Justin Chatwin Interview, Dragonball Evolution

MoviesOnline sat down with Justin Chatwin to talk about his new movie, “Dragonball: Evolution,” the long-awaited, live-action motion picture helmed by James Wong based on the popular Japanese manga created by Akira Toriyama whose work has spawned best selling graphic novels, videogames and a phenomenally successful television series. Chatwin, who portrayed Tom Cruise’s son in Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” takes on the role of the heroic Goku, a powerful warrior who protects the Earth from an endless stream of rogues bent on dominating the Universe and controlling the mystical objects from which the film takes its name.

The film also stars Emmy Rossum (“The Day After Tomorrow”) as Bulma, a beautiful woman intent on retrieving the mystical Dragonballs for her own reasons; Jamie Chung (“Samurai Girl”) as Chi Chi, a young martial artist who captures Goku’s eye; screen legend Chow Yun-Fat (“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”) as Roshi, the Master who guides Goku on the young man’s epic quest to save the Earth from the forces of darkness; James Marsters (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) as Lord Piccolo, whose return could signal the Earth’s destruction; international performing sensation Joon Park as Yamcha, a charismatic “bad boy” whose schemes could thwart the heroes’ journey; popular Japanese actress Eriko (“Heroes”) as Mai, an assassin who works with Piccolo; Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”) as Sifu Norris, a Master and contemporary of Roshi’s; and Randall Duk Kim (“The Matrix Revolutions”) as Goku’s grandfather Gohan, whose lessons for Goku begin to prepare the young man for the monumental tasks that lie ahead.

Justin Chatwin first garnered recognition for his starring role in the USA miniseries, “Traffic,” directed by Stephen Hopkins, for which Newsweek singled him out as an “actor to watch.” His additional television credits include “Lost” and “Weeds.” His film credits include “The Invisible,” in which he starred opposite Marcia Gay Harden; Steven Spielberg’s re-telling of the H.G. Wells classic, “War of the Worlds,” in which Chatwin starred opposite Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning; the independent film “The Chumscrubber,” also starring Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close, Rita Wilson and Allison Janney; and “Taking Lives,” with Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. He will appear in the upcoming John Stockwell romantic comedy “Middle of Nowhere,” with Susan Sarandon and Eva Amurri, which screened at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

Chatwin landed the role of Goku after an exhaustive worldwide search. Goku is a high school student whose innocence and guilelessness are left behind when he begins his hero’s journey. “The character has a great arc – from high school nerd to the planet’s savior,” says director Wong. “One minute, Goku is a high school student who doesn’t fit in with his peers; the next, he’s on an incredible quest.” Chatwin sparked to the idea of the hero’s journey, having long been an admirer of the work of mythologists like Joseph Campbell, whose writings often dealt with the role of the hero figure. “Goku begins his journey as an everyday teen who discovers he’s meant for something more,” says Chatwin. “He becomes a symbol of moral good.”

Here’s more of what Justin Chatwin had to tell us about “Dragonball: Evolution”:

Q: How was it fighting Chow Yun-Fat?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: What was it like fighting Chow? It felt good. It felt really good. My experience working with Chow…Fighting with him was great because he’s a pro at this and I was a fan of the John Woo movies like Hard-Boiled, so fighting him was great because he was already a pro at it. I remember the first day when I saw him doing his Master Roshi. In the process of auditioning for this, I remember reading with other Master Roshis and people were playing the part small because he was a feeble old man. I remember when Chow came in and he just did this huge…I was like, “Oh my God, he’s overacting. This is crazy! What is he doing?” And then as he kept on doing it day after day after day, I was like oh my God, there’s something I didn’t see in the manga which is the broad comedy almost like Kabuki Theatre that manga has to have that makes it different from movies like Iron Man and Batman. It’s this broad comedy, almost Stephen Chow-ish, that Chow really understood. I really think it rubbed off on us because we started getting goofier and goofier, almost like Three Stoogee because of what Chow brought to the film. He was really a great influence on us.

Q: Why do you think so many people are attracted to Dragonball?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: I went to the Manga Museum when I was in Kyoto. They had a library and it was like three floors, like a giant natural history museum-size building full of manga and there are so many different kinds of manga out there. I asked myself that same question. Why is Dragonball so big and there’s all these other ones out there that haven’t become popular? I think it comes down to the story. It’s the values. These stories are like these Greek epics. They’re about virtue and honor and fighting evil and becoming a man and serving your country and serving a greater cause. For me, what’s important is to carry on those stories and evolve it from the Monkey King which Dragonball was based off of and keep those stories alive because if we don’t adapt them, they’ll just drift away.

Q: Is it tough to keep your acting concentration when you’re fighting at a speed that you would not fight at if you were angry?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: Yeah. It was like repetition because I’m not that coordinated and I’m not really much of a fighter to be honest with you. We practiced that bully fight for five weeks. I got it down and I just remembered it. You just get to the point where it gets in your head.

Q: Was it challenging making a movie that fans of Dragonball as well as those unfamiliar with it would appreciate?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: The original fans are like 20 or 30 years old. There’s a whole generation of 6 to 18-year-olds that Dragonball wasn’t introduced to because they have Batman and they have all these other cartoons. This is for the new generation – people that have no idea – to get more involved with Dragonball and also for the fans. I hope they like it.

Q: Were you a fan of Dragonball because I believe one of the first things you said was how the hair had to be right so you must have known the character?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: That was one of the first questions that I asked. What are we going to do with the hair? All these animes have crazy hair and I was like, am I going to be wearing a wig. Oh my God, this is going to be wacky. This is going to either be really interesting because it’s my first anime film or this is going to be the last film I ever do. You know, like orange Ninja suit and two-foot hair. (Laughs) So I was like a bit of a freak in it. I think my hair has an arc of its own in this movie because I was such a freak every day. I’d say okay, this is the high school look. Okay, this is the post-Goku look. This is the journey look. And I kept on changing it because I honestly don’t know if I ever got to a place where I was like this is Goku from the manga. I felt a big responsibility to the manga and to the fans and just to everything that had been done so the hair I guess was a challenge for me.

Q: Did you watch the animation when you were a kid or did you read the manga before you were cast as Goku and what was your reaction when you got this role?

JUSTIN CHATWIN: When I got this, Jim (director James Wong) called me and I was driving downtown. I didn’t get it at first. I was like, oh really? I didn’t know how to react to it because I was excited but then I was also like, oh man, now I actually have to do it. It’s not like I’ve just been given a suitcase full of money. I actually have to perform and there are so many people that have an idea of who this iconic figure is. So I knew it would be a challenging part but I was definitely honored to have been given this part. A friend of mine, as a kid, I would always go over to his house. His little brothers and sisters would be talking about Dragonball, like it was the Grail and [they were] so passionate about it. I watched it later. I think I was like 18 when I watched it. When I watched it, I was like wow, this is crazy. I really like this. But it wasn’t until I got the part that I actually sat down with Dragonball and Dragonball Z and Dragonball GT and started studying the character. That was the first thing I did. I was like, I’ve got to understand this character and understand the qualities, understand all the episodes and the family tree and all that. And then, I have to get rid of all those ideas and bring those qualities out of Justin because I didn’t want to play an idea of the character because that I think would have been the biggest pitfall of the movie – actors playing ideas of what these characters are as opposed to genuinely bringing forth qualities of themselves.

“Dragonball: Evolution” opens in theaters on April 10th.