Japanese American actor Brian Tee who played Hamada, the leader of the Asset Containment Unit in Jurassic World and the Drift King in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift says he enjoys working in gargantuan, blockbuster films. On the phone from Chicago, Brian talks of his fascination for dinosaurs and the fun of acting in front of the green screen. Excerpts.
What preparation did you do for your role in Jurassic World ?
I did military training my character would have gone through, security ops kind of stuff. And once on the sets, I took the lead from Colin (Trevorrow, director) and told the story the best way I could. I am such a fan, I was so incredibly happy to be there. We shot in Hawaii, where I love shooting. It is the kind of situation where you soak in everything like a sponge.
Also, when you are working with dinosaurs in a film, you have to use imagination because unfortunately dinosaurs don’t exist now. As far as visualisation goes, we were looking at a lot of tennis balls and dots and pretending there is a giant dinosaur there.
That was my next question, how difficult is it to act in front of a green screen?
It is a skill that all of us actors now have to have because of technology and the growth of it. You have to act across a dot on the wall — it is just one of those situations, the reality of our business. It is a skill we all need to learn. I feel it is the closest thing we can do as a grown up that we used to do as a child. As a child, you imagined everything and it was real. As a child you imagined that there were dinosaurs, giant creatures or ghosts, that was your reality.
That is why I love being a part of Jurassic World because as a kid I imagined dinosaurs, and now I get to be a kid again.
What was your favourite part of Jurassic Park ?
My favourite part was when no one knows where the T-Rex is and the cup of water starts to ripple on the dashboard. That was so tense, such an incredible moment.
How old were you when you watched Jurassic Park ?
Gosh! How old was I? I am doing the math right now. I think it came out in the early Nineties, in ‘93, I am 40 now so I was like 17? I look younger than I am!
Were you fascinated with dinosaurs as a child?
I think as kids, everyone is fascinated with dinosaurs, I definitely was. It is the ultimate big, huge, monster. I watched all these movies like King Kong and Godzilla when I was growing up and the fact that dinosaurs actually lived on this earth, the fact that they are not fake made them very fascinating.
Did you have dinosaur stuff as a kid?
I probably did. I had a lot of funky things as a kid. I had dinosaurs and comic book stuff. I was eccentric, imagination drove my décor; dinosaurs for sure were in there!
You were part of the Fast and Furious franchise as well. What are the pros and cons of being part of a big franchise?
I don’t think there are any cons. I love being part of these giant, epic movies. I take great pride in being part of them. The pros are everything that you see — the level of filmmaking, it is being in a feature film at the highest levels, doing it at the maximum capacity that you can, that is what these giant blockbusters do. They don’t skimp on anything. As far as an actor is concerned that is what you want.
How was it working with Irrfan Khan?
Actually Irrfan and me didn’t work together in Jurassic World . We were unfortunately in separate locations.
He is an incredible actor, world renowned, I would have loved to even say hello or share the screen with him but unfortunately our schedules in this movie didn’t quite dictate that. But obviously I have been fan and hopefully we could share a scene in the future.
Jurassic World premiers on October 16 at 1 pm and 9 pm on Sony Pix
