Ip Man 3 Led Donnie Yen To Unknowingly Injure His Idol Mike Tyson
Donnie Yen has built a sterling career on his ability to transfer his real-life martial arts skills to the screen. With roles in "Rogue One," "Once Upon a Time in China II," and "XXX: Return of Xander Cage," he has repeatedly proved his martial arts mastery, especially his knowledge of Wing Chun-style fighting. To prepare for his titular role as Wing Chun master Ip Man in the "Ip Man" movies, Yen trained with experts for three months to embody the philosophy and physicality of the Chinese kung fu form.
According to Yen, he also let himself get a bit carried away in "Ip Man 3," in which Yen's character, Ip Man, confronts a property developer played by Yen's idol, Mike Tyson. In fact, during a fight scene of theirs, Yen accidentally injured Tyson's finger, and neither man acknowledged it until the next day.
One of Yen's Wing Chun moves got a bit out of hand
In a GQ feature where Donny Yen breaks down his most famous roles, Yen first lists Mike Tyson and Bruce Lee as his idols before admitting that this didn't stop him from breaking Tyson's finger. Apparently, during one of his choreographed Wing Chun sequences with Tyson, Yen put just a tiny bit too much force into one of his moves.
"He's coming at me with a flurry of punches," Yen said. "I was supposed to block all his punches with Wing Chun techniques. Now, in the Wing Chun techniques, you use your elbow. So, I go at it, maybe have a little power behind it, and I guess I accidentally hit one of his fingers." Yen then tells the interviewer that he didn't even realize Tyson was injured until the famous boxer walked onto set with a bandaged finger the next day.
Ultimately, everything sorted itself out and the two men ended up joking about the incident. Considering both actors' fighting capabilities, it's for the best that the injury was just a broken finger with no hurt feelings.