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Re: Carradine Talks About Legacy, Recent Project
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 Less than a year ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with David Carradine about his most recent project, "Kung Fu Killer," a made-for-TV miniseries on Spike TV in which he starred with Daryl Hannah. Carradine was found dead today in a Bangkok hotel room.
Here's a look at what he had to say in August about his career, "Kung Fu Killer," and his legacy, which extended into the 21st Century with his role in the "Kill Bill" movies.
Victor Balta: You're 71 now and you're sort of famous for doing your own fight scenes. Is it starting to take a toll on you at all?
David Carradine: No, not really. When I did "Kill Bill," we did three months of training, eight hours a day, five days a week. It was two months in L.A. and a month in Beijing. And I figured, "What do I need any training for?" But the first week actually was hard, I really ached when I got home and all that because it was really hard training. We were doing Kung Fu, choreography, samurai training, wire works, lifting weights, treadmill. But I discovered when I actually started shooting that I was about as fit as I've ever been in my life, and that was at the age of 64. There's not that much difference between 64 and 71, and the fact that I've been an athlete all my life and doing the Kung Fu thing for close to 40 years, I think that makes a difference.
I didn't find anything really difficult, I just do it and people are kind of amazed that I'm the grandfather on the set and I can outmove most people.
VB: Tell me about your character in this movie.
DC: When he starts out, he's a holy man, and something happens that gets him mad and he almost dies. Then when he comes back from death, so to speak -- everybody thinks he's died, but some village woman brings him back to life -- he goes on this rampage to get revenge. It starts out as revenge, then it becomes more like he's got to save the world. Daryl Hannah is a torch singer in a club where the warlord hangs out, and I have to join his forces and pretend to be a body guard and hitman for him. I am the good guy in this movie, but I am really a bad-ass. Remember, like in the old TV series, you had a hard time getting this guy to fight at all. He's only fight if his life was threatened, or if someone else's life was threatened, and even then he'd try to be gentle. This guy is nothing like that. Like, there's a scene where there's a drunk in a bar giving Daryl a hard time, so I break his back for him. [Chuckles] That's just unnecessary force. Kind of like the L.A. cops.
VB: So, tell me how this new project came about.
DC: I was doing this other picture for (producer) Robert Halmi, called "Son of the Dragon" in China. He came to visit, and we sat down on the temple steps he had this idea to make five movies about this historical character. And I thought this character was a lot like the character I played in the original "Kung Fu" series. He's enough like him that I have kind of come to wonder if the guy who wrote (the original "Kung Fu") didn't know about him.
VB: Tell me about shooting in China.
DC: It's really in the back woods of China, which is entirely different from what you're getting to see now in the Olympics. They've really dressed up Beijing, but they didn't dress up the rest of the country. When you get out into the country, in some parts, you're really back in the dark ages. But filming a movie is odd. It's like you're on a lifeboat because it's this self-contained unit that's almost, not immune, but sort of separated from the country you're in.
VB: What was it like working with Daryl Hannah?
DC: Well, I've been hot for her since "Blade Runner," which was before Splash, and she was hot in that. I was crazy about her, and I had seen when she made a European movie on this Greek island called "Summer Lovers." If you mention it to her, she gets a little embarrassed. But I saw it and said this woman is going to be a huge star. She was great to work with.
VB: Does she have any fight scenes in the movie?
DC: No, she's not fighting. I'm taking care of her. It's a four-hour movie, but it's really two completely different stories. The first (two-hour part) really stands all by itself and the second one is really like an adventure that these people have. I like the first one better, some people like the second one better. We shot them as one movie, but we were always going back and forth between the two, depending on the location.
VB: What else should people know about the movie?
DC: The picture has a certain amount of spirituality, and there's enough humor. If there aren't any jokes in a movie, I'm not really interested. No matter how important it's supposed to be, or how serious it's meant to be, if you don't have the jokes, I'll probably fall asleep. But we've got everything. It's almost a great movie. I don't use that word "great," but it is a really good movie. People I've shown it to say, "Oh, it's great." And I say, "Oh, it's not great. But it is really good."
VB: Do you find that you're starting to connect with a new generation of fans who are maybe rediscovering the original "Kung Fu" series?
DC: Well, they've put out a DVD set of the whole series, so it's accessible now. You don't have to find it on some weird channel somewhere and watch it every night, so yeah. But most of the young people are more interested in "Kill Bill" than they are in "Kung Fu." That's still huge everywhere I go. A lot people now, they don't go, "Hey grasshopper!" They go, "Hey Bill!"
Click here to comment. Did you watch Carradine's recent film, "Kung Fu Killer"? What are some of your favorite moments from his career?
Message Edited by Victor_Balta on 06-04-2009 02:14 PM
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