like Inception and Pirates of the Caribbean. To cut a long story short, Tan grew up around someone who taught him not only martial arts but also executing action scenes for the camera, passing down a legacy from one generation to another.

Gradually, he discovered that martial arts is akin to dance, in the sense that one doesn’t simply want to create something shocking or insane, but also make something appear beautiful that hasn’t previously been seen on screen. Hence, every time he performs a fight scene or a scripted action sequence, he is attempting to accomplish something that he hasn’t done or seen before. That way, as he notes, “I think I add my own style, my own flavor to the character, to the performance because of the history that I’ve grown up with – training with not just my father but many people who have taught me throughout my life – an accumulation of a lot of different people and a lot of different features.”

I have read that “martial art is not about fighting; it’s about building character.” How would you elucidate martial art, I ask him. “Well, it’s true,” he replies. “Martial art is supposed to be the truest form of expression,” the actor responds with the experience of someone who practices it and studies fight choreography extensively. “It’s like meditation… you can’t lie when you are really doing martial art because the lie can be easily exposed by another person who is better than you, or someone who is thinking quicker than you.”

I can deduce from him that real martial art is a kind of manifestation that combines the body, emotions, mind, heart, spiritual center and more. But, as he highlights, that doesn’t happen very often: “It’s very rare to get that synchronicity perfectly right. So, that is why it’s a lifelong journey, lifelong learning. I’m very grateful that I can add that to the screen and show people some of it.”

Tan, 35, is a well-known name in action projects such as Into the Badlands, Wu Assassins, Deadpool 2, Mortal Kombat, Fistful of Vengeance and others. It must be critical for him to constantly add new elements to the action sequences in each of his ventures. “It’s difficult,” he admits, adding that one reason is that everything starts with the script, with the story.” “If I didn’t write the story, someone else’s vision is there, and I have to hope that they want to collaborate and produce something new or be open to the ideas.” He continues, “when you do a different movie or a different project, you have a different team to work with. These teams must also be open to collaborating, proposing new ideas, and pushing the boundaries. The third requirement is that you be able to perform.” So, in order to create something extraordinary and reinvent yourself, all of these factors must be taken into account. The actor is currently concentrating on developing his own productions, teams, and his own distinct vision as a director in a bid to accomplish this. “That way, I can control all of these things,” he says, reiterating, “If it’s good, it’s on me; if it’s bad, it’s on me too.”

Despite multiple injuries, an undeterred Tan keeps executing stunts himself. He reflects great proficiency in techniques like Muay Thai, Ju-jitsu, Taekwondo, and more. He says, “Muay Thai is the best striking style for everyday use while Taekwondo is the best to learn if you want to do martial arts in movies. It’s beautiful and you have really long kicks and punches. You learn footwork and rhythm. Muay Thai, however, is quite aggressive, but it’s also very useful and looks beautiful too. Ju-jitsu is very cool, but it doesn’t always look so great on screen unless you know how to do it the right way. I think judo is really nice and again very good on camera. But as the master, Bruce Lee, says, ‘The best style is no style’ – that’s the best style. Learn everything and then just be able to flow.”

Halfway into the interaction, I realize that the person I am speaking to is not simply a celebrity or on-screen hero, but rather a passionate artist who is constantly exploring and aspiring with his heart and soul. I infer that it is something that sustains his distinctiveness and self-authenticity. Roughly a one-hour conversation, which starts like any other interview, evolves into an enlightening exchange. Read the remaining part of it in the condensed extracts below.

Mortal Kombat has been an important part of your professional journey. In a nutshell, tell us about the film, some interesting anecdotes about working on it, and also what you’ve taken back from the film in terms of experience.

Well, it was an incredible experience for me for many reasons. Obviously, it is my first leading role in a big studio movie of such magnitude. It was a big deal to take on a very, very popular franchise that many people love, including myself. I played the game with all my brothers when I was a kid. It was challenging, but it was also a very rewarding experience. I learned and grew so much as an actor, martial artist and filmmaker; not just how to capture the best performance, but also how to have the mental capacity to get up every day at 3 or 4 am and be the best you can be for months. I think what I’ve realized is that the energy you bring to the movie set gets captured on camera.

