Donnie Yen fights for his "John Wick" character not to be Asian stereotyped
6 Mar – Donnie Yen recently revealed that he had to fight for his character in the upcoming John Wick movie to be called Caine, after realising how generic the character was in the original script.
The martial arts actor, who spoke about the movie with GQ recently, stated that the original character was originally called something like "Shang" or "Chang".
"Why does he always has 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?" he said.
Donnie stated that after much discussion, director Chad Stahelski agreed to change the name and the wardrobe.
However, the actor stressed that he enjoyed working with Stahelski, lead actor Keanu Reeves and the team, stating that he felt such typecasting is unconscious on their part.
The upcoming fourth chapter of the John Wick franchise will be released on 23 March 2023.
(Photo Source: Donnie Yen IG)
