Mike Leeder Interview

Mike Leeder on set with Jet Li

HKCuk: With your work on Fearless, have had any offers since then?

Mike: Working on “Fearless” was a great opportunity and one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life. To get the chance to be involved on such an epic project like that from pre-production onwards, handling the casting, shooting an accompanying documentary about the casting process and Jet Li’s thoughts about martial arts, and then to work on the film as an actor, was fantastic. I mean I got paid to spend 12-14 hours a day with some of the most talented people in the film industry, Jet Li, Ronny Yu, Yuen Woo-ping and his team and learn from them. I also got the opportunity to form some very strong friendships with some of the fighters we brought in for the film, Anthony Delongis who I would rate as the best and most versatile western swordsman in the world, he’s a great martial artist and weapons man as well being a classically trained actor and a great guy, he stepped up to play and passed every challenge we offered him with flying colors, I’d work with him again in a heartbeat, same for JC Leuyer who actually had to tone down his physique and skill level for the film, he’s a big powerful guy, but heart of gold and great control which anybody trying to do film should work at, Brandon Rhea who played the German fighter and to who’s son I’m godfather. My brothers in arms Ean Tang & Ian Powers and hope we all get to work together again in the very near future.

“Fearless” was a great experience that I’ll always be able to look back on, even if my dodgy hairstyle and tache might not have been my choice! Have kept my hair cropped for about last ten years, so it kind of freaked a lot of people out when I grew it back and then nobody recognized me after I shaved it back off. We all worked really hard on “Fearless” and were very happy to see the film received so well both here in Asia and internationally, and like to say a big thanks to Jet, Ronny Yu, and producer Bill Kong for giving me the opportunity to be part of the project.

Darren Shahlavi proves to Mike that smoking is bad for your health

HKCuk: You've been mentioned in the works about Rush Hour 3, can you give us any ideas of what you'll be doing?

For “Rush Hour 3”, I was hired to handle the Asian side of the casting along with Ean Tang, my partner in Screen Ops (www.screenops.com). It’s been another very good experience, a lot of hard work and pressure but I think we’ve delivered in terms of casting. We’ve been auditioning a lot of the best talent from across Asia for various roles in the film, and while I can’t really discuss the casting choices, I’m sure by the time this comes out most of them will have been officially announced, and I feel we’ve found the best people for the job.

Brett Ratner is a very interesting guy to work with, he can be very demanding but you have to understand he has his vision for how he wants the project to develop, and who he feels would be best for each role, he’s not just trying to slot a name actor or actress into a role for the sake of it, he wants the best possible talent for that role. And I really think audiences are going to respond very strongly to the finish film when it comes out in 2007.

(L to R) Leeder, Teddy Chen (Purple Storm) & Andy Pryor (Left for Dead)

HKCuk: What's your worst experience on a movie set?

Mike:“The Medallion”, I was asked to shoot a lot of behind the scenes footage of Sammo at work by the big man himself, we got all the necessary clearances and permissions and yet one line producer decided that she needed to prove her importance by making my life a misery whenever I was shooting on the set. I know to stay out of the way and not get in the way of cast and crew etc, but while everybody else knew why I was there and that I was with Sammo and his team, she did her best to make my time on set a misery.

I’d be shooting rehearsals and Sammo choreographing and she’d make sure she stood in front of me and several times would tell various assistant directors who knew me and why I was there that no permission had been given for me to be shooting. We’d argue and she would claim I needed to have written permission from one of the producers and the company, so I’d get that and the next day would be fine but one or two days later she’d claim that had been only permission for a single days shooting or that it needed to be from another producer. At one point a whole bunch of photos from Sammo’s birthday on the set ended up in the press and on such sites as “Monkeypeaches”, and she tried to claim I had been selling the images despite the fact I was in most of them with my DV and stills cameras in my hands. I also realized she seemed to have the same attitude towards any and all of the non-Chinese cast and crew, which kind of explained a lot of things, despite trying to be polite and exchange pleasantries with her in Cantonese, she made it very clear that in her opinion I was the real “gwailo” and nothing would change that opinion.

