March 5, 2008 - At the Los Angeles press junket for the dramatic film Snow Angels, Michael Angarano spoke enthusiastically about another one of his films set for release in 2008 – Forbidden Kingdom. Forbidden Kingdom marks the first onscreen teaming of martial arts masters Jet Li and Jackie Chan, and Angarano had an incredible time – and learned a lot - from working with both Li and Chan.
Directed by Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little), Forbidden Kingdom follows a teenager (Angarano) sent back in time to ancient China. His only way home is to free the Monkey King, a warrior held prisoner by the Jade War Lord. Jackie Chan plays a kung fu master who helps him out in his quest. Jet Li stars as Silent Monk, a misfit warrior also fighting on the side of good.
“I play a kid named Jason Tripitikas, it’s Greek, who he lives in contemporary America. He’s a huge martial arts fan—obsessed with it—it’s all over his walls, but if only he could use some of the values and stand up for himself like his heroes do, but he doesn’t and he gets picked on a lot by kids. And basically he gets transported back to ancient China because he finds this ancient bow-staff, which turns out to be the weapon of The Monkey King,” explained Angarano. “His journey once he lands in China is to return the staff to the Money King who is being held captive by the Jade War Lord.”
Forbidden Kingdom was shot in China and Angarano spent five months there working on the action adventure film. “I got there, landed in Shanghai, and took a 5-hour drive to a town called Heng Dian which is where we shot, which is basically this little factory town that is like living in a history book because the owner of the land decided to build sets there. They built the Forbidden City ¾ to scale. They built Ching Palace and they built all these incredible sets to scale, and so that was surreal in the first place. Then I got to train with Master Woo Ping and his team and, you know, working with Jackie Chan and Jet Li was something that I will never ever forget,” explained Angarano.
Even out in the middle of nowhere the production couldn’t escape from fans anxious to get a glimpse of Jet Li and/or Jackie Chan. “Actually, it was really funny. The first four weeks of filming we were traveling everywhere. We were in Inner Mongolia in the Gobi Desert, which is northwest China,” said Angarano. “Even once we were there in [the Gobi Desert], which is out of the way of any kind of civilization, we were 3 hours in the desert and there was still tour busses filled with people like 30 people honking the horn and getting out every 15 minutes. So we could not film because the people would just get the idea, just get word that we were filming with Jackie and Jet and they would go anywhere.”
Angarano took advantage of his time spent with Chan and Li, learning moves from the masters. “The majority of my fight scenes are with Jackie and Jet together. I actually have to fight Jet at one point. It’s the scariest thing anybody will ever do. But they’re the most helpful guys, both of them. They taught me that when you’re fighting, you’re not actually fighting. It’s like dancing. It’s like choreography, their rhythm. There are rhythms that you have to hit and don’t actually punch the person — [you] hold back because you have to do it a lot. So yeah, both were the greatest guys to have around,” said Angarano.
Angarano added, “Every time I talk about them I become speechless because I’m grateful that people like them are alive. That’s actually how I feel. I’m actually…the thought that there’s Jackie Chan out there helping people out, it makes me feel better about the world. It really does because what he does—his life is his work and so he just is always giving back. He’s always giving back to charity and the most humane guy you’ll ever meet.”
