Will Yun Lee

HK Magazine: Tell us about your role in “The Wolverine.”
Will Yun Lee: I play a character named Harada. I can’t give too much away except to say that he’s a mysterious character, and you have to wait until the end to see how he falls out. Director James Mangold made all of the characters very complex, but there’s a lot they want to keep under wraps now. In the audition, I had to sign a release and read the scene behind sealed doors. The character’s name was “Mario” in the audition script.

HK: As an Asian-American, do you find yourself limited in the roles you get offered?
WYL: There are characters that you want to play, and characters you just want to make the most out of. As an Asian-American, you are often playing the villainous character—trying to plan some way to kill a million people in one night. But you get what you get and you make the best of it. Honestly, the roles that appeal to me most are the ones where people speak like people. But those are definitely few and far between. You can get in trouble when playing bad guys. You have to go for the truth of the character. Can’t go too far off the deep end.

HK: How do you like working in Asia?
WYL: I’ve only really worked in Asia twice [on the movies “Four Assassins” and “Lost for Words”]—both in Hong Kong. I just love Hong Kong. It’s definitely one of my favorite places to shoot: the nightlife; the city life; every bathroom is perfect; everyone spoke English. On the film side, the crews are fantastic and efficient. But they do it with artifice. By the time I sat down from rehearsing lines, the lights were already set up. It reminded me of why I got into movies in the first place. Going to Hong Kong with those two projects really opened my eyes to a world that I don’t think existed for me before.

HK: How did you get started?
WYL: I went to Berkeley and I thought I was going to go to law school. My dad was getting older, and there was a point where he was was too old to teach at his Taekwondo school. I took over his school, and then I opened two more. But I was so naïve-slash-borderline-dumb that I just drove off to LA one day. The dojos back home were eventually sold off to some students.

HK: Any advice for young up-and-coming actors?
WYL: It’s the same thing I told my little brother:  if acting is something you can live without, then go without. You have to be willing to be poor for a long time. If you have a good plan B, do the plan B. For me, when I said I was going to be an actor that was the only thing I wanted to do, and there was no other plan.

HK: If someone pitches you a film idea, what are you looking for in it?
WYL: Character. As an Asian actor, you don’t get many chances to carry a lead. I’m so used to sitting in the far hall all the way in the back, and it’s sort of nice to be there front and center and be working through a scene. In general I just love two people talking. We do so little of that as Asian actors in LA.