We got some great footage despite her efforts and to clear the air and prove I had no hard feelings, I made DVD dubs of my footage for the company’s reference so they could clear it and tell me if there was any footage that was top secret and shouldn’t be released. I then get asked if I can give them some of the footage fro the making of as I happened to have recorded several scenes and incidents they hadn’t. That was probably the worst, and the producer in question I have had the misfortune of crossing paths with since, and she’s still incapable of having a respectful conversation or approach to any foreigner involved in any project she is working on which is a little sad to say the least. I really hope to have the opportunity in future, where she wants to work on a project I’m involved with and see how that goes!

Back Row L-R: Ean Tang Casting Director/Assistant Director
Brandon Rhea: German Spearman
Anthony Delongis: Spanish Swordsman
JC Leuyer: British Boxer
Front Row: Mike Leeder Casting Director/Referee Randall
Ian Powers: Stuntman/Bellboy Dante

HKCuk: With your work with magazines you'll have interviewed many stars, has anyone you interviewed been a right pain the backside?

Mike: Hmm trying to get me into trouble are you? The thing we all have to remember is that all actors/directors etc are human, and we all sometimes have good days and bad days and if you catch us on a bad day, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get a good interview. What can be a little frustrating sometimes is that movies or projects that in the West etc we have all put on a plateau with much respect and admiration are sometimes considered being quite disposable in the East. It can be a little strange sometimes when you want to interview somebody about a particular project and you have all your questions, and they tell you they can’t remember much about the film or that they didn’t like it and don’t want to talk about it.

But one of the best interviews I feel I ever did for Hong Kong Legends was with Fan Siu-wong for “Story of Ricky”, the UK DVD release. Now this film is almost completely unknown in Hong Kong, those that remember it regard it as the film that threw Fan Siu-wong’s career off track and even Fan himself doesn’t have the highest opinion of the film. But we got a great interview with him where he discussed the first pitch of the project and how he’d entered into the film expecting it to be taken in one direction, and slowly begun to realize as they were shooting that it was being taken in a very different direction and was not going to be a film that would be received well especially in Hong Kong. He was really surprised by how well the film was received internationally and just how well the UK DVD release did. He’s very much one of the most under-rated and under appreciated talents in Asia; he should have the career and crossover that Tony Jaa has.

And there are also times when you think somebody is going to be a bad interview or a pain, and they happen to either have been misrepresented or maybe on this day the stars are in the correct alignment and they give you a great interview.

Under heavy make up for a TVB shoot

HKCuk: How big is your dvd/vcd/ld/video collection?

Mike: Far too big!!! Something that various girlfriends and my flat mate will attest to, I have about 2000 laserdiscs, probably a couple of thousand DVDS, a lot of VCDs and still a lot of VHS, I even have some old Betamax rarities, and a couple of films I even have on 35mm. I am actually scared to do a proper inventory as I know I would find a few multiples, there’s few films I have UK, American, HK, Korean, Japanese versions of etc, I’d also be scared to realize how much money I’ve spent on films over the years. I have a lot of them in storage in HK, and still quite a lot of stuff back in the UK at my old house. My storehouse here is full of films, posters, lobby cards, props, costumes, a jukebox and other stuff.

When I first came to HK etc, there didn’t really seem to be anything like the collectable market there was in the UK even back when I was there. I think it was the introduction of VCD and then DVD which really set people off on building libraries of their own here. It also actually helped to kill of the rental market here, KPS which was the original HK video/laser rental place went under, and Blockbuster didn’t fare too well either when it opened shortly afterward. Although I was happy as both KPS & Blockbuster sold off their stock at some ridiculously low prices!!! Being able to walk out of Blockbuster with LD’s that sold for HK$5 for Chinese movies, HK$10 for English language films…I even trekked out to their main warehouse one day it was like the end of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, an enormous space with films stretching in all directions. I bought far too many films that day but it was in the loosest form of alphabetical order, anything which began with an “a” was stuck in one area but not properly sorted. So it was hard going searching stuff out.

The boys after 15 hours on set

HKCuk: What are some of your favorite films?

