Live-action Tekken film actors also REAL martial artists

Casting director Kelly Wagner told Sci-Fi Wire that she looked for actors who could actually mix it up, as well as act, for the upcoming movie adaptation of the video game Tekken.

“One of the most frustrating things is when you’re watching a movie, and it’s so obvious that your actor’s not doing the physicality,” Wagner said in a phone interview last week.

Jon Foo, who plays the character Jin, comes from Thai martial-arts cinema.

“We found him in Thailand,” Wagner said. “I think he found us. He sent us a tape, and, honestly, on a lot of mainstream movies that are just run-of-the-mill horror movies or Hollywood movies, there’s not a lot of time to sit around and look at all the tapes that people send in…”

For some of the supporting roles, fighting skills were more important, but Foo’s role required adept skills at both. Wagner also told the site that the production cast Cung Le, who’s a UFC fighter, as well as a bunch of martial artists that didn’t need to have as much of acting roles as they did. She went on to tell them the film was tough to cast because there were five or six roles.

Dwight H. Little (Marked for Death, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid) directs Tekken, which is scheduled for release later in the year. The film stars Luke Goss, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Chiaki Kuriyama, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Jon Foo, Gary Daniels, Kelly Overton, Cung Le, Ian Anthony Dale, Lateef Crowder, Mircea Monroe, Tamlyn Tomita and Candice Hillebrand.