It'd be an understatement to say that Cowboy Bebop, Netflix's long-awaited live-action remake of the beloved anime classic, has received a mixed reception from critics and fans. But though the quality of the project might be in question, the work that went into it surely isn't - according to Alex Hassell, who plays the uniquely named antagonist Vicious (gee, I wonder what he's like) the lengths they went to on the show to replicate some of the anime's most iconic scenes were no less than exhausting. Speaking to Vulture, he described shooting one scene - the climactic duel between Vicious and John Cho's Spike - as "immensely uncomfortable". Yikes!
In his words:
"I would love the answer to be that it was incredibly fun and awesome, but the truth is, it was so incredibly specific, it was actually immensely uncomfortable. There was the tightness of my trousers and then your legs start to cramp and it’s like, “Have we got it? Have we got it?” It was a lot of, like, getting the hair just right over my eyes."
Sounds like a lot to go through to perfectly homage that shot. Even if you think the show sucks, Cho and Hassell surely deserve credit for going above and beyond. True professionals! Hassell, clearly a colorful personality, also had a lot to say about his performance methodology on Cowboy Bebop, and working to Cho's own humorous rhythms and style.
On the show's end-of-season flashback episode, he said:
"We shot that at the end of the season, after I’d spent the whole season… I mean, I’m not like a Method actor, dredging up shit about my life, but being fucking intense: trying to be on the verge of breakdown all the time, trying to put yourself in the headspace where you thought your best friend was dead and you found out your girlfriend has been fucking him and your dad wants him to kill you. So to go back to when Vicious was, yes, still very violent and fucked up, but to get to have jokes — that was quite refreshing. And it’s so easy to do that stuff with John Cho because he’s so light and witty and dry and deadpan. I was like, “If we do any more Cowboy Bebop, can I have a bit more of this? That would be really nice.”"
That's a whole lotta f-bombs. "If" is the operative word here, too: given the show's reception thusfar, it's a little hard to see a second season being green-lit, even if the final episode offers a handful of teasers for what could come next. If you're in the pro-Bebop camp, you might like to check out this behind-the-scenes video just released by Netflix, which gives us a look inside the titular Bebop, toured for us by Jet Black actor Mustafa Shakir.
The live-action Cowboy Bebop is a TV series based on the anime of the same name. The story follows a group of bounty hunters as they travel across the galaxy on their ship the Bebop, while chasing down criminals. The show also stars Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine and Elena Satine as Julia. The ten episode series is currently available on Netflix.