Andrew Koji on how Warrior (and hard work) saved his acting career

Andrew Koji has the burden of an icon on his shoulders.

Ah Sahm, the character Koji performs in Max’s Warrior, was written by Bruce Lee, designed to be performed by Bruce Lee, and now lives in a present produced by Bruce Lee’s daughter. An actor hoping to do the martial artist justice may simply fall into one other Bruce Lee impression as the simple method out. However that’s not Andrew Koji.

Whereas the homages to Lee are definitely current all through Warrior’s first two seasons — the flick of the nostril, the aptitude of the kicks — Koji enters season 3 having made Ah Sahm his personal. Ah Sahm is a martial arts prodigy who travels from China to San Francisco within the late 1870s to search for his sister, however finally ends up embroiled within the native gang battle. Koji brings a deep melancholy and an air of uncertainty to a personality looking for his place in an odd new world.

“I knew that there’s no imitating or replicating,” the 35-year-old actor says. “Bruce is a legend, and no person might be Bruce. However what I consider that he would have needed me to have executed with it, anybody who took on the function, was to carry it to life themselves.”

Koji credit the assistance of these round him, particularly Bruce’s daughter, Shannon Lee, with encouraging him to make the character his personal. Lee says she has had “many conversations” with the Warrior star about how you can method her father’s legacy, and encourages Koji to make the character his personal.

“The factor that’s stunning about my father’s legacy is that he actually believed in self-actualization. He believed find it inside your self and bringing it ahead,” Lee says. “And I believe that Andrew did an distinctive job this season. I actually noticed him develop into the function in an all-new method.”

However she will be able to put it much more succinctly than that: “Andrew is a star.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Max

Koji was prepared to surrender performing solely in 2017.

After leveraging his attraction and martial arts coaching right into a collection of small elements within the Thai and Japanese film industries, the actor moved again to his house nation of England, working totally on stage, together with some visitor appearances on BBC packages like Name the Midwife and Casualty and occasional stunt work. However when the TV roles dried up, the soon-to-be breakout star of Max’s Warrior was ready to name his performing profession completed. Then he bought a name that modified his life.

In 1971, Bruce Lee had an concept for a TV present referred to as Ah Sahm, which adopted the adventures of a martial artist within the American Wild West. Whereas he couldn’t persuade any studio to choose up the present (his widow Linda Lee Cadwell says the idea was used to make the present Kung Fu starring David Carradine; Warner Bros. disagrees), many years later, his daughter mixed forces with filmmaker Justin Lin (Higher Luck Tomorrow, the Quick and Livid franchise) to carry the story to life on Cinemax with showrunner Jonathan Tropper (Banshee).

Koji, who had labored with Lin on Quick & Livid 6 as a stunt double for Sung Kang, had acquired an audition invitation for the lead function in that collection. The present was now referred to as Warrior and set in Chinatown within the late 1800s. At first, Koji says he didn’t “suppose a lot of it.” However his mother satisfied him to provide it a shot, serving to him movie the audition and ship it out.

When the Warrior audition got here up, Koji had principally put his martial arts coaching apart to concentrate on dramatic work. By his admission, he lacked the fight prowess of different candidates on the time, which made him an unconventional selection for the main function in TV’s most martial arts-centric present. That was his edge for Warrior’s producers.

“It was not the plain casting,” Tropper says. “When he got here in, we noticed a number of guys with greater resumes. Guys who have been martial artists. Guys who have been in higher form, guys who had executed huge motion pictures or huge TV reveals. And we actually went for the diamond within the tough as a result of we noticed one thing. We noticed a form of smoldering main man in there that wanted to return out.”

“He introduced his personal life and soul to the character and he had a soulfulness to him,” Shannon Lee says. “And it was as a result of he was an incredible actor greater than something that we selected him. I simply keep in mind his audition and his potential to work with the fabric to actually present up and create a life for Ah Sahm. That was not a Bruce Lee imitation. It was him totally embodying the character. And I believe that speaks to him as an incredible expertise.

“I believe all of us felt like he was the right selection. As a result of he had this actual intelligence and creativity about him that, you recognize, in a necessary method, reminded us of my father, however was very a lot his personal.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Max

Koji wasn’t content material with simply being a diamond within the tough when he stepped on the Warrior set. Whereas the actor had put his martial arts expertise behind him, the eagerness was nonetheless there. Within the six months between his casting and the beginning of filming in Cape City, South Africa, he misplaced 25 kilos, bought his physique able to do splits and tough kicks, and entered filming within the bodily form he wanted to be in to play Ah Sahm.

“He simply threw himself into it,” Tropper says. “His degree of dedication is like that with something he does.”

