RZA on “The Man with the Iron Fists”

RZA, the defacto leader of the Wu Tang Gang, opens up about directing his first feature film, working with Russell Crowe, Eli Roth, and Quentin Tarantino, practicing on the Canon 5d, and the unexpected influence of a Natalie Wood musical.

Over two years ago, we interviewed RZA at Fantastic Fest when he was prepping his Kung Fu movie. Hard to believe The Man with the Iron Fists is in theaters this weekend. Last week RZA gave a press conference at the House of Blues on Sunset Blvd., where he would perform that night as part of his Iron Fists tour. The film is his directorial debut, co-written by Eli Roth and starring himself as a blacksmith who creates iron hands after an attack, and Russell Crowe as Jack Knife, a VIP at the local brothel who also happens to be a badass.

We ask RZA if he approached Yuen Woo-ping to choreograph the fights, and how he ended up with Corey Yuen.

RZA: I actually did ask Woo-ping to help out. He had a tight schedule and even Corey had a tight schedule but Corey was able to adjust his schedule to come on board, but Woo-ping was my first choice. But I’m glad Corey came through. He really represented for us and he worked hard for us so I’m proud that he did it.

We slip in a follow up: How does The Blacksmith wipe with iron fists?

Wiping, right? He gotta keep it sh*tty.

Why Russell Crowe is CroweDB.

Well, I do think being a part of Wu Tang Clan, the abbot of Wu Tang Clan and having such strong personalities in my life, unknowingly prepared me for the job of directing. When things got out of hand or felt like it was going to be crazy, I don’t think I ever lost my cool. Maybe one time we had a little ping pong match but I think I kept focus. As far as Russell Crowe, I talked to him about it for a long time and I wasn’t really sure if he was going to do it, but he says that he trusted me as an artist. I think that’s the most driving force that convinced him to come on board, is that he’s seen the young man that has a lot of artistic vision and he appreciates it and he would like the world to appreciate it as well. So he comes with a validation of what I can do. I’m grateful that he came on board and we found some energy for him to relate to, ODB energy, Russell Crowe, Russell Jones. In fact, Romper Stomper was a film he told me to watch. I hadn’t seen it at the time so I watched Romper Stomper and then I wound up putting some more extra sh*t in there. He said, “No, no, no, I don’t want to be the romper stomper mother****er” but he wanted me to know just how wild he would go with it. I recall one scene that we kind of made up on the fly. There was a [bath]tub in the middle of the room, so he comes into the set that day, I’m like, “All right, big brother, look. We’re going to start with this girl. She’s moaning, she’s screaming her ass off, all right? And then the camera’s going to pan by her, her leg is going to be up and you’re going to come out of the water with these booty beads in your mouth. Trust me, it’s going to be a crazy cut.” He’s like, “Okay, Papi.”

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