When you’re showing up and you’re feeling tired and lazy and you have negative energy, it shows in the frame. I think that developing your mind to be open and creative, and listening to your acting partners, the crew, and the filmmaker around you is the thing that I learned the most from that film. Also, the movie came out at the time of Covid but did super well with HBO Max streaming it. It’s still number one. I was very happy that it had that big of a response. It made me very grateful to see that people liked the film and watched it over and over again.

Have you ever felt as an actor that the martial artist in you sometimes overshadows the actor that you are? Do you believe you’ve been typecast?

Yes, I do feel that way, but at the same time, I have two thoughts about this: One, I’m grateful that as an Asian actor I could make it in this industry where I’m working, where I’m doing these amazing films and these shows, and I can continue to practice my craft. This is my first thought. My second thought is that maybe people are scared to say that people can do more than one thing. I never felt that I was in any box, and it’s just time for me to show different sides of myself. So, I have a movie coming out in September, which is a romantic comedy film. I’m trying to open up new genres not to prove anything to anyone but just for me because I love movies. I love all kinds of movies. I grew up on old classics – Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave, the Stanley Kubrick movies, the Park Chang-wook movies, and [those of] other great filmmakers who influenced me, and I just love making films. So, I want to do every type of genre if I can.

So, if you’re playing a romantic hero or a swashbuckling hero, who would you like to share your screen time with, and why?

There are a lot of people who I think have had a big influence on me, but for me, it’s more about working with talented directors and writers. I don’t really seek to try to work with a certain actor. I’m somebody who likes to look at a filmmaker’s work. I’d love to work with Quentin Tarantino. I think he writes really beautifully. I’d like to work with people like Paul Thomas Anderson. I’d like to do some unique films with Alejandro Iñárritu, with Park Chang-wook or Bong Joon-ho. These filmmakers have a unique perspective and a strong vision.

In one of your previous interviews, you mentioned that you want to be a director. Please tell us more about it.

Yes! I’ve been writing for a long time, experimenting with different writing styles and screenplays. At first, it took a while to develop that as a whole new skill. I’ve been working on it. I have a screenplay that I wrote about my father, about his storyline that I’d like to direct, and I’ve been shooting short films and shooting music videos and fashion advertisements, all this stuff a long time ago. We’ve shot a lot of stuff and have a lot in production and pre-production. The movie about my father is going to be my first one as a director. It’s a very interesting narrative about martial arts and about dance in 1970s London as an Asian man who was competing in the disco as well as in the martial arts circuit.

I’ve learned that you’re quite fond of K-pop?!? How did that happen?

Honestly, the K-pop thing started, I think, through Korean cinema. I’ve been a big fan of Korean cinema for a really long time. I think Korean cinema has probably been leading the way creatively for many years. Way back in the day, even movies like Old Boy and stuff like that had a big influence. Even now, it’s still influencing American films. I think I started to dive into Korean culture when I was there in Korea, in Seoul, as I was filming something and I was hearing K-pop all the time. I saw how good the music videos were and how good the dancing was.

I respect good dancers because I’m a martial artist and I know how much it takes and how hard it is to learn. So now I have a love for K-pop. Is it weird that my favorite is Black Pink [laughs]? To be honest, I like them all. Big Bang, BTS, Black Pink – they are all great. There’s also a DJ named Yaeji who I really like, who’s super cool. So, yeah, I love K-pop, I love Korea, I love Korean influence, Korean food. Maybe I’m a little bit Korean in my heart.

The most recent Korean drama that I watched is on Netflix, the zombie one, All of Us Are Dead. I love the way they tell stories, the way that they capture emotions and the relationships between characters. No matter if it’s a zombie film or if it’s just a high-school thing, they capture the relationships brilliantly, and I like how emotional the characters can be.

As an actor, an artist, and an entertainer, what are your thoughts on the impact of Hallyu, the Korean wave, on the entertainment industry, or the growing propensity people have for Korean culture and content?