Close to the wrap of season 1, Koji was filming a giant, climatic battle scene during which Ah Sahm faces off in opposition to Li Yong, an extremely expert fighter portrayed by former Indonesia judo nationwide crew athlete Joe Taslim (who has change into a outstanding martial arts film star in movies like The Raid, Star Trek Past, and The Night time Comes for Us). Maintaining with an elite athlete like Taslim was notably tough on the day, because the weeks of lengthy days of taking pictures, and the adjustment to his peak bodily self, had caught up with Koji.

“He had nothing [left],” says Hoon Lee, who performs the black market salesman Wang Chao and now works as a author on Warrior season 3. He remembers watching with concern as Koji, after each take, hit the ground out of exhaustion. However hour after hour, he rested, bought again up, and by no means complained concerning the subsequent take. “My admiration for him actually grew in that second, as a result of that’s a measure of character. That’s not a measure of expertise. And I stated, That is somebody we are able to observe. That is somebody that may make this present come to life and may lead that cost for us.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Max

Photograph: Graham Bartholomew/Cinemax

For those who speak to Koji’s castmates, or anyone who works on Warrior, they inform you he’s the hardest-working individual they know. He’s continuously setting an instance because the present’s primary that trickles all the way down to everybody else on set, to the purpose the place Tropper says they’ve to inform him to cease working. And it reveals in his meticulous and exacting efficiency as Ah Sahm, whether or not he’s heading off a gaggle of hatchet-wielding rivals with excessive kicks and snappy retorts, or deftly navigating the turbulent political local weather of Chinatown’s warring Tongs.

“I’ve by no means labored with somebody who trains and works as onerous as he does,” government producer Evan Endicott, promoted to co-showrunner for season 3, says. “He primarily must be primary on the decision sheet for all of the drama, after which additionally does all of his personal fights. The man doesn’t sleep whereas we’re in Cape City. And it’s a feat to look at.”

Co-star Jason Tobin (Higher Luck Tomorrow, The Quick and the Livid: Tokyo Drift) has had a front-row seat for Koji’s growth as a number one man. Tobin performs Younger Jun, the son of a gang chief who shortly turns into greatest buddies with Koji’s Ah Sahm. The 2 have an analogous rapport in actual life, continuously joking with one another after they’re not expressing their appreciation for the chance to work collectively.

“This man simply is a consummate skilled, works his freakin’ ass off, delivers artistically, and leads off the entrance foot because the primary on the present,” Tobin says. “You possibly can’t ask for something extra. That is 100% from the center, and to see his progress as a lead actor from season 1 to season 3 has been unimaginable. It simply makes everybody else’s job simpler as a result of we’re working with him.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Cinemax

Dianne Doan, who performs Ah Sahm’s sister and rival gang chief Mai Ling on Warrior, says her sibling reference to Koji extends past the present. The siblings have a sophisticated relationship in Warrior — Ah Sahm initially travels to america to “rescue” her, earlier than shortly discovering she very a lot doesn’t want that from him. Quickly, they discover themselves on reverse sides of a violent battle, and Koji and Doan each successfully promote the fragile steadiness of their love for one another and their duties to their respective factions.

“He’s my brother,” she says. “I name him ‘bruv,’ he calls me ‘sis.’ Any scene that I’ve gotten to movie with him has been so particular to me. I really feel prefer it’s that connection in entrance of the digicam that we get that’s so uncommon. He actually is my brother. And that’s one thing that I’m actually taking away from this present.”

“It’s been actually unimaginable watching him develop into the main man that everybody may see that he could possibly be,” says Olivia Cheng, who performs badass brothel madame (and Ah Sahm’s confidant) Ah Toy. “I believe we’ve little doubt that we’ve solely begun to see the tip of the iceberg by way of Koji’s expertise and drive as an artist.”

Photograph: Ed Araquel/Paramount Photos

Since Warrior premiered in April 2019 (and was renewed for a second season shortly after), Koji’s profession has been on the rise. He landed main roles within the G.I. Joe spinoff Snake Eyes, co-starring alongside Henry Golding, and Bullet Practice starring Brad Pitt. He’s attributable to star within the upcoming Sam Raimi-produced motion film Boy Kills World, alongside Invoice Skarsgård, Jessica Rothe, and The Raid’s Yayan Ruhian. And nonetheless, Tropper says a few of the tasks he’s turned down would “blow your thoughts.”

Three years in the past, it appeared just like the Warrior a part of Koji’s profession may come to an finish. In January 2020, Cinemax introduced it will now not be producing unique programming, with a second and presumably last season of Warrior attributable to air later that 12 months. However in January 2021, the present’s first two seasons have been added to HBO Max, and some months later, the brand new streaming community introduced it will choose up Warrior for season 3.

