IN BETWEEN REHEARSING for the two sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean, gathering financing for a couple of self-produced projects and polishing rewrites on an action-packed thriller he's overseeing, Philip Tan seldom has time for interviews.
'I'm working non-stop these days,' says Singapore-born Tan, whose many job descriptions include actor, stuntman, stunt choreographer and trainer and second unit director. And, if all goes well, Tan will soon be able to add writer/director/producer to that list.
Tan is one of a tiny number of minority actors who work regularly. 'Asians here get just 1 per cent of the available work,' says Tan, citing better odds for Hispanics (8 per cent) and African-Americans (15 per cent). 'The only reason I'm working all the time is because I do five different jobs. Otherwise, I don't think I'd be nearly this busy.'
Tan, 44, is speaking near his home in Reseda, just outside Los Angeles, in between jaunts to and from Barbados and the Virgin Islands, where both Pirates sequels are being filmed back-to-back. He is cast as one of a band of Asian pirates out to kill the characters played by Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, and has just filmed a spectacular opening scene with Chow Yun-fat, who plays the baddie. With a couple of other independent projects on the table, and a new high-profile Bud Light beer commercial, Tan says he's come a long way since he first got into acting, in 1980, when he had a small role and was a fight choreographer for The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu, starring Peter Sellers. But even his foray into films was unexpected.
Tan, whose father started the Marco Polo hotel chain in Singapore and whose uncle owns the CK Tang department store there, moved to London with his family when he was eight, where his father started the Singapore Garden chain of restaurants (there are now five).
He was a natural athlete and martial artist, a British Youth Tumbling Champion and the men's British taekwando champion. 'I was always competing,' he says. 'It was just really fun.' Ultimately, it led him to movies.