Samurai Girl's Brendan Fehr and Jamie Chung
The popular series of novels about a feisty young woman's quest to learn the truth about her family and embrace her destiny will be a six hour mini-series on ABC Family starting September 5th. We got to briefly chat with co-stars Brendan Fehr (of "Roswell" fame) and pretty newcomer Jamie Chung who plays lead character Heaven. As Jake Stanton, Brendan teaches Heaven martial arts tricks and helps prepare her for her true destiny as a Samurai warrior. First we cornered Brendan....
TeenTelevision: Brendan, tell us all about your character Jake on "Samurai Girl".
Brendan: My character is an ex-Army brat who had some involvement with the Yakuza [Japanese Mafia], in terms of possibly doing some extracurricular work for them. And you get the sense that he's now trying to change his life around and he's in hiding. Heaven comes along and you find out that I was her brother's best friend so she asks for help because she feels that her family has been infiltrated by the Yakuza.
TeenTelevision: How are you like Jake and how very different?
Brendan: [laughs] My character is much more dangerous than I am! You've always got to find something that you have in common with the character even if it's just the smallest things. I think his stubbornness. I think I hold that in common with a lot of characters I play. Characters who, for whatever reason are on the outside. It's not that I've ever felt on the outside but I do appreciate being alone. It's something that recharges my batteries and I hold that in common with a lot of my characters.
TeenTelevision: Okay, Jamie, this mini-series requires a lot of action out of you. What was the training like? Were you familiar already with martial arts?
Jamie: The most martial arts experience I had was tae kwon do for two weeks, and I sprained my finger and I quit.[we laugh]. The stunt guys did a fantastic job training us, teaching us the basic moves, teaching us the fight choreography, making it look sharp.
TeenTelevision: Did you gradually become more comfortable with the action stuff and swinging a sword?
Jamie: Absolutely. I became more comfortable with the rest of the actors and more comfortable with my fighting, and, actually, I'm very comfortable with a sword. For the fight choreography when we started to learn the fights, we used wooden katanas, and then we moved to aluminum swords for safety, and there's always a prop sword, and whenever necessary, we used the real sword. But, yes, it was heavy, and these are the guns that I got because of them (she flexes her biceps).
TeenTelevision: Looking great. You shot this in Vancouver yet there are some great Japanese-looking locations.
Jamie: The location scouts did a great job. There are beautiful oriental gardens, a beautiful mansion with a koi pond, gorgeous trees.
TeenTelevision: You are in this spectacular wedding gown. What was it like to get into that?
Jamie: Well, it took about an hour to put on and you needed three people to do it. We matched it to the book so it's just layers and layers and it's gorgeous, and I think I lost about 5 pounds wearing that thing! But it was beautiful and very authentic but it's coincidentally Halloween so I fit right in [when I leave the wedding].
TeenTelevision: Did you read the books, either for research or fun?
Jamie: Even before I booked the job, I read the first book. And I was given the books after. And they're just page-turners. Can't put them down.
TeenTelevision: How much are you like the Heaven in the books?
Jamie: Well, the true spirit of Heaven is well-represented in the show, so I think we did a good job staying true to the books with Heaven's character.
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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.