Mike: That’s a hard question to answer as I’m a really big fan of movies both Asian & Western, and my favorites often change depending on moods. I’d have to rank “Snake In The Eagles Shadow”, “Dragons Forever”, “Eastern Condors”, “Pedicab Driver”, anything by Kevin Smith, “Dog Soldiers”, “Dawn Of The Dead” both versions, “Withnail & I”, “The Princess bride”, the original “Star Wars” trilogy before George Lucas decided to take liberties with it! “Shaun of the Dead”, “Animal House”, “Blues Brothers”, “Rocky Horror”, “Up In Arms’, “Mad Max 2”, “Eddie & The Cruisers”, “Streets of Fire”, “Drive”, “Crying Freeman”, “Nightlife Hero”, “Bloodsport”, “Enter The Fat Dragon”, “Where’s Officer Tuba?”, “A Better Tomorrow”, “To live & Die In Tsim Sha Tsui”, “Yellow Submarine”, “The Rutles”, “Moment of Romance’, “School on Fire”, “Full Contact”, “The Killer”, “36th Chamber of Shaolin”, “Crying Fist”. It’s really hard for me to choose, have too many faves!!

Jackie Chan & Mike Leeder shortly before premiere of "Rumble In The Bronx"

HKCuk: You have recorded some commentaries for HKL, which of those is your favorite and why?

Mike: There’s a few I really like, “Bichunmoo” as it was my first commentary for Premier Asia along with Bey, and I really like the movie. “Volcano High” was good fun, I am really happy with the one we did for “Champion”, and one of the ones I am really proud of would have to be the one we did for “Crying Fist” which actually happened to be the last commentary Bey & myself recorded for the company, although there are a few as yet unreleased. I think we delivered a really strong fact and trivia packed commentary and were really sparking off each other that day, it was really enjoyable recording that commentary. What left a little bad taste in my mouth was that for some reason I wasn’t credited for the commentary on the DVD sleeve, only Bey was and yet while a number of reviewers gave the film and the DVD thumbs up, I think only one or two people actually mentioned that we both did the commentary. Several only quoted “another commentary from Bey Logan”, so I feel more than a few reviewers didn’t actually listen to the commentary and just used the sleeve notes for reference, boo!!! I really like this movie, it’s a great cast, a really strong director in Ryu Seung-wan and the films action director Jung Doo-hong who also choreographed and played the main villain in “Arahan” by the same director, is a good friend and he’d given me a lot of information about the film. Watch out for “City of Violence”, a new movie starring Ryu & Jung, its one of my favorite movies of the year.

HKCuk: Having worked on several movies now do you still find yourself being star struck? If so, then by who?

Mike: I want to go on record as saying that no matter what I’m still a fan of these movies, even if I wasn’t writing for magazines or doing DVD stuff or working on these films, I’d still be watching them. And while touch wood I rarely fall to my knees proclaiming “I’m not worthy” in front of the people I’ve worked with or interviewed there are times when you realize you’re sitting there having a chat about life and stuff with Jet Li, or discussing Gene Kelly movies with Jackie Chan, or having Sammo embarrass you when you & your friends are trying to shall we say “talk” to some young ladies and he hits you repeatedly over the head with a rubber hammer that squeaks until they leave! Something Sammo did to me, Robert Samuels (“Gambling Ghost”) and Mike Miller (“Knock Off”) many years ago. And they’re not being “I’m a star”, they’re just being themselves.

I don’t know if you could count them as being star struck but moments like that, and having had the opportunity to get to know and be lucky enough to call some of these people friends, they really make it seem all worthwhile.

Actually I think I was recently a little star struck when I got to spend some time with the lovely Jeon Ji-hyun from “My Sassy Girl”, she’s incredibly beautiful so much more so in real life, a really talented actress and very humble.

Grasshopper!: David Carradine and Mike

HKCuk: Any Dream projects in mind?

Mike: There’s a couple of dream projects I really want to bring to the screen including a couple of crossovers between East & West on varying budget levels, and am working on a number of them in varying stages of production at the moment. Would like to say more, but would be jumped on by my producing partners.

There’s still a number of people I would like to work with officially, Jackie is talking about “Armour of God 3” and would love to be part of that as “Armour of God 2” was the first HK film set I ever visited when I first came here, and if it gave me a chance to work again with Jackie and ideally with Frankie Chan as director, hell yeah! I’d like to work with Jet again, Sammo again, John Woo, Wong Kar-wai, Isaac Florentine who is producing some of the best action films outside of Hong Kong, Fan Siu-wong, Wu Jing, Ridley Tsui, Raven Chang, Casanova Wong, Kim Won-jin, Jung Doo-hong and far too many other people!

HKCuk: Due to the decline in the popularity of Hong Kong films do you feel that the quality of them has declined in recent years or are they as good as ever?

