Hiroyuki Sanada’s Research Got Actor “Beaten” For a Flop Movie Role Despite Claiming “It Was So Much Fun”
Japanese actor and martial artist Hiroyuki Sanada is known for his prominent roles in 1998’s Ring, 2002’ The Twilight Samurai, 2003’ The Last Samurai, 2007’s Rush Hour 3, 2008’s Speed Racer, 2021’s Army of the Dead, and many more. The actor also starred as Hanzo Hassashi/ Scorpion in 2021’s Mortal Kombat directed by Simon McQuoid from a screenplay by Greg Russo and Dave Callaham.
2021’s Mortal Kombat was based on the video game series of the same name and served as the reboot and the third installment of the Mortal Kombat film franchise. The movie on its premiere received mixed reviews from the audience and the critics, but the performances of the artists along with the action sequences were praised. But did you know Hiroyuki Sanada prepared for his character in a very interesting and fun way? Let’s find out.
Hiroyuki Sanada says he felt a pressure while portraying Scorpion
During an interview with EW, actor Hiroyuki Sanada who played Scorpion in 2021’s Mortal Kombat shared that he had never played a Mortal Kombat game before, and for his role of an iconic fighter, he did research his history for some perspective. The actor shared his character has two famous words (Come here or Get over here), a punchline, or something that he enjoyed.
The martial artist continued to share,
“When I performed that signature move with the words in the rehearsal on set for the first time, I had a great reaction from the cast and the crew. They said, ‘Yeah! I’ve waiting for this moment.’ Then I realized how popular this movie is. This was my first time playing a famous game character. Everyone known his weapons and style. So, I felt a lot of pressure.”
Hiroyuki Sanada who is a trained martial artist who has been training since he was 13 years old added that he had conversations with the choreographer and the stunt team about the fighting style of his character in the movie as he desired to create an original style. The actor noted that since his character also known as Hanzo Hasashi is of Japanese descent, he wanted to make his moves come out as authentic as he could. He shared that each fight in the movie has a reason with an emotion.
Hiroyuki Sanada on how he prepared for the character Scorpion
The actor who had already acknowledged that he had never played a game of Mortal Kombat decided to dive into his computer screen to not only play the game for real but also to understand the character’s fighting style. He according to IANSLife said,
“I was on location on another film and went to a game center where I found the classic game. I put the coin in and tried to find Scorpion and Sub-Zero, to figure out those characters. Of course I was beaten every time, just losing and losing.”
The actor continued,
“But I kept at the games to keep learning stories, the background and the characters. It was so much fun.”
Hiroyuki Sanada acknowledged that his character was cool and he loved his weapons and fighting style but as mentioned in his EW interview he did feel some pressure to make sure that he got the character right. He also revealed that before he was even offered the part, fans used to Photoshop his face on the body of Scorpion so when he was offered the part, it felt like a full circle.
