John Cho plays Hwan Yoon, a violent pastor, in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. The role puts him opposite Mahershala Ali in Bassam Tariq’s Houston-set action film, which opened in select theaters on September 25.
Cho told Moviefone that Hwan Yoon was not fully mapped out when he first spoke to Tariq. The actor, director and Ali then sat down together to work through the characters’ histories, their beliefs and the conflict between them. Cho said Tariq wanted Hwan to be a specifically Asian American character rather than a generic villain.
Cho expected a character drama. Then came the fights
The action was a surprise even to Cho. He said he was so focused on the character while reading the script that he did not realize how much choreography the production would ask him to learn.
I didn’t realize how much action I was walking into.
Cho said the team worked through the fights step by step. He described long sequences of kicks, punches, turns and disarms rather than a few isolated moves. Ali had the heavier load, especially when a blade was involved, Cho said.
The camera moves around the actors during those sequences. Cho said that approach left little room to hide a missed move or a weak performance. His praise went to the crew and cast who made the long takes work.
How he worked with Bassam Tariq
Cho described himself as more comfortable with a script than with improvising whole scenes. After a take, he and Tariq would discuss a small change and try it again. He said the director welcomed that input from their first conversation.
A separate KCRW interview describes Hwan Yoon as Cho’s first villain role and says the conversation also covers how fatherhood changed his approach to acting. Those subjects connect with this film: Hwan’s violence stands against Latif’s effort to keep his children safe after their mother dies.
Cho is familiar to audiences from the Harold & Kumar films, Star Trek and Searching. Here he plays someone very different. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is in select theaters now, with a wider rollout planned for October. No streaming date has been announced.