Heroic Trio: Michael Miller (The Red Wolf), Russ Price (Black Mask) & Mike Leeder

Mike: Yes there was a decline for a few years and unfortunately a lot of people were quick to claim it was the end of the world of Hong Kong action cinema as we know it, but it wasn’t. Every film industry has hit a slump at some point, and much like HK itself when the first recession in fifty of so years hit with the Asian financial crisis, a lot of people weren’t prepared. But as recent years have shown, there are a lot of great HK movies still being made “Fearless”, “SPL”, “New Police Story”, “Dog Bites Dog” etc.

What I think a lot of people didn’t actually take into account, is that so many people who got into HK films since say the early-mid 90’s came in with too much information, on the best films etc. I’m not trying to be elitist or claim “I remember the good old days before it became mainstream..” but what I mean is so many people maybe they got their first intro to HK films through “Hardboiled” or “Rumble In The Bronx” or something, by the time these films hit there was a lot of information readily available listing the best films that had ever been made in HK, and so a lot of fans their first introduction was maybe to the very best of the best and then after that they didn’t really know where to turn. Its going to age me but when I first got into HK film, there was hardly any info about so a lot of the time I’d be going to Chinatown to watch a double bill perhaps on the strength of a poster and what I might have thought was a familiar face but not know if it was a comedy, an action movie whatever. Often I’d not have any idea until I started watching, as I just got into the habit of going every weekend. And I think through some of these double bills that would often pair a new movie with an older film, I got to see and develop a taste for a much wider range of HK movie.

I began to go just for the action films but sometimes the supporting film would be much more enjoyable, I remember a whole bunch of us going to see the Cynthia Rothrock movie “City Cops” and the first film was a comedy starring Kenny Bee and Elizabeth Lee, which sadly I can’t remember the name of but it was far more enjoyable than “City Cops’, which only had a few moments of good action that held up. I do remember that sometimes it would just be mad, you would see the extreme different sides to an actor, I first became a fan of Chow Yun-fatt in “Better Tomorrow”, and a few months later I go to see a double bill and its I think “City War” with Chow Yun-fatt & Ti Lung, but the first film was the insanely funny “Greatest Lover” which is an HK take on “My Fair Lady” with Chow Yun-fatt in the Eliza role and Anita Mui as Professor Higgins. That film especially has a lot of very HK specific jokes including a lot of verbal ones that didn’t translate back then and it was just wild to see such different roles being played by the same actor, and back then it seemed like every other week was a Chow Yun-fatt or Andy Lau movie. I think that a lot of people might still never have really explored as much of HK cinema as they could have, if you’ve only checked out the action, check out a comedy once in a while etc, you might find yourself getting introduced to a whole new genre to love.

The Way of the Intercepting Duster: Mike Leeder and Jeff Falcon

HKCuk: If you ever got the chance to record audio commentaries for The Weinstein Company’s Dragon Dynasty DVD Label, would you take the chance?

Mike: Now despite what people may think, the Dragon Dynasty label has all the potential to be an incredible collection, and come on the “Kill Zone” DVD was a hell of a way to start things rolling. There are some incredible movies set to be released from the label over the next few months and years, and have been doing some of the interviews for them and we’re getting some really great stuff. I really think people are going to like the label, why not let the label get some more releases out there and see what you all think. They did a good thing by bringing in Bey & Brian White to head up the label, Brian was the heart of Hong Kong Legends and puts so much effort into putting these discs together.

As for commentaries, they do have a number of films I am a really big fan of, and Bey did ask me if I’d be interested in joining him in the commentary box for some of them, so let’s see.

Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all the heavenly glory!

HKCuk: Last question, do you have anything words of wisdom all the Online Asian film fans (or should we say Hick fans :-p)?

Mike: Hi everybody, if you’ve liked what I’ve written, or done in the past film, DVD, TV, magazine whatever wise, I thank you, if not I forgive you, (laughing)I will try harder in future. It was a love for these movies that led me to leaving the UK 16 years ago and I’ve had the pleasure and great opportunity of spending the greater part of my adult life here and have been able to make movies, watch far too many movies and make some great friends out here, and wouldn’t swap it for the world!

Keep up the support of the industry and these films, subscribe to Impact (www.martialartsltd.co.uk), keep developing this site and others, and steer clear of the pirates!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks to Stoo for asking some very good questions. Joygin!!