Exclusive Interview with ART HSU, starring in CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE

Art Hsu shows off his acting talents in CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE, his first leading role in a major Hollywood movie.

He shares with AC's Suzanne Joe Kai his goal to avoid playing just another Asian bad-guy stereotype and how he turned his CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE role into a 3-dimensional bad-ass, insane Chinese mobster with heart.

AC: Congratulations on your role in CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE.

The trailers look pretty exciting! The car chase trailer has fast cars, screaming, and was that you giving the "finger?" in the trailer? haha!

Can you describe your character in the movie?

ART HSU: I play a character named Johnny Vang, who can be described as a bad-ass, badly dressed Triad mobster. He has some rank and seniority within the Triad organization, and works directly for the big boss (played by David Carradine), who is in need of a new heart to replace his ancient, aging one.

So my character is in charge of removing Chev Chelios’ indestructible heart, and delivering it to be transplanted in the big boss.

To keep Chelios alive for his organs to be farmed, a battery-powered ticker is put into him that needs to remain electrically charged in order to keep pumping. And that’s where the craziness begins.

AC: What were your biggest challenges in filming this movie?

ART HSU: I guess I had two major challenges with this role: the first was of a physical nature; the second dealt with creating an Asian bad guy on screen.

I knew there was going to be a lot of running, jumping, and scaling required because of the genre and nature of the film. Jason Statham did all of his own stunts in the original CRANK, and I knew he would most likely be doing them again in this one too. So I wanted to keep up with him.

The two co-directors, Neveldine & Taylor, were also pretty keen on letting us do the action sequences ourselves, so I had to get myself physically ready to do all that stuff.

I started doing more running and sprinting to regain speed I knew I had, but hadn’t used in a while. I wanted to create the explosiveness out of the block that I knew Statham was going to be bringing. I also hit the weights to build up a bit more and get physically stronger, and increased my caloric intake. Nothing can really prepare you for the experience of being chased at full speed by Jason Statham in full character, except for doing it though, so the adrenaline rush helped as well.

The acting challenges were a bit different. I wanted to make Johnny Vang respectable. Not good-citizen respectable, but bad-ass, badly dressed Chinese mobster respectable. It was kind of important to me that he did not fall into typical bad-guy stereotypes.

I wanted to create a character people would consider three-dimensional. This was a challenge because the initial concept for Crank was similar to that of a video game. And video game characters are usually two-dimensional.

So to make people see this guy as a person (albeit a demented one), creating a strong back story was very important, as was making sure there were enough good transitions in the acting to convey his very human emotional states.

The character is inherently “bad” - which is a relative statement, because Chev is not actually "good."

It was established in the first film that Chelios is a hired assassin and killer.

But back to the point: Johnny Vang is bad. He is insane. But if you look closer, he’s not just a punk.

He is a street smart guy. He knows how to get things done and how to get himself out of sticky situations. He doesn't take any crap from people, and possesses a completely liberated soul. He has freed himself from society’s rules and dictates.

He also manages to maintain a hardcore toughness when dealing with his often-time stronger enemies. He takes them on as hard as he can, until he has no choice but to resort to other means.

I wanted to create a character that was freaky, but who also had some heart, and lived his life as such. So the challenge was trying to do all these things given the parameters of the storyline and the limited dialogue.

It was trying to do as much as possible while working with the box.

AC: Art, you have quite a diverse background. You were born in Flushing, New York to immigrant parents, Allen, a research systems developer and Susan, a school teacher and administrator.

You graduated from Boston College with a Business major, and also earned a graduate degree in business from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito School of Management from the Claremont Colleges, plus you have acting training from the East West Players Theatre in Los Angeles.

Can you share with us how and when the "acting bug" hit you?

ART HSU I was the kid in school who was constantly going up in front of the class for show & tell, participated in talent shows, and ran for student office.

I always enjoyed doing things that involved being in front of people, and I guess that desire stuck with me as I got older.

My first actual experience on a stage was doing stand-up comedy with a classmate during the second grade. The routine essentially consisted of us telling jokes, but by sheer instinct, I started pretending to whisper punch lines into my partner's ear while he was talking, only he didn't know it.

This impromptu straight man/funny man bit made the audience laugh.

Then they started to really laugh, and when he looked over at me, I quickly turned the other way and acted like I wasn’t doing anything. He went back to his joke, and when I did it again, it brought the house down. That was the first time the “acting bug” really bit me.

AC: With your business degrees, do you see yourself merging both business and acting in the future?

ART HSU I think in some ways, being an aspiring actor is similar to being an entrepreneur, with yourself being the actual product/service.

You have to create the best product you can. And you have to market your product. And you have to be interested in continuously improving your product and processes.

And yes, I definitely interested in perhaps developing some projects on my own, so I do see myself merging the two fields in the more traditional sense.

AC: How were you selected for your role in this movie?

ART HSU: To accentuate the aesthetic nature of the character, I had several large, temporary dragon tattoos put on my neck and arms, and walked around in them for several days.

I went in and auditioned for one of the co-directors and a producer, got a call from the casting director saying they wanted me to come in again, and went in the following week and read for the two co-directors together.

I thought the second read was good, but wasn't completely sure if I had sold them on it, so I went home and mailed a letter and a DVD to both directors.

In the letter, I explained my thoughts on the back story of the character, and my take on the source of his insanity.

The DVD was a short film about an immigrant brother and sister that I had shot the previous year. I went on in the letter to link the character I was reading for to the brother role in the short film.

I got the call the following week offering the part. The funny thing is this: they never watched the short film. Actually, they didn't even get the packages until the same day I was cast about an hour later. And then they ended up saying, "Wait, didn't we already cast this guy?"

I am proud of that short film; it won a Student Academy Award that year. I am also proud of the work we did in CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE. It’s not your traditional popcorn movie, but hopefully it will find its audience, domestically and abroad.

And I hope for the chance to take on more good roles in the future, and to continue entertaining people as best as I can.

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For your chance to win a CRANK HIGH VOLTAGE prize pack, which will include the original CRANK on DVD, email your full name, daytime telephone number, and age to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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