Donnie Yen's Criticism Of 'John Wick 4' And 'Rogue One' Asian Stereotypes Led To Script Change
Image Source: IGN
Hollywood is trying their hardest to make films with more inclusive, more visible minority-driven stories and storytellers but there is always room to improve. During promotion for the upcoming John Wick 4, Hong Kong actor and action star Donnie Yen, who you may remember as the Jedi-inspired follower Chirrut Imwe in Rogue One discusses how his characters in both Rogue One and the upcoming John Wick were a little different and followed what he called “Asian stereotypes”.
In the new film, Yen is playing a character named Caine who is blind and like John Wick is an assassin for the High Table and a friend. But his character was originally called Chang and even wore Asian-inspired clothes. As he says in his conversation with GQ magazine, “Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can’t he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic? Then the wardrobe again – oh, Mandarin collars. Why is everything so generic? This is a ‘John Wick’ movie. Everybody’s supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can’t he look cool and fashionable?” His criticism was heard by director Chad Stahelski who changed the character and let Yen take more creative control so now his character is more of an homage to Bruce Lee.
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He continues to say that even during his time with Disney and Lucasfilm for the filming of Rogue One, he asked the team to make changes to his originally stoic and typical Martial Arts instructor type made famous in countless films of the past. Again, the producers and creative team took Yen’s critique to heart and gave the character more life by making him more humourous.
And while it may seem like a bit of a downer on the filmmaking process for an actor like Yen, he was nothing but professional saying it was “a very respectful experience working on ‘John Wick’” and that “overall, I enjoyed making the film.” Hopefully, with more input from the actors on set and studios and creators listening to them, we will see a shift in the process making for better storytelling and inspiring future actors.
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