KICKING BUTT WITH MICHELLE KHAN

Michelle Khan is one of the few leading actresses who actually is revered for the stunts she pulls on set. As the female lead opposite Jackie Chan in the new action thriller Supercop (Miramax), this former Miss Malaysia and prima ballerina is absolutely stunning and positively inspirational as she battles countless martial artists--mostly men--against a backdrop laden with speeding trains, cars and motorbikes. And make no mistake. This woman, the top female martial artist in Hong Kong, does every stunt herself. LAUNCH senior editor Deborah Russell met with Khan in L.A. just prior to the July 26 premiere of Supercop, Khan's first major U.S. release. The following is an excerpt of their conversation:

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LAUNCH: How did you come to be an actress and the top female martial artist in Hong Kong? Was this a goal you've been after for some time?

KHAN: Actually, if they told me 15 years ago that I would be an actress, I would laugh. I always wanted to be a dancer. Ever since I could walk, I was dancing. I was in the Royal Academy of Dance in England. Then I had an accident and I had to give up physical dancing. I got a degree in choreography and minored in drama. I hated it with a passion. I never thought of being an actress until I got to Hong Kong. Then they threw in the martial arts. First I was a dancer, then an actress, then I became a martial artist.

LAUNCH: It would seem that your dancing background would be a tremendous boon to your career as a martial artist. Is that true?

KHAN: I was a little ballerina. The two didn't seem to mix at that time. But since I got into the action scene, I've had to adapt my dance and ballet training into my action and martial arts. That's been a tremendous asset. I'm agile, very coordinated and I listen to instructions very well. I'm able to mimic things very well, which is important in doing an action movie. At the end of the day, though, dancing and martial arts are still two very different things. They're similar, because they are both movement. But one is very graceful and held within, while the other has to come out. The force has to be there.

LAUNCH: I understand that it's very important to you that you perform your own stunts. But Jackie Chan's movies have notoriously outrageous action sequences. Did you ever reconsider, and think about using a stand-in?

KHAN: If you ask Jackie, he would say: "Women should not fight. They should stay looking pretty and be in the kitchen. Except for Michelle." He had to put that in there. I do all my own stunts. And I think that is the only reason why I am able to stay up at the top in the Asian action industry because they have been exposed to martial arts and action forever. Since Bruce Lee and Jackie and all these good artists who are really good at what they do. So for me to come in, first of all, as a non-martial artist, I had to work double hard, overtime, to prove to the guys that I can do it and I can do it well. Otherwise, it's a guy with a wig going through the motions and you wouldn't feel for the character. It would be just like if Jackie didn't do his own stunts. How do you feel for the character?

LAUNCH: I guess that it's "all in a day's work," but your work is very extreme. When you're finished with a stunt, or you see the movie for the first time, are you ever just stunned that it's you doing these things?

KHAN: I'm proud of this movie. Period. Because there's been so many things that we did in there that, physically, I'm amazed I'm sitting here talking to you in one piece. I don't know how many lives I've used up trying to get all that [action] in that one movie. Because I was working with Jackie, you know, the whole crew was really rooting for us. It really drove us to a step beyond what we normally do. The director would come up to me and say, "We want to do this motor bike stunt." And I was like: "Okay, teach me how to ride a bike first. That's important for the stunt." And two weeks before the stunt that's what they did. And when you see the stunt, you're not going to believe that anybody--forget that it's me--that anybody in their right frame of mind would do it. I don't know why I did it at that time, but I'm very glad I did it. Until today, I don't know how to ride a bike, in the sense that I don't know how to stop a bike because all I learned was to get on there, rev it up and jump off that cliff onto that moving train. And that's it. That's my extent of riding a bike. Put me on a normal road: Disaster.

LAUNCH: Were you ever really scared? What's the most frightening thing that happened while you were filming Supercop?

KHAN: There's one part where I roll off a van on to a moving car that's coming from behind. Luckily Jackie was in that car. And the stunt went wrong. When you're moving, the vehicles just go whenever and wherever they want and you can't control it. And so you think that's where I'm gonna fall and when it moves you just fall somewhere else and that's what I did. And I started to slide off the car headfirst. And there's nothing for you to hold on. You're just going. Luckily, Jackie was there, and he grabbed me. He's like my hero. And then I go tumbling off...but fortunately, not head first. Things like that, a lot of people would think: That's it. Even Jackie said, "That's it. She's not going up on that car again. Nobody in their right frame of mind is going to do that stunt again." And then, my director, who knows me too well, says "Well...?" and he looked to me and I said, "Let's do it again. Because now I know what went wrong and what not to do. And it's not going to happen again." You have to stay very focused and forget the pain.

LAUNCH: That's amazing.

KHAN: As long as we don't need to be operated on or carted off to the hospital, the show must go on. You know that if you take a rest now, you're going to come back and do it, so you might as well just get to it and do it now.

LAUNCH: Have you found that you get treated differently because you are a such a strong and powerful woman?

KHAN: A lot of people get intimidated at first. Especially when I'm working. I have this persona where I am very tough. I put up with a lot of pain and injury. A lot of times I might hide the fact that I am hurting until we get the shot. It's only later, in the trailer that you moan and groan. Everybody on the set treats me like a guy, almost. They forget. And it's good, it's very important. When I first started to do action movies, when fighting with stunt boys, they were wary, they don't want to beat up on a woman, especially if she's going to cry every time she takes a hit. In Hong Kong we do very real hand to hand combat. We hit each other very hard and with great accuracy. So I would have to hit these guys twice as hard, just to get the message across that I'm hitting you so you better hit me back because I'm going to keep hitting you. The director is not going to okay the shot until it looks like I've been hit. So I'd rather have two really hard takes, hard hits, than 15 semi-I'm-coming-at-you-but-I'm-not-going-to-hit-you-because-you're-a-woman kind of hit. It took a while, but I think I have a group of stunt boys in Hong Kong who are very proud of me. They've literally brought me to where I am. I can kick butt and they can be proud.

LAUNCH: What keeps this fun and interesting for you?

KHAN: I love the thrill and I love the challenge. You would not be able to do any of this in real life. But the thrill of jumping off the second floor, hopping onto a bike, fighting four guys at the same time, fighting five guys who are coming at you with swords and you're so alert. Unless you're there it's difficult to convey. But when you watch the movie, you really feel it. That's very exciting to me.

LAUNCH: Do you have a special regimen to stay in top fighting shape?

KHAN: On the normal day, if I'm not filming, I would run for an hour and a half, then go to the gym. I don't do heavy weights; you don't have to be big to have power. I need speed. The most important thing is to be very accurate with what you are doing. When you are fighting with someone, you both have to be incredibly accurate because your punches and your kicks have to go exactly where you want it to go. So, I do 200 or 300 front kicks, side kicks, back kicks and turning kicks. I just do very basic things. That is a normal day. Then I go play squash or go swimming. Something like that.

LAUNCH: Are there action stars who you emulate? What have they taught you?

KHAN: I look at Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jackie Chan, and I know that these people have worked at it. I admire their discipline, their dedication to their work. I can't really mold myself to be them. They are men, twice my size, and can be very dominating in that way. As a woman, I have to use my feminine side to get me in the fight. And then, once I'm in the fight, then I start to fight in my own way. So I've had to work it all out. I steal from Bruce Lee and elsewhere. What I emulate from them is the focus, the eyes, the power that comes. And the rest of the time you just have to work really, really hard.

2Way Media, copyright 1997.