Posted in: Movies | Tagged: film, rila fukushima, the wolverine, wolverine

The Wolverine — Rila Fukushima Interview

After The Wolverine's rather exciting London première, I caught up with a few of the principals of the movie for a quick chat.

Unfortunately, I couldn't persuade  Ol' Canucklehead's brand new bodyguard and sidekick to look into Wolverine's future for us, but  here's a few words that Bleeding Cool did manage to tease out of Rila Fukushima;

"So, the first question has to be… 'At what point did you realise that you were the coolest character in the movie?'…"

"Well…I was interested in the Yukio character because comics fans expect that she's a badass. She's an assassin, she's very strong…and particularly a strong woman. But James tried to explore a little bit deeper, I think the Yukio of the film has a lot of heart. That's what I really liked about her. She'\s strong, but more importantly she's a decent person. "

"Yes. And at one or two points she saves the day, rather than Logan. And not to give too much away but it looks in the closing moments of the film as if they might have some more adventures together. Are you signed up for any more Wolverine movies?"

"I hope so. I hope I don't die in mid-air between this movie and the next one!"

 "Have you had discussions about that? Or is that something you're not allowed to talk about just yet?"

"…enigmatic laughter…"

"OK, so if you can't say anything specific about the X-Men franchise as yet. So what future plans do you have in general?"

"There are a couple of potential projects in the future, in Japan. I'm mainly based in Japan at the moment. I do have something over there…but I don't like to think too far into the future.

I feel like I've just finished this one, and it's changed my life so much. A year ago I was just training in Australia for this one… "

"The martial arts choreography for The Wolverine is terribly convincing. Had you done anything like that before you started the film or is it all pre-production training?"

"I was practising Taekwondo, just for exercise but I hasn't done anything so action oriented. So before we started filming I did three weeks training where I learned Japanese sword fighting… bo stick fighting…hand-to-hand combat…some gymnastics…

I learned it all from a basic level and the stunt team trained me very well. They identified what I might be good at and picked out weapons for me based on what I had the most aptitude for."

"Well, you've added all those skills to your repertoire. But I see you weren't temped to keep Yukio's haircut after you finished shooting? That's an amazing hairdo"

"Oh my God no! Every time I washed my hair the red dye went everywhere. My towels, my bed, my pillows — all covered in blood-red dye."

Despite Rila's reluctance to be drawn on the subject, I think we will see Yukio again. Maybe in Days Of Future Past. Maybe in another Wolverine film further down the line.

But, based on the little information we've managed to glean here, I think she'll have a more conventional hairstyle.

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