Luke Evans stars in ‘Weekend in Taipei’.
Opening in theaters on November 8th is the new action film ‘Weekend in Taipei‘, which was directed by George Huang (“Swimming with Sharks’), based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Luc Besson (‘Lucy’), and stars Luke Evans (‘The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey’ and ‘Fast & Furious 6‘) and Sung Kang (‘Fast X’).
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Luke Evans about his work on ‘Weekend in Taipei’, his first reaction to the screenplay, his character’s personal history, shooting the action sequences, working with the cast, reuniting with ‘Fast & Furious 6’ co-star Sung Kang, collaborating with director George Huang on set, and what he learned from Luc Besson.
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Luke Evans in ‘Weekend in Taipei’. Photo: EuropaCorp.
Moviefone: To begin with, can you talk about your first reaction to the screenplay?
Luke Evans: I mean, the script was just very entertaining. It just felt like a very fun character. I got to move to Taipei for three months. Taipei became such an incredible part of the story. We were able to shoot in all those amazing locations in the city. Luc Besson and George Huang wrote a beautiful script, and it’s just full of everything. There are amazing fight sequences, and great action pieces. There’s a strong emotional core with the relationship between my character and Gwei Lun-mei‘s character. You really root for these people, and there’s humor to it. There’s a bit of tongue-in-cheek charm that my character has. We tried to bring all of that to the story. I really loved it.
MF: What can you say about John and Joey’s past together?
LE: Yeah, so John met Joey (Gwei Lun-mei) 15 years prior to where the story begins and had to leave her there. It all gets explained in the film as to why this happened. But little did he realize that when he left, she was pregnant with their child, and he has no contact with her. His job demands that he cuts all ties with everybody. He loses the love of his life and goes back to Minneapolis and carries on just doing his job and doesn’t find anybody else. Joey brings up their son, and then he comes back to Taipei. Not to meet them; he doesn’t even know that they exist or anything. Then he finds out that they’re there, and they are integral to the storyline. He then must change his priorities as to why he’s there. Now it’s to protect them, his new family, which he didn’t think he had.
(L to R) Wyatt Yang and Gwei Lun-mei in ‘Weekend in Taipei’. Photo: EuropaCorp.
MF: What was it like working with Gwei Lun-mei and the young actor who plays Raymond, Wyatt Yang?
LE: Obviously my first connection was with these two lovely people. We get on very well. Anyway, they’re very lovely. Wyatt was just so charming and innocent and unfazed by everything, impressively, because he’d never been on a film set before. This was his first job, and he just took it all in his stride. Mei, who is just so gracious; she just exudes charm. She is just this beautiful energy and very kind. We just clicked very quickly, and we just became this little family unit, and enjoyed the journey together. We tried to make it fun, and it was. There was a lot of fun moments. Yeah, it was lovely.
MF: Can you talk about shooting the action sequences?
LE: Well, they were full-on. Obviously, I do my stunts as much as I can. So, I came three weeks before we started shooting, and spent every day with the stunt department. We had the French stunt coordinator with his team, and then we had the Taiwanese stunt coordinator, and then a translator that was translating between English, French, and Taiwanese. There was a lot of back-and-forth, but we somehow made it work. Three weeks of rehearsal put me in good stead then to be able to do the stunts and the fights.
Sung Kang in ‘Weekend in Taipei’. Photo: EuropaCorp.
MF: What was it like reuniting with your ‘’Fast & Furious 6′ co-star Sung Kang?
LE: Lovely. I mean, he’s such a gentleman; and he’s great in the movie. We didn’t have a lot to do with each other in ‘Fast 6’. Obviously, I met him when we did the press tour. I spent a lot of time with him. He’s just wonderful, and he’s a lovely partner. So, this time it was nice to play against him on the screen. He’s playing the bad guy, and I’m playing the good guy for once.
MF: What was it like collaborating with George Huang and Luc Besson on set?
LE: Well, it was wonderful. I mean, it was a very collaborative experience from the outset, and George steered the ship beautifully. It was lovely to have a Taiwanese American director who had co-written the script with Luc Besson. Having Luc there as well: he was around, and it was nice to have conversations and talk about development and what we were doing. We were all very happy to be there. Remember, this was very much a time when a lot of productions in the world had come to a standstill. We were very lucky to get one of those allowances to keep shooting. So, we all felt very lucky to be working, and it was wonderful. I mean, we were all having the best time. Taipei is amazing. You should go visit.
Luke Evans in ‘Weekend in Taipei’. Photo: EuropaCorp.
MF: Finally, you also worked with Luc Besson in 2019’s ‘Anna’. What have you learned from working with him on these two movies?
LE: I mean, Luc has many stories. He’s worked with the great and the good, and he is a great storyteller. I know many stories: which I could never tell you, because that would be breaking my code of confidentiality with my friend Luc. But he does have many fun stories to tell. We had many dinners: me, Luc, George, Mei; they work very well together, George and Luc. I think that’s a partnership that we will see a lot more of, I think, as we go forward.
“Pack for a long weekend”
A former DEA agent and a former undercover operative revisit their romance during a fateful weekend in Taipei, unaware of the dangerous consequences of their past. Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Weekend in Taipei’?
John Lawlor (Luke Evans), a committed American Drug Enforcement Administration agent, fell in love with Joey (Gwei Lun-mei), a Taipei-based transporter, but was forced to separate due to the disruption of criminal and corruption activities. 15 years later, the duo is reunited when Lawlor is on a mission in Taipei.
Who is in the cast of ‘Weekend in Taipei’?
Luke Evans in ‘Weekend in Taipei’. Photo: EuropaCorp.
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