What Todd Babcock said about Leslie back in 98 -part3-
Once we got to shooting we walked through the scenes. I was discussing certain Chinese films I had seen and at the time I did not know he was in Once Thief and told him it was my favorite John Woo film. He said, "I was in that!" and we both had a laugh. That was where we really loosened up and just had fun. Between takes we were both trying to make the other laugh. We joked that we were going to change the story of 'A Time..' and make the relationship about Jin and Payne and leave QuiQui behind. Allof a sudden the side of Leslie that was the british gentleman that i met at the hotel became this energetic kid. We were doing Madonna imitations to the other between rehearsals and just had a ball. Leslie has done so many movies that he is absolutely professional. When the camera is set and they are ready he knows exactly what to do and where to look and how to hit his marks. but he has also learned how to relax and just have fun when the camera is off. That was probably my favorite shooting day with Leslie. It must have been 20 hours of shooting and we were both exhausted. When the day was done I found out that the director wanted me to go across town and shoot more scenes downtown. I was so tired and begged them not to. Finally, I broke and accepted the task saying that i would be exhausted and look it. Daying patted my back and said "Thank you." It was only a half hour later that the director said 'nevermind'. I was to learn later that Leslie had asked him to take it easier on me. So, like i said, he was holding my hand along the way. During lunch that day (yes, over McDonalds) we had a great talk about projects that I had worked on. What I thought about the new Hong Kong and the history of China and the film. He was very open and I remember that he wanted my opinions on his trakes and what i thought about his acting. I couldn't get out of my head how great. i thought it was that he cared for my opinion and i really felt we were working together for something. As I said, we went back to the scene at my apartment for many reshoots. The next one we did was probably the best...I was actually so relaxed with Leslie at this point that when he got in my face to confront me (a scene that wasn't in the movie where Payne sort of challenges Jin)I started laughing. When we cut, Leslie smiled and was confused and said "Why are you laughing?" I think it was simply because I knew leslie by then and we made so many jokes that when he was so close it just made me laugh. But it was probably because I was enjoying myself so much. It wasn't long after that that the worst scene to shoot in the film came along. The scene in the rain where Jin confronts Hau Ming as he holds the gun to my head. It was terribly cold and we had to pipe gallons of freezing water on our heads on every take. There were no heaters in the rooms so we had to sit forever in between takes in the cold, wet clothes for hours. Leslie's assistant was so helpful...he asked her to wrap me in plastics underneath my clothes so the water wouldn't go all the way through. He was quite silly as he mummified himself in plastic. He made sure i was quite taken care of...always the voice of calm during the shoot. He ordered food, got us hot tea and we discussed shivering the impact the film would have in China and whether it would come to the states. We also discussed Daying's first film, "Red Cherry" and that Leslie agreed to this film cause he wanted to work with Daying. And that he was drawn to this role and that it was something different for him. |
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