For me, it’s like people are catching up. I’ve been raving about Korean movies for years. In my opinion, American cinema culture is a little bit slow to catch up to what’s really going on or what’s really cool. So, when Parasite won the Oscar, I was like, “It’s about time.” I was so happy for them and so happy to see them and Asian culture get recognized by the Academy. Americans have been stealing their concepts for years, and now that they were giving them credit, it makes me very happy.

How active are you on social media? I was scrolling through your Instagram feed, and you have a lot of followers, and rightfully so. But do the consequences of being in the public eye ever bother you?

I fluctuate between posting nothing and posting a lot for work, for press, and for promotions. I’m on vacation at the moment, so I’m taking nice pictures because I’m enjoying it. I’m not doing it for any reason. If I see something really beautiful, I take a picture and post it. But generally speaking, I’m not super active when it comes to posting about my personal life on social media.

I think being in the public eye does have positive and negative effects. It’s positive because I can share exactly what I’m thinking with the world and it doesn’t have to be misconstrued in an interview or as something that people hear a rumor about. I can clear this up very quickly by just talking about it. But then it has a lot of negative consequences too, because I feel like you are taking in so much and so many images. A lot of them are fake, filtered, and a lot of what you’re consuming makes it hard for you to be creative. If you look at the way social media is designed, it’s like something in Las Vegas – when you’re pulling the slots, you’re just going and going; there’s so much stimulation. I think that it’s important for us to be cautious about how we use social media. For me, it becomes so overwhelming that I need to shut it off. I have to be inspired by nature, the ocean, and the sunset.

What’s the other side of Lewis Tan? Are you a private person or a people’s person, or someone who’s friendly to many but friend to few? What kind of a person are you otherwise when you’re off-camera?

I have a small group of friends who I care about a lot and spend a lot of time with. I’m cautious because I think it’s easy for me to make friends with people in different countries. I have friends all over the world, literally or probably almost everywhere. But I don’t like too many people close to my energy, which I think is how everyone should be. You don’t want to have too many influences around you. I choose carefully who I allow into my personal life. But at the same time, I’m very grateful to be able to live a very blessed life, and I try my best to be open-minded and accepting of everyone. That’s how I like to look at it.

What makes you happy?

I think I’m happy when I’m in the moment, when I’m feeling not very anxious or when I’m not thinking too far into the future or too much into the past. When I’m right there living, I feel happy, I feel good. I feel happy to be able to take care of my family. I feel happy on movie sets. I love making movies. I feel happy when I’m with my dog [laughs].

Tell us all about your upcoming ventures, what you’re into or what you’re looking forward to.

Well, as you know, we have Mortal Kombat 2 being readied. We have a new writer for that film named Jeremy Slater, who wrote the Marvel series Moon Knight and a series that my friend did of Wu Assassins called The Exorcist, and I’m really looking forward to that, aiming to take it to the next level. I have a romantic comedy out with Emma Roberts called About Fate, It’s really cool. I have a couple of secret surprises in some bigger movies that I can’t discuss just yet, but they are some of the bigger movies coming out next year.

Then I have a TV series called Shadow and Bone on Netflix that I just finished shooting. That is an insane action, adventure and fantasy series, and I’m really looking forward to showing that to the world. It’s a really cool character that I play, and it’s a cool world that they have built. The writer, Eric Heisserer, wrote Arrival, and he was Oscar-nominated for that. So, it’s a very well-written, well-acted project that’s in the pipeline, plus a few other things, including my directorial debut, which I’m looking forward to sharing with people.

Any message for us, for the viewers, the readers, your fans, and your followers?

Spread more love and follow your heart. But I do have an interesting tidbit to tell you since this interview will be coming out on Rolling Stone India. It’s a fun fact for the fans. My father, as I said, does action choreography and fight choreography, and he did an Indian film called Kurbaan. He was the action choreographer for it, and I helped choreograph the fights with Saif Ali Khan. I met Saif and we hung out. He was really cool and he was a great fighter, and I was choreographing and doing the fight choreography for this movie as well when I was just a kid. This is just a fun fact for people to know.

Will you be interested in doing an Indian film if the opportunity arises?

Of course! I love Indian movies. As I said, I love and respect dancing so much. Even if there’s no dancing, I would still do it if it’s a good story, for sure.