To suddenly be working with one of the top-10 directors in the world, plus the film was in China, I almost blurted out, "How much do I have to pay?" It was just like a dream come true. That was an amazing experience. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa More Quotes by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa More Quotes From Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa I was clear: "I don't want to play businessmen with bifocal glasses and cameras, so if you're going to give me an Asian bad guy to play, then I'm going to give you the baddest Asian bad guy you've ever seen, and you're not going to forget that I was in the film." Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa glasses play giving Nature is a big part of my weekend. Whenever possible, I take Friday and Monday off and spend four days outdoors. We should remind ourselves that there was something here before us, a force more powerful than us. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa friday powerful monday That's the worst thing for an actor: when you say to someone, "Yeah, I was in that movie," and they say, "You were?" Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa yeah worst actors I really believe that breath, in and of itself can become the ultimate self-healing tool. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa self healing believe In Hawaii, there are 50-year-old grandfathers, because they got married so early. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa hawaii grandfather years It's not whether you fall or make a mistake, it's what you do when you fall. And I say you stand up. You keep standing up. It's not how many times you fall, it's how many times you stand up. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa standing mistake fall Americans really don't understand the Japanese nature, but it's not an easy thing to understand. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa easy-things easy There were times when I purposely didn't go to school because of Pearl Harbor Day, because certainly there was enough media about it every year to remind everybody. So when I heard they were going to make the movie, I thought, "Oh, no, please not another Pearl Harbor mention!" Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa media years school Half my family was from the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the other half was U.S. Army, and I was raised on Army posts during my childhood, so I pretty much began my life with a split-brain sort of thing. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa childhood army brain Before I started studying martial arts, I had temper problems. I could definitely fly off the handle. Being raised in the south in 1956 definitely gave me some memories to latch onto for negative emotions. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa memories negative art Playing Japanese characters and being in environments that are Japanese, like a character's apartment or whatever, if you have directors or art directors who just don't know what' s what with Japanese culture, then pretty soon something's just passed through. I've been through many times where I've pointed out the incorrectness of so much of what's been done to a set. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa character directors art American comedies about Asians have never been funny to me. That always kind of pissed me off. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa comedy kind I was excited about working with Richard Gere. Oh, and Joan Allen! Oh, my God, she is such a force of nature, it's mind boggling. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa excited force mind Looking back at my career, if there's one word that most people use to describe me, it's intense. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa careers use people The worst thing that can happen is that the effect that they create behind you is bigger than the performance you're putting out. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa behind-you worst bigger You can't just replace someone with a regular-looking guy who didn't say any of the lines. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa lines guy I've been in a lot of cult movies, but I've been very fortunate to have been involved in projects that people remember. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa projects remember people I have to humbly say people really like the bad guys. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa bad-guys guy people Native Americans say, "It's a good day to die," and samurai live their life to die honorably, so that kind of energy creates a certain mindset of reactiveness with control to a point. And after that, it's gone. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa good-day energy native-american There's one thing about weights with action movies: Once your muscles get that tight, it's sometimes hard to stop your movement, especially if you're trying to move with some strength, and with the swords in the film. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa movement trying moving
