David Carradine
David Carradine
David Carradinewas an American actor and martial artist, best known for his leading role as a peace-loving Shaolin monk, Kwai Chang Caine, in the 1970s television series Kung Fu. He was a member of a productive acting family that began with his father, John Carradine. Carradine's acting career, which included major and minor roles on stage and television, and in cinema, spanned over four decades. A prolific "B" movie actor, he appeared in more than 100 feature films and was...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth8 December 1936
CityLos Angeles, CA
CountryUnited States of America
You've got to be so hip to be into these things, and Quentin is that hip. Nobody I've ever worked with has been that hip to so much of that stuff.
Then the part comes to me and it fits like a glove because it's actually written about me, ... All I had to do was show up and learn the lines.
It turned out that this stuff that the Chinese guys do is not really kung fu. It's very different and I did need to learn how to do that.
He just understood the true destiny of the movie and what it would do for me. I mean, he's already gotten his Lifetime Achievement Award,
If you trust yourself, any choice you make will be correct. If you do not trust yourself, anything you do will be wrong. - Kung Fu, The Legend Continues -
The success of the '86 movie with Brandon Lee demanded some kind of continuation. Plus, I had always contemplated a modern version.
You know, I've never actually really believed that death is inevitable. I just think it's a rumor.
I was enough of an acrobat and a gymnast and a dancer and everything else so that I could handle the kung fu, because it's just choreography.
My big fight is not in the movie and I don't understand that decision but I know he's right about it, whatever it is. Quentin did not hire me because I'm a kung fu expert; he hired me because he liked to listen to me talk.
Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that. I just started doin' it in front of an audience and had to deliver.
I think it may have been Tom Wolfe (if it wasn't, my apologies, Tom, and my apologies to whoever it was) who said in print once, 'David Carradine lives the life that Hunter Thompson only writes about.'
Because you know how you say I've got to really get down and really do some training and then of course, you never do or you do it for a couple of weeks and slough it back off again but I'm being forced to do something that I really want to do and I loved it.
But, Tarantino has seen all of my movies. He's seen my good stuff, he's seen my bad stuff, he's seen the ones I directed, he's read my autobiography. There's an awful lot of things he knows about me, all of which I think had something to do with his casting.
I don't need to convince anybody that I know kung fu, but maybe somebody needs to know that I really can act, without doing a Chinese accent or a funny walk.