John Cho tore his ACL while making Cowboy Bebop, felt guilty for delay

Netflix has a live action adaptation of the classic futuristic western anime series, Cowboy Bebop. It’s out on November 19th. John Cho plays the titular role of Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir is playing Jet Black and Alex Hassel is Vicious the villain. Filming had to go on hiatus for several months because John Cho tore his ACL during a night shoot. John was interviewed by Vulture. He discussed the pressure he felt to get the character of Spike right due to the cultural significance, and how he had to diet and exercise to get the correct body type for the film. He also talked about an injury he suffered which delayed filming. Below are a few more highlights from Vulture:

On his diet and workout for the role
The regimen was to become functionally athletic rather than show-horse athletic. But, yeah, I had to watch what I ate. I did have to take my shirt off in the first episode, which was really stressful.

On if it was the “most physically demanding role” he’s had
[Inhales.] Yeah. It was actually a cool lesson. As a nonathletic person, I was kind of a dick the other way. I didn’t give that kind of acting enough credit. I was a … nerd snob. For this role, everything came from training; my character decisions came from that. Training is also a more accurate parallel to how to get a good performance. When I was younger, I thought I could tap into some sort of muse and have the thing strike me. But it’s actually more banal and harder than that, which is you just drill it, drill it, drill it until it’s muscle memory. That’s something, when I was 19, that I wouldn’t have wanted to hear. I fancied myself an artiste — that if I could hear the right piece of music before a scene, I would get into character.

On production shutting down because of his knee injury
For some reason Netflix originally didn’t want to publicize what happened, but I [tore] my ACL.

It was real wonky. We had been shooting all night, and I was doing kind of an athletic move as the sun was coming up. It was probably a lack of sleep. Just a little move and [I was down]. So that was a low moment. It was 5:30 Saturday morning when I arrived at the emergency room and it was filled with people who had gotten super drunk on Friday night and then got in a fight or fell and cracked their heads open. Ironically a sobering experience. Then you have your surgery and you go into rehab. I’m at home doing these knee exercises, and coming off the drugs, I was thinking about Cowboy Bebop. Doing those knee exercises, I was like, I gotta put my focus into this. So I think that’s also fueling my fear. [Laughs.] This interview is all about me freaking out. But the amount of thought and worry and effort and number of days I’ve logged thinking about Spike is now equaling the fear I have about the reaction.

On his mindset during physical therapy
I wanted to shore up any deficiencies in my body. It’s really hard to tell what precipitates a freak injury like that, so I was determined to come back stronger. I felt very guilty that I had let the production down, and my cast, and the crew in New Zealand that had had a job, and then they didn’t the next day. And I didn’t feel that I could come back and half-ass this role. I had to take it deadly seriously. It was people’s livelihoods and I wanted every single person on the set to know that I was doing my best every single day. Which sounds Boy Scout-ish, but it was the truth. Maybe it was an apology that took a whole season for me to express. Because I felt so responsible for that upheaval in a whole crew’s lives.

[From Vulture]

I have not fallen down the anime hole yet, but I have a friend who is a huge Cowboy Bebop fan. My friend said that the original series soundtrack was the biggest draw and that she and her first husband played songs from it at their wedding. My friend also disliked the casting. She said that it is implied that Spike is biracial (Black & Asian) and Jet Black was not ethnically Black but more along the lines of a Jason Momoa and Taylor Lautner and that John Cho would have been a great Vicious. With that being said, I really like John Cho and I think he’ll be able to pull off the character. I would like to see more Asian action heroes on my screen. I felt John when he said that his fear has been building up around Spike and that he thinks about the character often. I hope that the actors do these characters justice. I also hope that the producers of the live action series take their cues from the original series’ soundtrack. As for John, the new series probably won’t hinge on his performance because he’ll have that in the bag, but on production and the other cast members.

Photos credit: Geoffrey Short for Netflix