Chin Han has been an actor for over the past twenty years, starting his career in Singapore before coming over to the states. From such roles in the films “The Dark Knight” and “Contagion,” Chin Han has proven to be a strong, versatile actor. He can currently be seen in the NETFLIX original series, “Marco Polo,” as Chancellor Jia Sidao, the last bastion of Chinese defense against the invading Mongol Empire.
Chin Han discussed with us about how he underwent grueling training for this part, as well as the work schedule, for the series:
“It was the best thing you want to get short of going to the army boot camp. *laughs* We would train whenever we were not shooting. On most sets, on your off days, it’s your off day. On this set, our off days were our training days. We would start at 7 AM with some kind of yoga to get stretched out. Then, we would do crossfit training for physical conditioning. After that, we would then start working on choreography. Only then, we would start working on choreography, and that would take us about four or five hours a day. It was hard doing.”
An interesting fact about Jia Sidao that many folks may not know is that he actually wrote an encyclopedia about crickets. We got to elaborate on that just a bit:
“He was a very curious person. I used that as an entry point for the character, because what kind of person does that. Possibly a person who was interested in detail, and obsessed with nature. It was an entry point for me to get into the psychology of the character. So, that just makes him that much more stranger.”
As we continued with the podcast, we spoke with Chin Han about working in Singapore and Asia before coming to the states, working on set in Kazakhstan, and which actor did he have to give a shout out to.
Listen to the full podcast with Chin Han below:
“Marco Polo” is on NETFLIX for available streaming anytime, and follow Chin Han on Twitter at: @TheChinHan.
