"I was born in Glasgow, but my family moved to London when I was seven," begins the Scottish performer. "My father was a big fan of Bruce Lee and other martial arts legends, and I inherited his passion, taking up martial arts as soon as we set foot in England -- there was a very narrow range of martial arts from which to choose in Scotland. I've been actively training ever since." Now 24, Park spent the last seventeen years of his life deeply committed to honing his martial arts skills. It's a passion that runs in the family: both of Park's siblings, his younger brother and younger sister, also trained with him. "We grew up on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li," says Park. "So even though I embraced martial arts because this is what I really loved, I kept thinking that it might get me in the movie business one day." Apparently, it worked.
Becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith doesn't happen on its own: it takes devotion and perseverance. "I used to train for eight hours a day, six days a week," explains Park. "Competition requires that." Travelling to China to perfect his training, Park began attending competitions at the age of 15, and competed regularly for many years, bringing his fair share of trophies back home. But now that a second career as an actor is taking off, he needs to find a balance between the two aspects of his life. "Nowadays I train for maybe three or four hours a day, and I look for quality training instead of simply quantity." Every job requires its tool, and Park operates on this principle. He strives to excel in what is needed of him for any given project, which allows him to focus on the task at hand rather than training in a more general sense. The approach is different, but the work remains just as hard.
At the Star Wars Fan Event, Park greeted American fans for the first time. "I was in Tokyo for the big convention that took place there a few weeks ago," he says, "but the crowd was never this huge! The reaction here is tremendous. You can really feel a contact with the fans, a dialogue, and that's what I love the most." On the stage, after the traditional Q&A session, Park demonstrated his skills before a stunned audience. "What I performed was Wushu, a Chinese martial art which is in fact their national sport," Park explains. His choreography, using a gleaming sword with a white sash tied to its hilt, looked like a graceful but electrified mix of combat technique and dance. "Wushu can be performed either with a weapon or with hands empty," but I prefer to use a weapon, because I feel it allows me to be more creative." No wonder Park felt right at home with his double-bladed lightsaber during the shooting of Episode I.
Asking for caution in what is shown to movie audiences, George Lucas once said that a movie theater was a big classroom, and that a filmmaker was a teacher with a powerful voice. On May 19th, 1999, Ray Park will be invited to address students all over North America, although to most people, the whole experience will probably feel like one big, joyful recess.
