Razor Fist Actor Dishes On Being Stunned By Shang-Chi's Tony Leung - Exclusive
"Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" has an impressive cast, and Hong Kong cinema legend Tony Leung is the crown jewel. Leung also did little press for the movie, not showing up at any press conferences or junkets or even attending the premiere. As such, we here at Looper did our best to get stories about him from his castmates.
Fala Chen said that "You just suddenly get transfixed into his eyes" and noted that he would constantly think about his character and scenes that were shot weeks ago. Meng'er Zhang recalled that Leung never went back to his trailer until the day was done and never brought his phone to set. Jayden Zhang called him "one of the best actors that I've ever seen" and said, "He can be completely immersed inside of his character. And one time I even forgot, hey, is this a nice guy I met off set? Or is this super mean scary villain dad?"
In anticipation of the home release of "Shang-Chi," Looper spoke with Florian Munteanu, who plays Razor Fist. Like all his castmates, he had glowing praise for Leung — and a story about getting lost in his co-star's performance.
A special aura
Munteanu likes to get information about people he's working with in a project, a task easy with a screen legend like Leung: "I already knew that he's a legend and I saw a lot of the martial arts movies that he was in already." When it came to working with Leung, however, he discovered that "it's a special aura around him. It's really hard to describe if you've not experienced that in real life."
Leung and Munteanu share several scenes, but one of Muntenau's favorites to shoot was a deleted scene around the dinner table. "I was sitting there actually being the character Razor Fist and just doing my job," recalls Munteanu, "but Tony was having a monologue there. And I just realized at some point that I was forgetting about me being Razor Fist because I was just looking in awe at him, because I was just so amazed and stunned by his performance."
When it comes to Leung, "It's one thing if you know about someone that he's a legend, and then it's another thing to actually experience it with your own eyes in real life."
"Shang-Chi" is now on Disney+ and all other major digital platforms and will be available on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on November 30.