- For those of you who have been
living in a cage for the last 30 years,
Mortal Kombat is about champions from Earth banding together
to defend Earthrealm from 18 other realms
that are all looking to invade Earth.
Outworld has won nine straight tournaments.
If they win 10, they're going to invade and destroy
everything that you hold dear.
The character I play, Liu Kang,
he is kind of like a lone wolf
searching for his pack to gather around these defenders
so they can not only hone their own strengths
but combine their strengths so they can save Earth.
- Sonya Blade is on a mission to kind of uncover
what this Mortal Kombat world means.
She's kind of taken it upon herself
to gather all of the champions to help Earthrealm survive.
- It had the same marking you do Cole.
- Cole's journey is a hero's journey.
He wants to prove himself
and he wants to discover who he is,
so he goes on that journey
and during that journey, he gets deeper and deeper
into the discovery of who he is.
- It's not a birthmark, Cole.
It means you've been chosen.
- When you first meet Jax...this is the backstory, right?
So, how did somebody go from being special forces
to killing monsters?
And then, I think, as time goes on,
you see that monster come out in him.
And then he's got a moment, obviously,
with Sub-Zero who frostbites his arms off.
- I am Sub-Zero.
- The Lin Kuei sent me to wipe out the whole bloodline
it's just to...because we believe that they're a traitor.
It's never personal.
It's always this ideology of him being loyal to the Lin Kuei
and the belief that no one leaves the Lin Kuei
and if you're part of Shirai Ryu,
you need to die.
But I don't hate them; I love them.
They just happen to be on the outside
so don't blame me.
- Get over here.
- Kano wins.
- The conversation that would come up daily
was we have to be respectful to the fans.
I mean, that came up all the time.
They're like, "Listen, the fans have put
in decades for this film."
- We knew it that we need to do it right.
We respect the lore of the game.
We have Cole Young to represent the non-fans
so they can enjoy the movie,
like start from zero, fresh.
We also have the other characters that represent,
like, the, you know, justice to the fans, to the game.
So, the combination of that is very important.
- I'm a big fan of the video games.
I've been playing them since I was young.
There's a lot of pressure that I felt
when I first started the project.
At some point in time, you have to just let go of that fear.
You're doing something that has been
something that's been beloved for decades
and you don't want to mess that up.
- This is probably, at least in my experience,
is the most diverse blockbuster I've ever seen.
- Yeah, this film is very important.
This film, although it's a martial arts kung fu film,
I never turned away from a kung fu role
because it's a kung fu role, because I make it my own.
I think stereotyping is something
that other..a label, that other people place upon you
and to be able to show this in a light
where these characters are fleshed out,
they have a history, they have a drive,
they have a personality, they have relationships,
they have a family,
it's easy for people to relate to
and I think that's very important.
I think the world needs to see more of this
and in this movie,
we show ourselves in a powerful, strong light.
Take that to heart.
- You know, sometimes I just want to talk about acting.
I just want to talk about the art.
I don't want to talk about having to be an Asian actor.
You know, one day I'll just be an actor
and then we'll know that things have changed
'cause I don't got to talk about it anymore
but right now it needs to be spoken about,
it needs to be talked about,
and I'm happy to do it.
- In Chinese, we say...
That's kind of like, you know,
working on yourself to become a better human being.
And I think my approach is
to share with the world through martial arts
those virtues that come along with it,
such as love, such as trust and respect for each other.
All those things matter in these times.
- I would say the word to describe it is timely.
It's right on time.
Racism and racial hierarchy and racial violence is not new;
it's just that people are starting to care about it.
Normalizing diverse heroes is going to sort of
take away the foundation of the conversation
of: Does someone's life matter?
- This film is literally about coming together as one
to stop someone that wants to destroy the Earth.
- And the unity on Earth, right?
That's exactly what Shang Tsung does not want,
is people to unify.
We have the same plight. We have the same fight.
Lewis and I have the same fight.
- Right, and divided we're weak but united,
you know, united we're unstoppable.
- I think a film like this is not just about Asians;
it's about like all marginalized people.
And people that attack,
they come from a place of fear as well.
And what this film is about is that
we need to expand our in-groups
so we're not just strengthening ourselves
just to destroy each other.
We're strengthening together to build something
and just go in and have fun, have a good time,
and realize that we're all fighting on the same side.