Tony Jaa interview :In french : ? Hello, I?m Tony Jaa, in theaters, in Ong-Bak ?.


?In general, I train myself eight hours a day, sometimes less, sometimes more. I work especially the fights, with or without weapons, gymnastics also. I make limbering-up exercises and I try to find some new moves, more complex, more physical'.

"I work on the movie preparation during three years. Three years of preparation, plus four years of Muay Thai training".

"At the beginning, I trained and prepared myself with my Master Panna Rittikrai : he?s a stuntman and a Muay Thai Master. We realized some movies and presented them to Prachya Pinkaew, the director, so he could see what we were able to do. Then we met, Panna Rittikrai, Prachya Pinkaew and me, and we decided to present the Muay Tha? martial art in the form of a movie.
We needed four years to write and work the action scenes after a long choreography work with my Master and the stuntmen.
First, our training was based on Muay Thai, then we worked on the acting with the stuntmen in order to produce pictures that seem real as much as possible.
I wanted to present my abilities that I develop since a long time. That?s why I don?t want to resort to cables. I want to show to the public that we can do real and authentic things.
The blows were real during the filming but also during training. There were real fights but we had protection measure for the feet and the head. There were training that demanded a lot of mastery.
We had to be able to make strong blows that seem real and to cushion them carefully for not being wounded.
Sometimes, on certain shooting, the stuntmen and I accept mutually to receive real blows into the face. We are happy ! We are happy to receive blows when the result is good. When the shooting is good, we have more energy".




"There?s a scene with the Tuk-Tuk where I fall into the river. At that moment, my shirt clung to the car and I wasn?t able to release me. So I calmed myself, I thinked about my father and Buddha, and just after I came through. But nevertheless, I drank a cup of this river".



"Actually, I love Martial Arts because whatever their origin country, they bring us a kind of life philosophy who permit you to be well with oneself".

"I?m someone rather simple and solitary. I like a lot the nature and I have a strong connection with elephants because we had two domestic elephants in my family. I?m also Buddhist. That?s why I like to isolate myself and pray sometimes close to Buddha. I like meditation".



(Sure I made a lot of mistakes in my translation !! Sorry

).