Film director Luc Besson yesterday praised the Taiwanese cast and crew members who contributed to his action thriller Lucy, saying everyone worked together like a football team when the film was shot in Taipei last year.
Speaking at a press conference in Taipei, Besson said one of his fears when arriving in a foreign country is the uncertainty over the competence of the local cast and crew.
However, after meeting with the Taiwanese actors, the director said he was “quite surprised” by how well they could perform and he was able to select from a pool of talented actors.
Taiwanese actors Hsing Feng (邢峰) and Ken Lin (林暐恆), better known as A-ken (阿Ken), and Taiwanese American actor Mason Lee (李淳) play minor roles in the film.
US actress and two-time Esquire “sexiest woman alive” Scarlett Johansson plays the title role of a US woman living and studying in Taipei who is forced to become a drug mule for a mob.
When asked to rate the performance of the Taiwanese cast and crew, Besson playfully quoted the film’s namesake character Lucy: “No, in fact there are no letters and no numbers.”
“Otherwise, I will say out of 10, I will give 12,” he said.
He also said the crew, which included people from France and other countries as well as Taiwan, functioned like a cohesive football team, despite speaking different languages.
However, in an interview with local press later in the day, Besson said he cast South Korean actor Choi Min-sik instead of a Taiwanese actor as the villain — Mr Jang — because Choi was the better choice.
Taiwanese actors still have “a little work to do” to reach Choi’s level of performance, the director said.
Besson was accompanied at the press conference by his producer wife, Virginie Silla.
The couple arrived in Taiwan on Sunday to promote Lucy, which is to premiere in Taipei today.
Discussing the motivation behind his latest film, Besson said he wanted to make a thriller with a philosophical message that looked at the question of what people do when they have power.
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