Rick Yune plays the villain's henchman, who in many ways is more memorable than the head villain. After all, this is the guy with diamonds in his face. That tends to leave an impression.
Where do you see yourself in the tradition of Bond villains?
Can't rank yet. History will tell in the end. There's never been a character that's looked this extreme.
Are you like Jaws?
Jaws was still a handsome, big guy. He got the girl. He was endearing. I think he was my favorite villain. I tried to make this guy endearing somewhat because I'm going for that in the end, all he wanted to do was unite his country. Much in the same way as you would have to, if somebody took your loved one, what you would do? Whatever line you had to cross to get him back, you would. So, that's what I was going for, that determination.
What was the makeup process like?
Three to four hours every day. They put real diamonds in there so I had to be careful what I did. It was great. Halle Berry said she thought it was sexy, so that was cool with me. Shaved my head, eyebrows went. It was a tremendous change. It's a great risk for an actor to go that way. This is not a sci-fi picture. It's not a fantasy picture. And you're dealing with something that's supposed to be in reality. That was what I was scared of, just being the nut that ruined 40 years of history. But we had a genius makeup artist, Paul England, who did the makeup for Star Wars. It was really nerve-wracking looking like that and then trying to be serious in front of Halle Berry and Pierce. In the end, you just had to trust people. And also contacts. I couldn't see in front of me. I remember I had to run around a pit that was two stories up and they didn't have any nets underneath. I had to keep firing. Lee kept saying, "Come closer to the edge, come closer to the edge." It was those types of risks we took to make the film better.
Did you help Toby with the Korean background?
Toby was really impressive because he had a coach. On top of all the fencing that he had to do, he spoke Korean and I was pretty surprised by the accent. He had worked with the other actor, Will Yun Lee. I think it really worked out well that you could believe the first actor was the second actor.
Did you have childhood fantasies about being in a Bond movie?
Since I was a kid. It's a rare thing when a father and a son can share the same experience in a different way. This is what my father and I did. I've seen all 19 at least two or three times. It's meant so many different things to me at so many different times in my life. To be here today is just beyond my wildest dreams.
What's your favorite?
That depends on the time of the year. Around Christmastime, I like watching Moonraker for some reason. The first one I saw was Dr. No. I guess it's hard to translate what you want to your child in the way that you feel is necessary for him or her to grow up. You can't tell him, "You've got to keep it cool." So this is what he showed me to say, "Keep your cool under pressure at all times. There's nothing you can't do." This is what the mythology is in these movies.
How much of the ice driving did you do?
100 percent. It was hard. Learning first of all how to start it, maneuver as well as stop it, they assumed I knew how to do that from The Fast and the Furious. They constructed the set for quite some time, so they knew. They moved glaciers up in Iceland and they knew exactly the routes that they wanted, so after a while, you got the hang of it. The reason why they needed me to drive was I had a convertible and sometimes you just can't match heads.
