By Patrick Macias
 

Woo's new movie is Paycheck, based on a story by Philip K. Dick. This interview was conducted on 12/19/03.

Patrick Macias: Philip K. Dick‚s writing is often paranoid and uncertain about the future, but Paycheck seems to take a different approach.

John Woo: There are two reasons for this. There are so many problems in this world, so many frustrations. I feel like there‚s a lot of young people who are very depressed about the future. It seems like there‚s no hope. This situation is really happening in Asia. Some of the young people in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan become so depressed they even gave up their lives. I feel so sad about it. I wanted to say something to these people and make them realize the future is going to be fine. I also wanted to encourage them. There‚s always hope and a lot of good people in this world. Just don‚t give up, you know? So that made me change the script and tone. I talked to the writer about this point to try to make the film more optimistic.

PM: Were there other major changes made to the script before shooting?

JW: Yeah. Because of the budget. Originally, it was going to be pure sci-fi and very futuristic movie with a lot of computer graphics and production design. On the other hand, after I read the original short story, I felt that Philip Dick‚s characters were very human. There‚s a lot of humanity in his books. When I watched the movie Blade Runner, I was crying when Rutger Hauer died. He had tears in his eyes before he died. I never forgot that speech he makes. And it made me realize that these concepts are about survival, not about looking for death. So that made me feel that we should cut down 80% of the sci-fi and put the focus on human drama. I also suggested to make the love story bigger. Originally it was a pretty small part. I expanded it a little more and tried to make the rest of the film have a more romantic sensibility.

PM: How does Ben Affleck compare to other American actors you‚ve worked with?

JW: Well, they are all very different. Ben is very smart and very humble. I like his performance. He‚s so natural. He never cares about the camera angle. He acts what he feels. When I watched him in The Sum of All Fears, it seemed like the other actors were so conscious of the camera angle, but he was not. He never tries to stand out or play for the camera, and I think it‚s a very natural style. Even though he looks so modern, he also has a classic quality to him. He reminds me of a young Cary Grant.

PM: Which helps out with the Hitchcock feel in Paycheck...

JW: Yeah, yeah. That‚s why I asked him to dress like Carey Grant in North By Nothwest. Every actor I work with has a different kind of quality.

PM: What was Uma Thurman‚s mental and physical state like after shooting Kill Bill?

JW: She‚s a wonderful, wonderful lady. I am an admirer of her work. I like her in Pulp Fiction and other films. She‚s very charming. For Paycheck, she liked to do most of the stunts by herself, even when huge explosions were going off. During the motorcycle chase, she had to fall off the bike, hit the ground, and do a lot of running. All these explosions were going off really close to her. But she‚d refuse to use a double. She wanted to do it herself. She said to me, „John, you have no idea what I‚ve been though on Kill Bill. It was the most difficult, dangerous, and awful situation making that film. This is nothing.‰ She came up with ideas for action during the ending also. She‚s a really hard working lady and always wanted to come up with new ideas for the scenes. Uma and Ben also had really good chemistry, so they both made the love story romantic and even funny.

PM: The action scenes in Payback are more realistic than were used to seeing from you.

JW: That was the intention. I wanted to make the film more like a human drama. But on the other hand, the character of Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck) is not a superhero. He‚s just a computer engineer. Based on that, the action should look more realistic. In this film, I didn‚t want to go too over the top and make it too violent, since our main character never uses a gun and has no intentions to kill anyone. Even though he almost gets killed by the bad guys, he tries to find a way to survive without becoming a murderer. I wanted to make some of the action scenes more like suspense. When Ben gets chased by the train, I wanted to make it more like Hitchcock.

PM: Do you feel as artistically satisfied working the US compared to Hong Kong?

JW: Not as much. Of course, in Hong Kong I had a lot of creative freedom and I could do whatever I felt like. In Hollywood, I still can find similar subjects to work with, but creatively, sometimes, I compromise a little bit. I have to tone down the violence, its not as much as before. Hollywood is trying to make the kind of movies that can fit into all kinds of countries. For example, for Europe, they really don‚t want to see violent movies. But Asia really wants to see the action. And in America, violence is always an issue. So I have to consider these kinds of things and make adjustments. But that‚s ok since I always like a human story and I‚m always going to make those kinds of films,

PM: How about writing your own scripts like before?

