Why the new Magnificent Seven has an Asian cowboy

SINGAPORE – Here is a did-you-know moment: Apparently, Asian cowboys did exist in history, according to Antoine Fuqua. The director of acclaimed films Training Day and The Equalizer was in Singapore in June to discuss his latest film, The Magnificent Seven, which is about seven outlaws in the American West of the 1870s.

The movie is a remake of the 1970 Western of the same name starring Yul Brynner, which in turn was based on Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film, Seven Samurai.

In a rather bold move, Fuqua cast Korean actor Lee Byung-hun as one of the Seven, which means we would get to see a legitimately sexy Asian man in ranch-style dressing — not one in the vein of Psy or Jackie Chan in Shanghai Noon, thank you very much.

And, in what is perhaps an even bolder move, the leader of the Seven is played by Denzel Washington.

“In my research, people came from everywhere, all over the world,” Fuqua explained. “When I first decided to do the movie, we sat in a room, we had a list of actors, and something wasn’t grabbing me. I just thought, ‘How do you make it an event? What’s going to make it interesting? What’s going to make it a movie where everyone’s not white?’ I just said, ‘I’d love to see Denzel on a horse.’ And the room kind of went, ‘Whoosh’. And somebody said, ‘You think he would do it?’ I said, ‘I don’t know.’ And then somebody said, ‘You think it’s an issue because he’s black?’ I said, ‘How? If we never make an issue of it ourselves, then the audience will bring whatever they bring to the theatre.’ You can’t hide that he’s black. But when I said it, I didn’t think 
about colour.”

As for why he chose to cast Lee, whose character’s ancestry is deliberately unspecified, Fuqua said: “I just like him as an actor. I saw him in a couple of films. I just thought he was the coolest guy. I’ll never forget the first time I saw him in A Bittersweet Life. I was like, ‘Who is this guy? He reminds me of a young Chow Yun Fatt.’ He was very cool.”

The rest of the cast, which includes Ethan Hawke and Chris Pratt, was selected in much the same style, which explains the race-blind casting. “I just wanted Ethan and Denzel together again,” Fuqua said. “I just liked the cast. I didn’t really think about it much until it started to happen.”

Conscious or unconscious as the racial diversity in the movie may be, Fuqua said, “It’s important. The world’s changing as we know it. People want to see different things. They want to see different actors. They want to see different worlds. That’s the whole point of cinema.”

He continued: “The magic and the power of cinema are that you can go anywhere in the world. You can travel. You can meet new characters that look different, and experience their culture and who they are. It’s the way we’ll get to know each other a little bit — the good, the bad and the ugly in all of us. And when that happens, then the door’s wide open for younger film-makers to 
come along.”

He is speaking from personal experience. “I’m not from the west. I never saw a horse until I was 20. I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There’s nothing but concrete and steel where I’m from,” he said. “The reason I do these movies and take the risk is that, in success, some young kid could be from anywhere in the world and say, ‘Well, Antoine Fuqua made a Western (film).’ If it worked, and they like it, then maybe that kid will get to make a Western (film). So, I think that the more film-makers don’t put themselves in a box, the better the chance that the ones coming behind us get to do what they want to do. That’s the beauty of it.”

As for why he chose to make a remake of a remake, Fuqua said he believed firmly in the power of a good story. “Movies evolve and change … The audience decides, for them, what that movie is. If there’s something to be said and if you think people can get something from it, then it’s a good story. It’s been that way since the beginning of shadows on the wall,” he added. “We can influence the world by entertaining people.”

The Magnificent Seven opens in cinemas on Sept 22.