MASALAFloat Like a Butterfly
Sting Like a Bee
Lewis Tan brings the power of the muay thai ring to the TV screen.
TEXT BY MAE HAMILTON
In the center of the boxing ring, Lewis Tan composes himself with the grace of a
dancer. Before he begins, there is a moment of stillness as Tan quietly exhales with
his gloved hands poised in front of his face, chin tucked down. Then, he strikes a
training sandbag with the power of not just four but eight limbs, in traditional muay
thai style.
Tan ascended to heartthrob status with his role on AMC’s Into the Badlands, with
his chiseled physique and well-executed fight scenes. He even made a brief but
memorable appearance as Shatterstar in Deadpool 2 (parachuting into an operation
isn’t as easy as it seems, is it?). And on August 8, the British Chinese actor will hit
Netflix, on Wu Assassins, as the flamboyant gangster, Lu Xin Lee.
Tan isn’t a newcomer to show business; he reps a solid Hollywood lineage. His
mother is English fashion model Joanne Cassidy, and his father is martial artist,
actor and stuntman Philip Tan, who has appeared in and executed stunts in iconic
action films like Pirates of the Carribean and Tim Burton’s Batman. His family moved
frequently, hopping around England, China, France and Thailand, following his
father’s film jobs, until they finally settled in Southern California’s San Fernando
Valley. Even though L.A. is known for its eclectic, melting pot of ethnicities, Tan
found himself at a nearly all-white high school. To say the least, it was not the best
of times. “I struggled with my identity in school,” Tan says. “I was made fun of. Peo-
ple would spray paint the school with Nazi signs, and they’d write my name on the
wall. I’m a tall, half-Asian guy. I stand out. I got into a lot of fights in the first few
weeks of school.”
Tan was even fighting outside of school—at the gym with his father. He says mar-
tial arts gave him an invaluable understanding of his body and also helped shape his
identity as a man. In fact, fighting was integrated into his rearing. The only time Tan
was ever knocked out was by his own father, all for teasing his younger brother. Tan
alluded to the incident on his YouTube series “Fight Camp,” but never explained
what happened—until now.
He chuckles wryly as he recalls the K.O. “I was sparring with my brother, who is
about five years younger than me,” Tan says. “So, I did what older brothers do, and
I hurt my younger brother. He went to my dad, and he was like, ‘Dad, Lewis hurt
me.’ My dad came over and said, ‘You think you’re strong? I’m gonna show you that,
whenever I feel like it, I can do the same to you.’ And then he just walked away. So,
then about three days before my next fight, I completely forgot about the situation.
Then all of a sudden we’re sparring and he said, ‘Now!’ And then I was on the floor!
I woke up with him standing over me, saying, ‘Treat your brother with respect, and
don’t do that again.’ And then he just walked off.”
The lessons from Tan’s father translate to his practice. He’s made martial arts
an integral part of his everyday life. He’s trained in muay thai, jiu jitsu, judo and
kung fu. He even recently picked up the Indonesian style of fighting, pencak silat,
from his castmate Iko Uwais on Wu Assassins. Although he’s a trained and seasoned
fighter, to Tan, the best on-screen fighters aren’t always trained martial artists—
sometimes, they’re dancers. “This is the big misconception with people who do
martial arts and people who fight in films,” says Tan. “Most dancers are actually
better on-screen as fighters than most real fighters. The camera reads things differ-
ently. It reads lines, angles, lighting, emotions. You want to open your body for the
camera. You want the angles to look powerful, not just feel powerful.”
For Tan, martial arts is a fine-honed extension of his acting chops. He’s ada-
mant about doing his own stunts. He says if he weren’t doing them himself, he’d be
cheating the audience out of a large part of his performance. “Whether I’m acting,
or fighting, it’s the exact same thing to me,” Tan says. “There’s emotions in move-
ment, whether its acting, dancing or martial arts. You can feel the emotion when I
fight. It’s all the same. It’s all expression.” Tan pauses to wipe the sweat from his
brow, and then strikes again with a powerful punch. CM