I still keep in touch with Joseph [Lai], I think he's a great guy, he gave us a chance to work and have fun. I remember browsing into his files in his office and seeing an entry with Jean Claude Van Damme. And he was “yeah, yeah, that guy came to see us, but timing was wrong.” The funny thing is the IFD movies got released everywhere. I was in South Africa last year on a shoot and the DVD shops there had tons of IFD releases available…

Mike Leeder with several actors he cast for Fearless:
Brandon Reah, Jean-Claude Leuyer, Anthony De Longis and Ian Powers.

To get back about casting, I was still being called by companies always looking for people. So there are a lot of movies I did the casting. And on Fearless, an assistant director called Chu Wa called me for a meeting and asked me to do the casting for this Jet Li project. I worked a year and a half in total on Fearless. We went around the world to cast it. We went to Thailand for a couple of weeks, England for a couple of weeks, L.A. for 2 weeks… The funny thing about Sum Lok, who plays the Thai boxer, [is that] he was helping with the casting in Thailand and we thought “oh, what a friendly guy!” And every single stuntman and actor we saw were extremely respectful to him. And I had seen him in Born to Fight and he doesn't do anything in it. And one day, I asked why everybody was so respectful and his assistant said it's because he's the Olympic boxing champion of Thailand and I was like “but in Born to Fight he doesn't do anything!” “That's the big joke of the film, he's the boxing champ but he never fights.” Unfortunately, the time element on this fight wasn't what it should have been. There were always talks of coming back and filming more. And they never did and I think that's one of the reasons it was cut originally. Because it wasn't as good as [they] wanted. And then they reintegrated it for the director's cut. I could understand they cut the Michelle Yeoh scene but the Thai scene was supposed to show he understood he could kill him but he doesn't have to, he can control himself. We were disappointed it was not in. Originally Fearless was supposed to end with 12 fighters, a Savate guy for example. And it was supposed to have a bigger production around them. There were also four Japanese fighters, one being a female ninja, and their master, Yasuaki Kurata being a possibility for the part. Once we had a meeting with Ronny Yu, Yuen Woo Ping, Chun Wa, Bill Kong and me. And Ronny said “I have found a great English title for the film, it will be : Legend of a Fighter !”. They were like “Yeah! Yeah!” and I was “There is already a movie called Legend of a Fighter” “so?” “And it's about Fok Yuen Gap, and Yuen Woo Ping is the action director.” And Yuen Woo Ping was “Oh! Yeah!” And I found people for all those parts but then I was told it was cancelled and it would be less big. Finally, we locked in Nathan Jones, Anthony de Longis, Jean Claude Leuyer and Brandon Rhea. The funny thing with Brandon was that he really had that background, not just Wing Chun but also German sword, German spear. The last person cast was Shidou Nakamura because we were talking to various people, including Sanada.

I was asked to be one of the casting directors for the film, working with Rosanna Ng on putting together the main cast and supporting actors, and the contingent of foreign/western actors and fighters who would be needed for the film. I really think we put together a very impressive cast for the film. Vincent Zhao is someone who should be a bigger name both locally and internationally, [he has a] real dynamic combination of martial arts skills (both real and [on] reel), [he's] a very good actor and [has] a lot of charisma. He should be the Chinese James Bond. [He is a] very nice guy, hope to have a chance to work with him again in the future. Andy On is another incredible talent who should be a bigger name. He's a genuinely talented and very humble guy, he works hard and can make a great hero or a fantastic villain. He does actually steal the show in True Legendwith the look he has and the way he plays the character. Zhou Xun has a real fragile beauty about her too. It was also great to bring Gordon Liu back into the fray as the monk once again, and I was also impressed by Michelle Yeoh as an actress. I think she has matured into such a strong actress that I find myself looking forward to seeing her in more non-fighting roles these days than action ones. It was also interesting to work with Jay Chou, he's another person that I don't think many people really have the real picture of, [he is] very intelligent and works very hard.

I didn't really get the chance to work closely with Cung Le on True Legend. I was back in Hong Kong for most of the time he was filming in Beijing. He was someone we'd first looked at for Fearless, and he's an incredible real-life fighter but I don't think as yet he's really been given the chance to show what he can do onscreen as an actor or fighter just yet, we've been able to see glimpses of it but not a full showcase for what he can do --he's got incredible potential.

I brought in a group of fighters for the film, including Conan Stevens who has since gone on to appear in Game of Thrones and is currently working on The Hobbit , very good guy, intelligent as hell and has a very good approach to his career. He's someone who understands the way to build a career. Sylvester Terkay who comes from a pro-wrestling background but has also done a lot of film work including Universal Soldier 2 , My Favorite Martian and the insane Oh my Zombie Mermaid. [He has as] great look, phenomenal skills as a fighter and an actor, and is a very good guy too. John Heidenreich, another very talented guy who I was very happy to work with. Matt Weise who used to be Luther Reigns in WWE, is a good guy, and is currently recovering from some severe health setbacks and I wish him well. I also brought in Dominique Vandenberg from Pitfighter and Gangs of New York , he was originally supposed to do a lot more on the film, but some last minute changes left his character short-changed. It's a pity as he's a very skilled fighter and has so much to offer. They were a great bunch of very skilled and very professional fighters.

He came over and did a great job on the film, a few critics have complained that at times he's a little cartoony or over the top, but that's what Wilson & co wanted, they wanted Darren to be the racist, arrogant brash fighter and that's the performance he gave and it's what the character needed. He's not meant to be a likeable well rounded character, he's the evil foreigner!

The RZA is a true fan of the genre and he really put his heart into the film, as writer, leading actor and director and I really think people will see him on a different level after this film comes out. I was very impressed by him.