'Warrior' season 3: Dustin Nguyen tells the story of making a film with the director of 'Fast & Furious'

According to Variety on April 14, after two successful films, the producer decided to continue with Warrior season 3, moving from Cinemax to HBO Max. The work is executive produced by Justin Lin - the famous director behind the success of the Fast & Furious series, along with Jonathan Tropper, Shannon Lee (daughter of Bruce Lee), Danielle Woodrow, Andrew Schneider...

Previously, the first season of Warrior aired in 2019, the sequel was released in October 2020. The series is based on the filmmaking ideas of Bruce Lee and is set in the brutal war (Tong Wars) of forces in Chinatown in San Francisco (USA) in the late 19th century. The film brings together a diverse cast, including many prominent Asian faces: Andrew Koji, Olivia Cheng, Dianne Doan, Chen Tang, Joe Taslim, Jason Tobin...

Dustin Nguyen has an impressive performance in the American action-martial arts film

PHOTO: CINEMAX

Notably, Warrior features Vietnamese-American actor Dustin Nguyen. In the popular series, he plays Zing - the rogue leader of the Fung Hai Tong gang and an ally of Mai Ling, another powerful character played by Vietnamese-American actress Dianne Doan. They become a powerful force in Chinatown and rivals of the main character Ah Sahm (played by Andrew Koji). He appeared in a few scenes in season 1 and "promoted" to the main star in the following season. At the end of season 2, Zing was sentenced to death and was planning to escape from prison... In addition to being an actor, the veteran star also took on the role of director in episode 6 of season 2.

Sharing with Thanh Nien , Dustin Nguyen said that the reason he came to Warrior was thanks to his long-standing relationship with director Justin Lin, who is famous for many blockbusters in the Fast & Furious franchise. In the past, the actor of Bloodline Hero had starred in a work by this talented filmmaker and the two still keep in touch regularly. Justin Lin often asks about and expresses interest in the film projects that Dustin Nguyen is working on in his home country.

The actor has a long-standing relationship with director Justin Lin.

PHOTO: GETTY, NVCC

“When I returned to Vietnam, he still occasionally asked me what I was doing and was very interested in the films Dustin had made here, especially his debut film Buddha's Fire . I sent my products to Justin and I don't know if he had time to follow them all, but Justin was very supportive of me because he was also a director who started from nothing and was not assigned to a big project like Fast & Furious from the beginning. He started making films independently, so he was very sympathetic to his colleagues and appreciated their first steps and opportunities,” the male artist shared. He also emphasized that Justin Lin is a very supportive character who cares about the development of Asian actors in Hollywood. The proof is that in the Fast & Furious films of this director, there is always an impressive Asian character.

He continued: “Two years ago, Justin Lin called me and mentioned the production of the Warrior series. The idea for the film was bought by the production team from Bruce Lee’s idea. When he was alive, this martial arts star presented the idea and theme to the big studios, but at that time they did not want to do it because a series of films starring Asians was not yet accepted by Hollywood. Luckily, Justin Lin later bought the idea from Bruce Lee’s daughter and sold it to HBO to produce the Warrior series.”

Dustin Nguyen next to male lead Andrew Koji

PHOTO: NVCC

Dustin Nguyen said the interesting thing is that Warrior is set in the US but was actually not filmed in a Hollywood studio but in a remote Cape Town (South Africa). The reason this location was chosen is because the weather here is stable, very suitable for filming. Along with that, the studio facilities are of class A, making it easy to create a 19th century San Francisco city that is no different from real life. In particular, the government always has attractive incentives, attracting many Hollywood film crews to come to produce. For about the past year, Dustin Nguyen has spent a lot of time working in South Africa to serve the filming work and his wife also has to arrange to support her husband.

Filming with the director of Fast & Furious and a strong Hollywood team, the actor Trung So said he was impressed by their professional, meticulous and extremely thoughtful way of working. The film crew always invested in a large private area for the actors to practice for filming. The training schedule was arranged in detail and scientifically . Usually, each actor was arranged to practice according to the needs of the character, they were instructed on what to practice, at what time and had a driver to pick them up and drop them off. "On filming days, the actors went to the studio, and the days off were also arranged very disciplined. For example, one morning I had to practice for 2 hours to prepare for the upcoming fighting scene, then 2 hours later I would practice endurance and muscles to be able to perform the best action scenes...", the veteran artist said.

Not only that, the actors often receive massages and health care after tiring hours of filming and training because the film crew understands that they have to work under high intensity, performing many dangerous action scenes that can easily lead to injury. The stars also enjoy a scientific, healthy diet to ensure their health and support the training and filming process. According to Dustin Nguyen, the film crew always creates the best conditions for the actors so that they can work together to create a product that meets expectations.

Endless Fields star busy on the set of Warrior

PHOTO: NVCC

Talking about the opportunity to direct Warrior , Dustin Nguyen shared: “In season 1 of the show, I appeared in a few episodes and had time to work with the producers and writers of the series, from which they connected with me. They knew that I made films and was passionate about directing, so they asked to see some of the works that I had done in Vietnam. I remember sending them films like Trung So, Lua Phat, 798 Muoi that I had made and not sure if they could follow the entire 90-minute work and it was a subtitled film.”

However, the response from Hollywood surprised the Vietnamese actor: “I was actually surprised when they contacted me again. I remember Justin Lin called me and asked if I could fly to Los Angeles because HBO wanted to meet. Then I flew over there, sat down and talked to them, and the team said that they had seen my films and wanted to talk directly to understand better. During the process of the two sides sitting down and talking, I realized that these people were clearly very open. Finally, they said that in season 2, they wanted me to take on the role of director in addition to being an actor. At that time, I felt really lucky and very happy.”

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/warrior-mua-3-dustin-nguyen-ke-chuyen-lam-phim-cung-dao-dien-fast-furious-1851057512.htm