Martial Artist Marc Dacascos Discusses His Leading Role In One Night in Bangkok

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hey everybody i hope you're staying safe and healthy and i wanted to let you know that i did an interview with mark de coskos some of you may know him as the chairman from iron chef america or maybe one of the bad guys from john wick three but now he's in a movie called one night in bangkok and he plays kai the lead character who's kind of got a little bit of a moral dilemma so check it out hi mark how are you hi allison thanks for thanks for the interview oh no thank you absolutely um all right so when you read this script what was it specifically about kai that made you want to take the role oh okay uh you know i love the depth of the character in terms of how far you would go for loved ones i don't want to give anything away but yeah how far do you go and i i thought it was fascinating that somebody like kai who is not a professional killer or a hitman no what what triggered him to go that far you know how how deep is the love and and where do you cross the line do you cross the line so all those those questions were interesting to me because i suppose when i read it uh you know i couldn't help it go okay i see what where he's going with this what what i do it was interesting to play with that you know yeah so to piggyback on that if you found yourself in kai's situation oh come allison you are not asking me that i am asking you that pressure oh man okay to be honest of course i would question myself and i i would be lying to say that i wouldn't think about it yeah i think a lot of people would but i don't know that they'd act on it right that's what i'm saying i mean yeah i mean if i were to reverse that you know what i'm saying if you were put in the situation of that knowing knowing what the character knows and when he finds out i mean right yeah you would certainly consider doing something right yes absolutely absolutely i mean i'm a mama bear so you know i protect my child right yeah so so so exactly that you know putting myself in that situation i i loved the uh the exploration of the character great um so many people you know that we're talking about here want that kind of revenge want the satisfaction of knowing that they've avenged a loved one or whatever um but most people find they don't get that satisfaction if they act on their impulses right do you think kai found peace by the end great question [Laughter] i like to think he did okay well what makes him different though from other people yeah well i'm sorry what what makes him different from other people i mean most people don't find that satisfaction so what about kai makes you think that he would well because it wasn't it wasn't on on impulse he he investigated he went out and sought out you know um the the logistics and he researched the people and i mean you know even for the one character that he could have gone one way or the other yes yes he he was you know what i guess what i really love about kai is that he had an open heart he was vulnerable he had a plan but he was open to be persuaded or swayed but he was still open enough to be swayed and he was for for the right i think right yes i agree so you know so what makes him different is that he he um he he found out you know the situation and the characters involved um and then he acted on that plan but again like i said uh was open enough to to not do something if he felt that was the right thing to do and he really did have a plan yes you know and you know down to a science almost it was really impressive yes yes yes so he did his research you know he did his research time to think about it a lot of your fans know you for martial arts and yet there's really none of that in this film do you think they're gonna be surprised by that do you think they would see a different side of you did you enjoy doing a film where you weren't doing martial arts i i did enjoy uh doing a film without martial arts or or not much action at all um uh you know hopefully the fans that watch this will understand beforehand that it's a slow burn character driven thriller with some action you know if they certainly if they expect it to be um you know a small version of of the john wick three um you know it's not they will not be satisfied but if they take it for for what it is if they if they go in with an open heart an open mind hopefully they'll get into the characters and and enjoy the ride that we take them on yeah i i think it's an interesting concept really um because as we've said some people will think about revenge but won't act on it right and this kind of quest makes you question whether would you really act on it or not or and as you said how he had a plan but he was willing to deviate from that plan that's right yeah um you've played a good guy you've played a bad guy and in this one you play a good guy who does some bad things which do you like most oh goodness you know um good question i the interesting thing is that when i play bad guys you know from the character's point of view um he's not bad i'm not bad so you know what i mean so so i always try i i i i guess i don't try but i play the character from his perspective you know if the if it were if it were you know um more centered on him he'd be the hero you know what i mean even when i play you know in the story the the antagonist you know yeah you know you turn the cameras a different way he's the hero you know even in you know in john wick three yes you know he was a bad guy but i really liked him you know oh thank you thank you allison you're welcome and you know that scene in on the in the hotel on the chair you know the couch and you're like i'm a big fan i thought was hysterical so thank you yeah you tend to do that really well playing that bad guy but he's still got some we really like him though when we kind of root for him even if we don't want to you know i appreciate that well you know i i have to really thank uh chad stachowski and keanu reeves for um for inviting me to the show and then and then letting me play um you know play what i kind of felt and you know and and and be open to my interpretation because um you know they both said this what i did was not exactly how they saw it initially but but you know obviously they were open to it and and like true collaborators and artists you know they flowed so yeah i'm really grateful going back to one night in bangkok which every time i say it i hear that song in my head right but it's it's not like that at all no um what is the significance of kai washing his hands multiple times is there a significance yes it's i say i guess in a way it's sort of cleansing your soul oh i like that you know i like that you know he's washing his hands so it's you know metaphorically if there is you know and and literally is there blood on the hands no are you cleaning and going in with an open open heart clean oh blank slate so to speak i think because kai is not a professional at doing what he did in the show you know this is all new to him and i think that's that's a physical manifestation of of of his spirit interesting i like that take on it okay um talk to me a little bit i'm gonna go with that then yeah okay sounds good um talk to me a little bit about working with bonita right yeah yes thank you for asking she was lovely you know she came in and she auditioned for the role and um you know she's uh you could see she had a sparkle in the eye yeah we had a pretty extensive audition she came in and she read um three or four pages and then um you know witch and i we looked at each other and we we know each other you know pretty well so we knew there was something there but we hadn't quite seen what we needed to see because as you know it's it's it's a very one-on-one in her character and my character so we need it yes know that the actress could could carry it and so which and i asked nita uh to do this one scene and it was about 11 or 12 pages and we said just just read it from the from you know just read it right out of the script we know you haven't rehearsed this or learned it and this is new we understand that but just breathe with us um make the eye contact and um just really focus we need to focus and just do this because you know in the scene so much of it is in the car just one-on-one we needed we needed to see if she could uh get that focus yeah to stain it for that amount of time and once we got into it and she was breathing man the heart just opened up the emotion in the eyes and before she even um walked out of there we knew she was she was the one she was fantastic and i have to say from from the first day to the last take she was a joy to work with um and really she she she uh she topped what we expected excellent yeah she was so soft-spoken but yet you felt like there was this inner strength in her that if she really had to you know do something that she wouldn't want to necessarily do she could still do it yeah so i really i really like that and i like the interaction between the two of you in the car i thought i thought those were some really great scenes definitely thank you um one last fun question um now that we're all in quarantine what is your covid guilty pleasure what's your quarantine thing that you go to oh man you know um i've been doing a lot of reading i i love meeting anyway but um i read for example um another version of the iliad uh all 580 pages out loud i played every character and i did it out loud for myself and it was so much fun because it was great no i really enjoyed it you know it was it was it was fantastic yeah it's a wonderful story and you know it's a work i mean technically it's a workout for the mouth for the breath and and then i got to you know actually hearing the words out loud and and and and meeting at myself all the characters i got insight into uh more insight into humanity i like that so so you know i'm my guilty pleasure right now is is being able to do more of what i do anyway well that's great thank you so much for your time you know it was a really great um sorry um it was it was really great talking to you i really liked the movie like i said i loved your interaction i loved your character i thought it was so great and and just thank you so much i appreciate it thank you allison hi guys i hope you enjoyed the interview i did with mark he really is a terrific guy even when he plays bad guys uh so check out one night in bangkok his new film coming out and don't forget to subscribe below so that you can get notifications about all the great content that we have coming up i hope you're all safe and healthy have a great day [Music] you