15 years ago Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh fought alongside each other in Tai ji: Zhang San Feng. Now they're back together onscreen in another action-filled film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, however this time they're battling it as enemies. But Yeoh says no matter whether they're on the same side or not, it's always easy to work with Jet Li.
The action takes place in China in the third Mummy movie, with Michelle Yeoh playing a sorceress whose curse sent the Dragon Emperor and his 10,000 warriors into a state of suspended animation, thwarting his plan for world domination. Jet Li plays the evil Chinese emperor accidently brought back from the dead and now ready to regain power.
Although audiences aren't used to seeing Jet Li play the bad guy, director Rob Cohen says Li was his one and only choice. Li says Asian audiences really don't want to see him play the villain, but personally he was more than ready for the challenge. "[Actors] always play good guys very heavy, because the good guy has the responsibility of taking care of his family, wives, children, neighbors," said Li, laughing. "Being good is not easy. The bad guy is straightforward selfish. I like the girl. It belongs to me. I like his car – give to me!"
Li was a fan of the Mummy franchise and said yes after hearing he'd be playing the mummy, and learning Rob Cohen was going to be the man at the helm. Li and Cohen had been looking forward to working together on Sinbad, but that film never got off the ground.
For Yeoh, the appeal was not only the opportunity to work with Cohen, but also the chance to be a part of this film franchise. "I was very excited when he said we're going to take it to China," said Yeoh. "It was a perfect opportunity to have the young kids learn a little bit about China, whether it's a little bit of fact and fiction fantasy all mixed into one. And then having spoken to Rob, because I think it's very important because the director really is the one with the vision, with the story to tell. I was very impressed with his Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, because from that you can see that he had a great respect for Chinese culture. He understood it and he did not have a romanticized Caucasian male image of what the Chinese icon or what the culture should be about."
Yeoh added, "Then when he was talking about the character, I found her very interesting because you know she's very magical. You're not quite sure what she is or where she really comes from. She lives out in the remote place but she has certain powers, but you're not quite sure what they are actually. And then to be part of this franchise was…it was a no-brainer, it was easy."
All of the Mummy movies have made use of CGI and special effects, but Li says it actually felt like he was surrounded by thousands of warriors because of the vast amount of people on the set. "Even with not having so many soldiers on site, we're still having 3,000 group of people working," explained Li. "We had a hundred make-ups, make-up people for the Chinese site, even the Shanghai street and a lot of makeup there. So you're standing there [to] become a king, not a soldier, but you still have a lot of people – 3,000 people – in front of you so it's easy for an actor to imagine a lot of soldiers in front of you."
Li and Yeoh are, of course, in fantastic shape and neither suffered any real injuries while working on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Both claim it's easy to work off each other, although there is one issue they have to deal with whenever they're together. "I think the most difficult thing when we're facing off is, 'Okay, don't make me laugh.' Because we stand there and go, 'Oh god, no.' When we were working on Tai Chi Master, Yuen Woo Ping had to send us out of the room because we would giggle the whole time. Like Rob would come up to us and say, 'What are you two talking about?' Because we would be like [talking super fast] and laughing. Not just [chuckling], but laughing," confessed Yeoh. "That was the most difficult part when it came to our fighting."