JW: I will, but after I feel like I‚ve learned more. For instance, there are two projects I‚m working on now. I wrote and developed the story and hired a writer to do the scripts. I think I‚ve got take it one step at a time. One is an action-musical gangster movie called The Dancer. In the 1930s there was this tough guy, but he was also a great dancer and he was deeply in love with two women. Its based on a true story and the movie will be a combination of The Killer and Cabaret. The other is a remake of The Red Circle. It was made in 1970 and its one of my favorite films. It‚s a heist movie directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. I‚m working on the treatment and the story.

PM: I‚m curious how things are now between you and (former producer) Tsui Hark?

JW: We are still good friends. Creatively, we think differently. But I‚m very grateful to him for helping me to make movies like A Better Tomorrow and The Killer. Sometimes we worked in different ways, but we are still good friends and I appreciate him.

PM: Earlier this year, (legendary HK director to whom Woo was an assistant) Chang Cheh passed away. Do you have any special memories of him?

JW: I was in Hong Kong when he died. The day before I arrived in Hong Kong, he said that one of the people he really wanted to see was me. I thought that after I got off the plane, I could go straight to the hospital and see him right away. But after we landed, I heard that he was already dead. So I was crying. I was very sad. He was my mentor, you know? I really admire his movies and I got so much influence from him. When I first started working for him, I wanted to be an actor. Just like an average young man, I was so confused. I didn‚t know much about my future. And I didn‚t see myself much and I didn‚t know what to do. At that time David Chang and Ti Lung were good friends of mine. They were suggesting me to be the third lead in a film and they recommended me to Chang Cheh. They had hired a cameraman, a lighting man, and a makeup person to give me a screen test to convince Chang Cheh to give me the part. But on the day of shooting, he stopped the whole thing. He said to David Chang, „John Woo better focus on directing. He‚s going to be a good director.‰ I was so moved because at that time I couldn‚t see myself and I didn‚t know my future, but he saw it for me. He decided for me. He saw what I couldn‚t see. So he gave me a lot of confidence. I gave up my acting career to follow what he said to me.

PM: What are some of your favorite films of his?

JW: So many. The One-Armed Swordsman, Boxer From Shangtung, The Assassin, and Vengeance. There‚s one of his films I‚d really like to remake someday called Golden Swallow.

PM: I‚m curious if you‚ve been following how Miramax has been handling Asian films lately.

JW: No. I don‚t know about that.

PM: They‚ve been buying up the rights to films like Hero and Shaolin Soccer and just sitting on them. And when they do release Asian films, they are often re-cut and re-scored. Now they are trying to ban importation of the original versions.

JW: I haven‚t heard about this. I‚m sure they have their reasons, but I don‚t like this. When some people released A Better Tomorrow on DVD and changed some of the music, I was really angry about it. I didn‚t know why they changed it. I think if you are going to release a movie, its better to release the original.

PM: This is a big issue for a lot of your fans. Do you think you could try and look into it?

JW: Ok.

PM: What‚s going on with your video game company, Tiger Hill Games?

JW: We are working with Sega and Microsoft. The main project right now is with Sega to try and produce very interesting games. Its going to happen sometime soon. There‚s another project with Microsoft involving cars.

PM: There‚s been some talk about you producing a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film.

JW: Not anymore, although we are involved with He-Man and Mighty Mouse projects. We are negotiating right now. I‚ll only be involved as a producer.

PM: He-Man and Mighty Mouse?

JW: Yeah.

PM: What happened to another film project of your called  King‚s Ransom (set to star Chow Yun-Fat and to be shot in San Francisco)?

JW: We‚re not doing that anymore. That project didn‚t work out. The script kept changing and changing and it lost the original taste.

PM: How about The Devil‚s Solider (based on the adventures of an American mercenary in Qing Dynasty China)?

JW: Not anymore. That would be a very big budget movie. We were trying to make it with Tom Cruise, but it had a budget problem.

PM: I know you must get asked this question a million times every day, but are there any plans to work with Chow Yun-Fat again?

JW: We have a project we are working on right now called The Divide. It‚s a story about Chinese and Irish immigrants building the railroads in America in the 19th century. And there‚s also two other projects we‚re working on with Chow Yun Fat.

PM: As time goes on, do you see yourself losing interest in the action film genre?

JW: Well, sometimes I would like to try pure drama. Sometimes I want to maintain my own style. But don‚t worry, I‚ll never give up using two guns.