Although he began acting at a young age, Xie Miao also won several wushu championships, giving him a well-rounded career early on. After starring alongside Jet Li in The New Legend of Shaolin (1994) and My Father Is a Hero (1995), he quickly rose to fame. Xie Miao’s latest release is the high-octane martial arts action film The Furious, which showcases a range of disciplines.
Xie Miao stars as Wang Wei, a man searching for his kidnapped daughter, taken by a child-trafficking ring. He teams up with Navin (Joe Taslim), who is searching for his missing wife. Together, they hunt down the men who took their loved ones and will stop at nothing to get them back.
Ahead of The Furious’s theatrical release, we spoke with Xie Miao about filming challenges, fight choreography, and the impact it might have on audiences.
HGL: When did martial arts lead to an interest in acting for you?
Xie Miao: In the beginning, in Beijing, I just wanted to practice martial arts to keep fit. In my second year of practicing martial arts, I had the opportunity to work with Jet Li. I realized then that besides strengthening your body, martial arts also brings me something else.
In the beginning, I didn’t like practicing. It’s extremely hard, but later I realized it was possible to help me make films, so I kept persisting, kept practicing.
HGL: How did you become involved with The Furious?
Xie Miao: A Hong Kong producer, Bill Kong, told me he wanted to shoot the best action movie. He wanted to give it a try, but he didn’t know if he could make it. Then he told me he found Kenji to be the director and a couple other excellent action actors from around the world. From that moment, I thought I should give it my all and do this film.
HGL: In the film, your character teams up with Joe Taslim’s character in what turns out to be a long, emotional journey. What was it like working with Taslim?
Xie Miao: I like Joe (laughs). The first time I trained with Joe, the two of us didn’t have too much verbal communication; we just exchanged a few words. I’m not the kind of person to take the initiative to communicate with other people. In the initial training, I realized that we can get to know each other through martial arts, and later on, we became really good friends.
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HGL: What was the most challenging part for you while filming The Furious?
Xie Miao: The hardest part for me was memorizing so many martial arts techniques, and this action movie had many, many techniques. In one way, the choreography is based on martial arts, and they want to show that it is extremely fast. You’ll notice that sometimes when I’m in a fight with Joe, Joe will grab my clothes where there was a need for two or three action moves.
Sometimes I was a bit disoriented, but I knew I had to do the three moves. Memorizing these sequences was the most difficult thing for me, as there were a lot of details.
HGL: Was it difficult to juggle the tough emotional journey your character was on with the demanding action scenes?
Xie Miao: It can be really hard because at the very early stages of the film, he lost his daughter. Over a long period of time, you have to keep building that emotion; you can’t just film one emotion at one time. I had to remind myself as the story unfolds, what kind of person is this? Is this person really involved in the kidnapping?
You will find that in the Tiger Club, the first person we saw was the one who kidnapped his daughter. The fighting style is brutal, it’s lethal. When he saw Joe in the computer room, he wasn’t sure if he was a good guy or bad guy, or if he had a direct relationship with the bad guys. But he’s a dangerous person to be in this kind of place. Emotionally, he carries that with him from scene to scene.
HGL: The Furious hits theaters on June 12. What do you hope fans take away from this film?
Xie Miao: I hope the fans can immerse themselves in the experience and feel the joys and sorrows in the film, as well as the action. As for our die-hard action movie fans, as well as some who haven’t seen many action movies, I hope they will enjoy the design of these action sequences. You will find the design both elegant and brutal.
