Known for his roles on WU Assassins and The Originals on the CW, Lawrence Kao adds to his already lengthy list of film and TV credits in Netflix’s Fistful of Vengeance. Lawrence is as likeable as his smile and easygoing disposition suggest, a contrast to who he plays in Fistful of Vengeance. The Southern California native and veteran actor joined with Kontrol Magazine to chat about his breakout role as Tommy Wah in Netflix’s Fistful of Vengeance, Netflix’ follow-up to the Wu Assassins series.

Lawrence went through intense physical training to prepare for filming Fistful of Vengeance. His background in dance helped ready him for the fight scene choreography.

“The challenge in playing this role was embodying who this character is physically. This is the first time I’ve done any action to this degree. Prepping myself to be physically ready and going through the rigorous training for this role was the most challenging but the most rewarding and fun experience as well.”

Lawrence Kao is an actor that’s passionate about storytelling and authenticity. His background in performing made understanding the fight choreography easy enough, however the real challenge came in understanding who Tommy Wah is as a character and incorporating that with the physical demands of the film.

“Getting the choreography down was easy but meshing what the character was going through in this specific circumstance and putting that into the fight was a challenge. I think what makes fight choreography interesting is when you can also see the story living in the characters. Portraying a character people can relate to is really important to me.

We found the perfect pocket of time to travel to Thailand and shoot during the pandemic. I’d never been before.  Shooting on-location oppose to something built for you to interact with makes such a big difference in comparison to shooting in a studio. The locations were so beautiful, walking in this gorgeous environment and it feels like we don’t have to act because the whole world is built around us. I hope the audience can feel and see the beauty of Thailand.”

“We really don’t know anything yet,” Lawrence said regarding what’s next for Wu Assassins. “I think it would be awesome if we were to be given another movie. Fistful of Vengeance isn’t the first example of a Netflix series being given the film treatment. Until Netflix releases any details, all any of us can do is speculate on details of another season. Hopefully though, there’s much more to come after Fistful of Vengeance. You can watch Fistful of Vengeance on Netflix this Thursday, February 17^th.

Photo credit: Jeff Rattanong

Fistful of Vengeance. Courtesy of Netflix/Netflix © 2021