MICHELLE YEOH WEB THEATRE

Making Of...
"Police Story III - Supercop"


Director Stanley Tong on Michelle Yeoh:
(Transcript of the Stanley Tong interview from IVF/Fortune Star "Police Story III: Supercop" DVD )

[START]

STANLEY TONG: "I met Michelle Yeoh in 1986 on the set of ROYAL WARRIORS. I was an assistant action director, we often rehearsed together. At that time, I already had admiration for her.

"She is an actress admired by many stuntmen. Because stuntmen are usually arrogant and highly skilled, I believe that Michelle Yeoh was the the only woman that stuntmen admired.

"Not only was she beautiful...she also knew kung-fu, worked hard and was not afraid of hardship. She is also an excellent actress.

"I feel that she is a great and rare actress and the pride of Chinese people."

[TRANSITION GRAPHIC]

"I remember a scene where she had to ride a motorcycle...and make a flying leap onto a moving train. I remember she did not know how to ride a motorcycle. When I explained the concept to her...she loved it, but could not ride a motorcycle.

"What to do?

"I suggested that she take some lessons. In order to comfort her, and make her feel at ease, and since I also couldn't ride a motorcycle...I'm good at stunt-driving in cars...but disliked motorcycles because it was too dangerous and many of my friends were injured in motorcycle accidents, so I never liked riding motorcycles.

"But we had to film the sequence very soon, what could we do?

"I went and took lessons with her. We took lessons one week before filming. Michelle was a quick learner. She only fell a few times...but she was an even match for any man. Although she is very feminine, in the martial arts department, she can be better than a man.

"She is like Wonder Woman.

"So I took lessons with her, then we learned to ride uphill and make flying jumps.

"The first time we shot the flying leap stunt, we fitted stunt cables on her. I told her that she just needed to create the feeling of leaping...because we could assemble the rest of the stunt with editing. But when the motorcycle flew up...and we pulled her up...her shin bumped against the motorcycle's handlebars.

"At that time we were 100 yards away. I was operating the camera filming her...but I already heard a very loud 'bang'...and saw her curled up in pain.

"I instantly ran to her...and saw she was in tears from the pain. As I ran to her...the first thing she asked me was if the shot was okay. I was in tears myself, seeing her like that. I could already see her shin swelling up. But she bore the pain and only asked how the shot was.

"I saw her that way, and could not bear to ask her to try again...but in my heart I knew the shot would not work. She saw my hesitation, and said, 'Director, let's do it again.'

"I said, 'Okay, let's do it again!'

"But when I turned around, I felt very moved to see an actor so willing to try so hard for you. Perhaps she saw Jackie Chan try so hard and felt she had to keep trying. Because we had the best action actor and the best action actress and this is their first time working together. Maybe this is why they worked so hard on this film.

"On her second attempt, she really did succeed.

"It's that spirit of persistence that makes me admire her so much."

(Note: images on this page are not from the interview)

Download The Interview:
High Quality 10.5MB    Low Quality 5.14MB
AVI/DivX video. In Cantonese with English subtitles. 4:10.
* you may need to download DivX Video Codec in order to play the video correctly
** thanks BAM for providing the video clips and Dean for recording the transcript



Supercop   Film Index