Tatchakorn Yeerum ( ; or formerly
Panom
Yeerum ( ; ) (born February 5, 1976 in Surin province,
Isaan, Thailand), better known in
the
West as
Tony Jaa, in Thailand as
Jaa
Panom, is a
Thai
martial artist,
actor,
choreographer,
stuntman and
director. His
films include
Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior,
Tom-Yum-Goong (also called
Warrior King or
The Protector) and
Ong-Bak 2: The Beginning.
Early life
Tony Jaa is actually of Cambodian descent more known as Khmer
Surin. A province that was once part of Cambodia but now
Thailand.
Tony Jaa was raised in a rural area and as he grew up he watched
films by
Bruce Lee,
Jackie Chan and
Jet Li at
temple fairs, which was his inspiration to learn martial arts. He
was so inspired by them that while he was doing chores or playing
with friends, he would imitate the martial arts moves that he had
seen, practicing in his father's
rice
paddy. Also, he would give baths to the family's
elephants and somersault off their backs into
the river.
"What they did was so beautiful, so heroic that I wanted to do it
too," Jaa told
Time in a
2004 interview. "I practiced until I could do the move exactly as I
had seen the masters do it."
At age 15 he requested to become a protege of stuntman and
action-film director
Panna
Rittikrai.
Panna had instructed Jaa to attend Maha
Sarakham College of Physical Education in Maha Sarakham
Province
.
Career
Stunt work
He initially worked as a
stuntman on
Panna's team,
Muay Thai Stunt,
appearing in many of Panna's films. He doubled for
Sammo Hung when the martial-arts actor made a
commercial for an energy drink that required him to grasp an
elephant's tusks and somersault onto the elephant's back. He also
appeared in
Mortal
Kombat: Annihilation, as a stunt double for
Robin Shou (Liu Kang), and was a stunt double in
the Thai television series
Insee Daeng (
Red
Eagle).
Acting
Together, Panna and Jaa developed an interest in
Muay Boran, an ancient style of
Muay Thai and worked and trained for 1 year at the
art with the intention of developing a film around it. Eventually
they were able to put together a short film showing what Jaa could
do. One of the people they showed it to was producer-director
Prachya Pinkaew, who was duly
impressed.
This led to
Ong-Bak: Muay
Thai Warrior in
2003, Jaa's
break-out role as a leading man. Jaa did all the stunts without
mechanical assistance or computer-generated effects and it
showcased his style of extreme acrobatics and speedy, dance-like
moves. Injuries suffered in the filming included a ligament injury
and a sprained ankle. One scene in the film involved fighting with
another actor while his own trousers were on fire. "I actually got
burned," he said in a 2005 interview. "I really had to concentrate
because once my pants were on fire the flames spread upwards very
fast and burnt my eyebrows, my eyelashes and my nose. Then we had
to do a couple more takes to get it right.".
Tony Jaa and his mentor, Panna
Rittikrai, check the playback on the Sydney, Australia location of
Tom-Yum-Goong.
His second major movie was
Tom-Yum-Goong ("The Protector" in the
US), named after the Thai hot and sour soup of the same name.
In August
2006, he was in New York to promote the US release of The Protector, including an appearance at
the Museum of the Moving Image
.
Next projects
Sahamongkol Film
International advertised that Tony Jaa's third film would be
called
Sword or
Dab Atamas, about the art of Thai
two-sword fighting, with a script by Prapas Chonsalanont. But due
to a falling out between Prachya and Jaa, which neither have
publicly commented on,
Sword has been cancelled.
On March 2006 it was reported that there would be a sequel to
Ong-Bak,
Ong-Bak 2. With Jaa both
directing and starring, it started pre-production in fall 2006 and
was released in December of 2008.
While Jaa was working on
Ong-Bak 2, director
Prachya Pinkaew and action choreographer
Panna Rittikrai were working on
Chocolate, starring a
female martial artist,
Nicharee
Vismistananda, and released February 6, 2008. Jaa had been cast
in a small role in a third installment of the
King Naresuan film series directed
by
Chatrichalerm Yukol, although
the film was ultimately cancelled.
Other developments
His films captured the attention of his hero,
Jackie Chan, who asked director
Brett Ratner to cast Jaa in
Rush Hour 3. "I gave the director videos of
Tony Jaa because I think Tony Jaa is the most well-rounded of all
action stars," Chan told the Associated Press. "The director liked
him a lot," Chan said. However, Jaa said he'd be unable to
participate because of scheduling conflicts with the shooting of
Ong Bak 2.
Additionally, veteran
Hong
Kong martial arts coordinator
Lau
Kar-leung has mentioned Jaa as someone he'd like to work with.
Tony Jaa demonstrates martial arts at
the American Museum of the Moving Image on August 20, 2006, during
a promotional tour for
The Protector.
Filmography
Early films
Non-leading films (Cameos)
See also
References
External links
Interviews
Videos
, France
(WMV)
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
