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Interview Ricardo Mamood
Action with Corey Yuen, Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan ! 1/1 - Page 2
Info
Author(s) : Arnaud Lanuque
Date : 20/1/2005
Type(s) : Interview
 
 Intext Links  
People :
Fruit Chan Gor
Jackie Chan
Dante Lam Chiu Yin
Reuben Langdon
Bruce Lee
Bey Logan
Wong Kar Wai
John Woo
Corey Yuen Kwai
Movies :
Blade II
Gen Y Cops
Made In Hong Kong
 
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Page 1 : A gweilo in Hong Kong
 
 Notes  
Thanks to Ricardo Mamood for his kindness.
Special thank to Bey Logan for his help.

Translation by Arnaud Lanuque, Fringe Club (Central, Hong Kong) april 14th 2003.

Images from http://www.ricmamood.com (copyrights).


HKCM : Did you feel a difference with the directors you've worked with? Corey Yuen is known for working often with foreigners for example.
Ricardo Mamood : Corey Yuen Corey Yuen was great. We didn't speak a lot, I don't speak Cantonese nor Mandarin and he doesn't speak a lot of English but there are some things you just understand. He's a very gentle guy. I felt very comfortable. We waited for the last hour to do all my scenes, all my close ups and lines. And I had 3 scenes which were going to take place in the same location.

And he said “look, we're gonna shoot your 3 scenes back to back. These 2 cameras will shoot the 3 scenes and we'll just cut them in the movie the way they should be”. So I had to memorise all the response right there as you usually had the script on the set, that's another story. And I would do the 3 scenes back to back, just giving a few seconds between each scene to give some room for editing. And we were rehearsal and it went so so and he said “you know what? Let's just do it” and he put the cameras running and I just did it, on the first take. And it was great, it was really good and he came to me and shook my hand.

 

HKCM : Your part in Gen-Y Cops was always supposed to be killed in the middle of the movie? Because I really thought it was a shame.
Ricardo Mamood : Actually I was supposed to get killed very earlier in the movie. I made it into about an hour in the movie. But they saw me and gave me more to do, they wrote more stuff and more dialogue, more things for me to do.

I liked what I did there so I wish my character was better developed, not only better developed but also better established because I don't think the character was established enough for people to get what he was up to. But I liked what I did there, particularly my scene with Edison [Chen] when he has the flashback and we duel to the death…

 

HKCM : In Twins Effect the director is …

Ricardo Mamood : Dante Lam. He's very good, very kind, soft-spoken. He gives you an idea at the beginning of what he wants but it's very brief and he lets you work and if he likes it it's all right, it's in the cam, move on to the next stage. He doesn't waste his time, he doesn't need to be on top of you.

 

HKCM : In Highbinders/The Medallion you have a fight scene with Jackie Chan so you have worked with Sammo Hung. Can you talk of him ?

Ricardo Mamood : He was fun to work with.

 

HKCM : Really? I always heard he was very serious on the set.

Ricardo Mamood : He's very focused. He likes things to be done right. You gonna pay attention at what he says on the set otherwise he shouts at you. But he's great.

 

HKCM : You knew HK movies when you were back in Argentina ?

Ricardo Mamood : Yeah but not a lot. Obviously the major import was Bruce Lee. Then Jackie Chan came, we started to see Jackie Chan films much before he got known in the USA . The early movies they are watching now in the US we watched them earlier in Argentina . But I never thought I would be in HK back in these days. I always wanted to be an actor but I would have never guessed the first movie I'd be in would be in HK. I'm very fond of HK, it has allow me to achieve what not even my own country has given me, so I'm very grateful for that.

 

HKCM : So you had less pressure when you worked with JC? As many foreigner who came to work to HK cinema had Jackie as their idol.

Ricardo Mamood : Don't get me wrong it was a great privilege, a great opportunity to work with Mr Chan himself. No doubt. Perhaps I didn't have the chance to idolise him when I was back in Argentina but I watched his work way before I ever dreamed of working with him or in a scene with him. But I'm also an actor and I for the sake of the work I can let that interfere. So you put that aside and just do your work. I try to say: “I'm having a scene with another actor, period”. Because if I think too much about it I won't be able to do the scene, I will be so sucked into the fact that I am sharing screen time with such a giant and being unable to speak. When “action” is shouted, you're an actor, he's an actor and there is a job to be done and there are no idols, just characters.

 

HKCM : You didn't have any problem to catch the rhythm of the action scene ?

Ricardo Mamood : No, it was short but it wasn't easy. We rehearsed it a few times with Reuben Langdon. He was the one suggesting me for this scene so thank you Reuben. Because they needed an actor, they could not use a stuntman, it was a funny dialogue-driven scene. It's a funny moment where we're facing us with our guns, à la John Woo and he says he's a cop and I don't believe him and I say “you're a cop? I'm Ricky Martin”. It was very comedic.

