Marco Polo / 11 Dec 2014
Marco Polo: Lorenzo Richelmy's Crash Course in Kung Fu, Archery, and English
IGN spoke to the star of Netflix's new series, Marco Polo, about being trained in Kung Fu by the team from The Matrix and his favorite video games.
By Matt Fowler
Netflix is going grand with its new original series, Marco Polo - a soaring $90 million dollar production about the legendary explorer's early years in the court of conqueror Kublai Khan.
Launching with a 10-episode first season on Friday, December 12th, Marco Polo stars relative newcomer Lorenzo Richelmy as a young version of Polo who finds himself both a prisoner and an honored guest in the complex kingdom of the ruling Khan. Discovering danger, deception, love and war, Polo navigates his way through a foreign land with an open heart and a fresh face, ready for adventure.
I spoke with the enthusiastic Richelmy about being chosen to play the lead role on such a huge project, for which he not only had to learn Kung Fu, archery, and horseback riding, but also English. And - wouldn't you know it? - our chat eventually turned to video games.
IGN: What was your reaction to getting the lead role in such a large-scale project?
Lorenzo Richelmy: [shouts] WOOOO HOOOO! [laughs] That was basically it. It's the biggest production I've ever seen in my life. I mean as an actor, I'm 24, I never expected this type of thing, you know. I was doing well in Italy. I had my position there. And it was so wonderful because I had only heard about the project and I decided by myself to try out for it. And it's not that it's a big, massive production. It's something new. It's something that's changing the way TV shows are made and changing the system. It's something you've never seen before. I mean, I watched it for the first time just a few days ago and it's just huge. People from 27 countries, from all over he world, traveling through valleys and deserts in Malaysia. And working with the best stunt people ever, who worked on The Matrix. We learned regular Crouching Tiger. I had to learn everything, including English. It was just a beautiful ride.
IGN: Let's talk about the Kung Fu. You have some incredible training sequences with Tom Wu, who plays Bayan the Hundred Eyes.
Richelmy: It was incredible. We worked for two months before we started shooting. And we had this tent in the middle of production in Malaysia where everybody was training. And I had these Chinese guys teaching me Kung Fu, some Japanese guys teaching me sword fighting, and the Bulgarians teaching me wrestling, and again others teaching me horseback riding and archery. The first week was fun because according to choreographer Brett Chan, he called my first week of training the "body shocking." So it was 10 hours of training every day and then at the end, deep in a bathtub with salts otherwise the next day I wouldn't be able to move a finger.
Lorenzo Richelmy as Marco Polo.
So it was intense. But at the same time I found a wonderful team of people who were very nice. But for me, everything was difficult. It was all from scratch. I felt like the a black sheep among all of this. But it was the atmosphere of something new that kept me going. Even when you were working with Acadamy Award-winners or Emmy Award-winners, everyone was still trying and coming together to make something unique and different. So it was good for me. It was like an indie movie with a massive production.
IGN: What is the Khan's relationship like with Marco? How would you describe it?
Richelmy: At the beginning, Marco is just a puppet for him. Then, eventually, he becomes a clown. And I'm talking about the truthful relationship between the clown and the king. The king is surrounded by a bunch of "Yes Men" and people who tell him what he wants to hear so he needs fresh eyes and someone to tell him the truth. And someone to have a strong and different point of view about things. And Marco's young. He's a curious and honest guy. He never judges anyone either. And because of that he's been recognized as the first modern man and the guy who built the bridge between the East and West. He was over there for twenty years. He's very open-minded and that helped him fit in with this new world.
IGN: At first, Marco resents being left behind there by his father. So what eventually draws him to the Mongolian world?
Richelmy: First of all, we start with Marco as a boy. As a kid. And then by the last episode of the season, he's a young man. So he's at a point in his life when he starts to fix things within himself and discover who he is as a man. And thought he wanted to be like his father. But then he meets his father and discovers that he's not what he thought he'd be. And so he comes to want to stay with the Khan because at that time, that was the center of the world. He starts to grow into it and become a part of the court. He's not interested in trade. He's not interested in money like his father. Or being a merchant. He wants to be in the center of the world.
IGN: There are also some beautiful woman who catch his eye - Kokachin and Khutulun.
Richelmy: Yes. [laughs] Kokachin and Khutulun. [Actresses] Zhu Zhu and Claudia Kim. We're telling the story of a great explorer, but he's also young now. And so we're on the way to showing how this legendary man became a legend. And so yes, he's a kid. And now he's in Mongolian culture and he loves women. So he starts off his exploring there. Because you can explore in many different ways.
Benedict Wong (as Kublai Khan) and Lorenzo Richelmy.
IGN: Marco doesn't seem to have an easy time with the Khan's son, Prince Jingim.
Richelmy: Marco becomes a confident of the Khan. And Jingim's problem with Marco isn't about Marco really. It's all about him. Because Marco isn't trying to bother anyone. And the show's great because the scope of it is massive but it's still a family drama. And Jingim will understand that his anger toward Marco is part of his own weakness. So their relationship changes a lot. And there will be some fights, of course. Jingim is afraid of Marco because he's afraid of himself as a son. So when he becomes more confident in that he won't see Marco as a threat anymore and will eventually see him as a friend.
IGN: This is an interesting time period to explore. Not many films or shows are made about Mongolian/Chinese history.
Richelmy: That's the first thing that I loved about this part. Because we have the chance to entertain a lot of people while also teaching them about this time in history. It's a period that not many people know about. And it's a little strange that we don't know all that much about one of the biggest empires ever. So we want to see how people react to this, because we put all the best into something new. There is an end to the first season, and we'll be telling the story of five years in Marco's life. And so there's more stories to tell should we come back for a Season 2. And I would of course be happy and amazed to return.
IGN: What's your favorite memory from shooting Season 1?
Richelmy: The biggest one comes from one of the last days of shooting. It was a battle scene. And I was on a horse on the top of a hill and I had to ride through three hundred extras fighting each other. With smoke, fire, craziness all around. Arrows, catapults. Two square kilometers of fighting. And my action was basically "ride as fast as you can inside it." And so, you know, I play video games so it felt like a dream to do.
IGN: What are your favorite games?
Richelmy: My favorite game of all time would be Civilization. And then I also love others. I have the new Xbox so I have Assassin's Creed, Call of Duty. Almost everything. I have a holiday after the next few weeks for about a month and I'm going to spend the whole time playing video games.
IGN: They could make an Assassin's Creed game using your show, I think.
Richelmy: That is actually amazing. That would be the biggest dream of my life. I'm not kidding. I don't need the Oscar. I don't care about the Oscar. I want to be on my couch, in Rome, playing as myself in Assassin's Creed. I can die after that.
All 10 episodes of Netflix's Marco Polo will be available to stream on Friday, December 12th.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.
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