Kiss of the Dragon's Bridget Fonda

Kungfu Magazine's Exclusive Interview
by Martha Burr

We caught up with Bridget Fonda at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles last week and got to speak with her a bit about her experience on the new Jet Li film KISS OF THE DRAGON, produced by Luc Besson. Here's what she had to say.

Q: What was it like to work with Jet?
Fonda: Jet's really amazing. First of all, he's amazing because he's only been speaking English for I guess a couple of years. Which I already think is admirable. And then on top of it, he's this very gentle kind of person, soft, but he's lethal. I mean,. Th guy is - he's the real thing, he's not the movie thing. Because of that, he's pretty fascinating to watch, physically. And then he's also incredibly charming, a mischievous sense of humor, just a great persona. There's a thing about him that's just wonderful He's got something - he's got IT. That movie star thing, he's got that.

Q: Did he show you any moves?
Fonda: No, you know, when you get somebody that's that great, to me it's like, would you go up to Muhammed Ali and say, c'mon, show me your left? No, I'm just going to be respectful of that. You wouldn't ask me to do a monologue or something. But I got to see it anyway.

Q: Have you always liked kungfu movies?
Fonda: I've always been a fan of martial arts. I was basically weaned on Enter the Dragon. And all through college they had this thing called Kungfu Sundays, and on Sunday from 2-4 they had Kungfu Theater, and it was these weird films, I couldn't tell you any of the titles, some of them were black and white, none of them were Kurasawa. But they were these neat sort of fairy tales with martial arts in them, and I was really addicted to them.

Q: Did you expect to have more action to do in this movie?
Fonda: Actually, I was relieved that there wasn't. After I said OK, there was a call back the next day, and I said, Am I supposed to be doing action? You have to tell me if I'm supposed to be getting into physical shape like I did in Point of No Return. I trained for 6 weeks to learn how to do the fighting for that. Just to get limber enough not to pull every muscle in my body. But Luc said, No, no, you just do all the running away.

Q: How did you research for the role, once you got the script, because it was rumored that there were some real professional hookers in the background.
Fonda: Oh, yes, there were. I just said, move aside. Move it, move it. I know all about this. I do it for money too, just different. (laughs)

Q: Can you talk about the violence in the movie?
Fonda: You know, when you're doing it, it never seems that violent, because you know, it's fake. You're struggling, but their hands really aren't tight around your neck. Do I think you should bring your kids? Definitely not. But I feel that way about a lot of stuff.

Q: What about doing this movie was emotionally difficult for you?
Fonda: Well, it's gotten worse for me, the older I've gotten. And I don't know if it's because I've gotten older, or because I've gotten more sensitive from playing more characters. It's hard being the character that's being slapped around a lot. It takes it out of you. Not only physically because say, whipping your head -- then you have a horrible neckache, falling on the ground. But there's a thing about the rage that happens when someone is looking right in your face, and they're gonna hit you, even though they're gonna miss you, even though they're not really gonna hit you, the thing that happens is a weird, primal gut feeling that gets you just so fried. That's why on sets when there's a lot of that happening tensions can get high.

So I was everyday dealing with not only that, but physically getting that feeling of being taken and thrown, that it was really eating at me, but also I'm playing a character who I had a great amount of empathy toward. Not by direct ability to relate, obviously, never been a junkie, never been a hooker, never been a parent, but by the fact that I found some way to feel all of the things that added up to the same thing. And he created this character who's just so heartbreaking, to me. Luc gave me all the right definitions of who this character was, a person who doesn't look ahead and see things; how does a person cope who lives in each moment so that they can have hope? And if they just hope that the next moment won't be bad, then they can live. This was very, very hard.

But this is the weird actor thing, that when I'm feeling at the closest to the edge of my emotions, I'm feeling kind of frayed at the edges, but I was also feeling that because I was feeling that I was doing good work. It's sort of a perverse thing where you're feeling really rotten, but in the back of your mind you're saying, yeah, but you're supposed to. You're doing your job.

Q: Did Jet have any input on your character for you on the set?
Fonda: He had moments between us. He would say something, or he would say to me how my performance affected him. There's a thing that happens when you're working opposite someone, and when you get it, it's like gold. I got it from him. When somebody is watching you and you're seeing a reflection of yourself in their eyes. And it's almost like throwing gasoline on a fire, it gets you going more. And I had that with him. I think because he was so close to the story, and a creator of it, and he so loved my character, and I felt that gave me more authenticity, more of a real person behind the character in his eyes, which affected me more. Feeling like I was really being seen.

Written by Martha Burr for KUNGFUMAGAZINE.COM

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