KCBA - Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz - News Weather-Exclusive Interview With 2012 Star Chin Han

Content provided by Hollywood.com Staff , 11/16/2009

Singapore-born actor Chin Han doesn't often pursue English-language film projects, but when he does, he sure knows how to pick 'em. Last year he played a pivotal supporting role in The Dark Knight, a movie that earned nearly a billion dollars worldwide at the box office. His latest film, the Roland Emmerich disaster epic 2012, scored a $225 million global gross ? in its first weekend. An impressive run, by any measure.

Last week we caught up with Han, who currently splits his time between Europe and the U.S., to find out what it's like to witness Emmerich's orgy of destruction from the inside.

What was your experience like on the set of 2012? Is Roland Emmerich as crazy as his movies would make him seem?

Chin Han: No. [Laughs] Roland Emmerich is a very interesting individual. He is more erudite and well-read than most of the people I know. He has a wealth of knowledge and he's a man who loves book, so I'm not surprised, actually, that in his next movie he's tackling Shakespeare. It's just that his movies, from Universal Soldier to Stargate and Independence Day, give you a different impression of the man. He's an intellectual with an appetite for blowing things up. [Laughs] That's who he is.

How did your experience working on The Dark Knight compare to 2012?

CH: Very different. When I was shooting The Dark Knight, I always felt like I was shooting an intimate drama, for some reason. The scenes were all intimate and they were always between a few individuals. With this one, just to give you an idea of my first day on set ... we spent hours traveling, first from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and then Vancouver to Kamloops, and from Kamploops we went up into the mountains of Cache Creek. So my first day was spent just getting there. And the minute I got there, in the middle of this mountainous region of British Columbia, they had built a full Tibetan village, with five to six hundred authentic Tibetan extras. There were helicopters flying overhead, multiple camera setups ... and that was my first day on the set. Very different.

In 2012, you're part of a pivotal sequence in which several characters sneak onto a giant boat, then become trapped inside its hull as it's flooded with water. How much of your shooting schedule did you spend drenched in water?

CH: I was drenched in water for a good two weeks, I think. We were shooting inside these huge water tanks. It was pretty amazing ... our entire stage was submerged inside them. The water was so violent, coming over the grilles and everything. And then you have scuba divers underwater, circling you with cameras and all that stuff ... The suit I had to wear in the movie, I call it my Anime suit because it resembles the suit that Akira wears in that cartoon. And when that gets wet, you can't believe how heavy that is. Combined with the boots and everything, it just drags you down completely. That was quite an amazing experience.

What's next for you?

CH: We're looking at quite a few scripts at the moment. Personally, I'd like to do a romantic comedy next ? especially after these two movies! [Laughs] I'm looking for my (500) Days of Summer, you know? In the meantime, I'm just enjoying life in Hollywood, basically. I came up here two years ago, and I've spent only about nine months here since I moved. Dark Knight shot in London and Chicago, and we were on that for so long. And I was on this for quite a long time as well ... so I'm just taking this time to enjoy the California weather. I mean, this is crazy, man -- it's November and we're in the 80s!

2012 is now playing in theaters nationwide.

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