With years in between seasons stuffed by filming blockbuster motion motion pictures, it will have been simple for Koji to return again as sizzling shit, greater than the present that launched his profession — there’s an argument that he didn’t even want Warrior anymore. However Koji got here again extra decided than ever, and was rewarded with a 3rd season of Warrior that provides him a good better probability to shine, build up his bona fides as a star.

“He wasn’t modified in any method besides he had a special focus now,” Tropper stated. “He’d been round just a little bit extra, he had just a little extra confidence. And he pushed himself more durable.”

“We had a catch-up Zoom [before season 3], and he’d been coaching with kung fu masters, getting his sport again on,” Endicott says. “He confirmed us a complete diary he had made with Bruce Lee poses. He’d been doing research, you recognize, about how he desires to embody this character, how he desires to hold on this legacy.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Cinemax

Photograph: David Bloomer/Max

Photograph: David Bloomer/Cinemax

My name with Koji and Tobin began with Koji placing his face proper up in opposition to the display and screaming in pleasure a couple of poster for Jackie Chan’s Wheels on Meals that hangs behind my desk. I used to be struck by his steadiness of ardour, focus, and humility. There was additionally a humorousness about the entire thing; when Tobin spoke extremely of him as a co-star, Koji requested if he may get that in writing.

Regardless of what he referred to as the “whirlwind” of the previous few years, Koji stays all the way down to earth, and nonetheless carries the struggles that bought him right here, properly conscious it may all change once more in a second.

“Going from being within the crimson and actually struggling, and emotional uncertainty and insecurity and monetary insecurity,” he displays, “my solely purpose ever as an actor was simply to have the ability to survive and stay off performing. It wasn’t something too highfalutin, like ‘change into an A-lister’-style nonsense. So I’m comfortable that I’m doing that. There’s nonetheless challenges, there’s nonetheless issues to beat. There’s nonetheless issues, and as I’m beginning to see behind the scenes now, there’s a number of issues that also want to vary. However I’m comfortable, and Warrior gave me the idea and religion once more, as an actor, that I suppose I ought to be doing this, for now.”

That’s one thing we are able to all be glad about. Koji brings an earnestness and deep craving for connection to Ah Sahm, which elevates the in any other case pulpy enjoyable of Warrior into actually fascinating tv.

“He’s not simply an motion star,” says Endicott. “There’s a thoughtfulness and an depth to what he does. And the digicam actually soaks that up.”

Photograph: David Bloomer/Max

In season 3, Koji stays laser-focused on the main points. His decisions might be seen very clearly in how he has approached Warrior’s battle scenes, that are extremely demanding and barely see the lead actors doubled for stunt performers. Within the third season, Ah Sahm has a newfound standing as an area cult hero. It’s a type of fantastic alternatives that seems like future — as Ah Sahm’s star has risen on the earth of Warrior, so too has Koji’s in the actual world. With Shannon Lee’s steerage, Koji brings new swagger to his bodily efficiency as Ah Sahm, including extra prospers to his kicks whereas concurrently making his type increasingly methodical as Ah Sahm’s (and Koji’s) talent grows.

“He’s very eager on having his bodily presence evolve as his character does,” government producer Josh Stoddard, additionally promoted to co-showrunner for season 3, says. “It’s gradual, and it’s possible you’ll not register it on something aside from a unconscious degree. Nevertheless it’s one thing very high of thoughts for Andrew as he evolves his character.”

Tobin recollects the day they first met on set in Cape City. Whereas simply two years older than Koji, Tobin bought his huge break within the business when he was a teen in a starring function in Justin Lin’s Higher Luck Tomorrow, and it’s simple to choose up the mentorship function he has taken on along with his buddy and co-star. Of their first dialog, Tobin bolstered the significance of Koji staying true to himself as Ah Sahm as a method of honoring Bruce Lee’s legacy.

“I knew that whoever bought this function would have a large duty and stress upon their shoulders,” Tobin says. “As a result of it wasn’t only a fictitious character written on a web page. This was Bruce Lee! And I keep in mind our very first dialog, as a result of everybody’s like, You’re Bruce Lee, you’re taking part in Bruce, and I stated to Andrew, ‘No, man. You’re not Bruce Lee. You’re Ah Sahm. And if you wish to stay the Bruce Lee philosophy, it is advisable to specific your self, Andrew Koji, on this function. You’re not mimicking, you’re not copying, you’re you.’

“Bruce Lee to me has at all times been like that,” Tobin provides. “He’s been often called the Little Dragon. To me Andrew just isn’t a dragon… He’s a wolf.”

As Tobin says this, Koji, sitting subsequent to him, howls like a wolf. Regardless of how onerous he works, irrespective of how severely he takes his craft, and it doesn’t matter what stress there may be to be another person, Koji will at all times be Koji: proficient, diligent, and effortlessly charming. And for Warrior, that’s sufficient.

Warrior season 3 premieres on Max on June 29, with two new episodes.