 

HKCM : I was indeed going to ask you about this Ricky Martin joke.

Ricardo Mamood : Bey Logan came up with it, and it was fun. And then you know, I try to shoot him and Mr Chan takes the gun and knocks me down. But it took some physical work, I'm doing a lot of the work because I have to propel myself and be aware of the trajectory. I propel myself and land on the floor and be ready for the kicking on the head. I had a hat, I was an undercover interpol agent pretending to be a russian sailor, and when he kicks me in the head my hat flows away. They loved that take so I had to make sure my hat would flow away on any subsequent take.

 

future carriere
HKCM : Do you see your career in HK as a first step for something more international?

Ricardo Mamood : Yeah, that's an extension of it. Like I said HK is great and I hope I can come here and keep on doing films, working on films and keep on producing. HK is great as a launch pad but it doesn't hold the key to my future if I want a long-lasting career. Now with a few serious credentials, a decenbt body of work and good built-up resume I can go to the US .

 

HKCM : The US is your goal ? Not Argentina ?

Ricardo Mamood : My goal is in the US or Australia, and I'll go to the US first. Los Angeles or New York . If I go overseas and do more then I can come back to HK again and do bigger things. But to do that I need to move on, go somewhere else and go to places to see if they can use my type and my skills perhaps a little more.

 

HKCM : You're not afraid of being typecast due to ethnicity?
Ricardo Mamood : You know what? Some actors complain about typecasting and I say if you have a 20-year career or so as an actor and you've done a lot of things and you find yourself being typecast, I can understand. But to get typecast first you need to work. So basically I wouldn't mind to be typecast at this point. I want to work and perhaps the only way to work consistently, and to get yourself out there, is to play about the same types in the first few projects. And that's a way of coming across. I think fortunately I have a mixed background, I think I could play anything from Hispanic, Latino - I speak Spanish ad Italian – Middle East parts, Italian, Gypsy, etc. I have all this background so I can play all that range. So I can be typecast within this range but I don't mind. I wish I'm typecast it would mean I have work.

 

HKCM : Spanish cinema is getting better and better this days, you're not interested to try there?

Ricardo Mamood : Yeah, and Mexican films also. In LA you can try both, you can work the LA circuit and then also the Mexican one. I'd love to go to Spain and see what's going on over there. I think what Pedro Almodovar has done for the Spanish film industry is invaluable. He has really put Spain on the map. Other directors and people obviously are doing a very good job. Amenabar, a Chilean, he's in Spain and doing fantastic work like The Others .

 

HKCM : And El Espinazo Del Diablo ? (The Devil's Backbone)

Ricardo Mamood : Yeah, I liked it. That was directed by Guillermo Del Toro, he did Blade 2.

 

HKCM : Seems like Spanish-speaking people are doing well on the international scene.

Ricardo Mamood : Yeah, you see a lot of that lately in all these films, in El Espinazo Del Diablo they used Mexican and Argentinean actors. So yes, there are possibilities.

 

HKCM : Is there any actors/directors you would like to work with ?

Ricardo Mamood : Oh no doubt, a long list. I'd like to be involved in a Al Pacino project, it would be great. I just saw him live on Broadway playing Herod in Salome along with Marisa Tomei. Amazing. I'd love working also with John Turturo, Luis Guzman! Such a great actor, amazing what this man does! I love him in every movie. I'd love to work with Steven Soderbergh... I'm sure I'd have to get in the line, a lot of people want to work with him. I'd love to cast Luis Guzman and do a new version of Don Quixote and have him play Sancho Pancha along with James Cromwell… that's my producer's head working now...

In HK I'd love to be in a Wong Kar Wai film, his different, he's got a lot of subtext. I'd love to work with him. Something more artistic and less action driven. Action is a lot of fun but I'd like to do something more drama driven here.

 

HKCM : Et d’autres réalisateurs plus artistiques comme Fruit Chan ou Ann Hui ?

Ricardo Mamood : Fruit Chan is great too. Made in Hong Kong ! He's one of the few directors out here with depth and I think their work would also be more exposed and better known if it had more cosmopolitan elements in it. It would carry across other latitudes, other places where their film can't reach, because of a very specific context and language as well.

 

HKCM : And now the end; do you have anything to say to your French fans ?

Ricardo Mamood : Me, French fans?

 

HKCM : Yeah, there may be. You were quite shining in Gen Y Cops .

Ricardo Mamood : I'm pleasantly surprised, my screen time in Gen Y Copswas so brief. I saw the movie and I said: “God, it's so brief, no one is going to notice me, no one is going to realise I was in the movie”. I'm glad that there is people like you and the work you put into this online initiative. I went to your site and I said: “Wow someone is actually paying attention to a bunch of foreign actors in HK”. Great initiative, you make possible for a lot of people to have place an eye on us. It's very comforting, to get noticed so thank you.

 
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