It's been a long wait for Don Lee (aka, Ma Dong-seok) to make his Hollywood debut, but what a debut it turned out to be. The Korean film star is coming out of the gate swinging, and swinging hard, as a member of the MCU's newest superhero team in Eternals. Directed by Oscar-winning Nomadland filmmaker Chloé Zhao, Eternals follows the title heroes through thousands of years, living alongside eras of evolving civilizations, guiding the path of humanity without us ever knowing it.
Lee plays Gilgamesh, touted as the strongest of all the Eternals. Indeed, one of the physically strongest characters in Marvel comics - Gilgamesh is a warrior with a gentle heart. Which means he's in perfect hands.
A massive star in Korea, Lee's best known in the states for as everyone's favorite baseball bat-toting, zombie-bashing Wife Guy in Train to Busan, and his resume is full of gentle giants and bruisers with soft centers. Whether he's playing a bouncer with an arm of steel in the feel-good arm-wrestling drama Champion or a surprisingly lovable cut-throat crime boss in The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil, few stars can pull off the combination of imposing and endearing quite like Lee.
With Eternals now in theaters, Lee (along with translator Jenny Park) spoke with Collider about everything from his unexpected journey into acting when he was in his thirties, how Train to Busan changed his career, what he thinks about the developing English-language remake, and why Eternals was the perfect film to make his Hollywood debut.
"For Train to Busan, I didn't think that it would become this big and it made a very big impact on me career-wise, because as that movie had become globally popular, I had gotten a lot of Hollywood offers to be in multiple films. And five or six years ago, the timing didn’t work because I was doing a lot of different other films and dramas in Korea. And this Marvel one actually just worked out perfectly when the timing was just right. And I have been a big fan of Chloe Zhao for a while, and the character was something that I would think would be the perfect fit for me. That’s how I got my start for this Marvel movie."
As for the Train to Busan remake, which has James Wan and Timo Tjahjanto attached, Lee is enthusiastic about the controversial project:
"I mean, I'm actually very looking forward to the remake, and those two are very big producers, and I think that they would make it even more fun than the actual original. Because that was based in Korea, Train to Busan, I'm looking forward to the global zombies that we will be getting to see through that one."
We also discussed the recent wildfire success of Netflix's series Squid Game (which features his Train to Busan co-star Gong Yoo) and why he hopes the Korean Netflix sensation helps American audiences get used to watching subtitles.
"It depends on the comfortability of the audience and what is accessible to them, but I think that from now on, I wish to see more films from all different cultures and nationalities, to see them have subtitles and dubbing for these films. Korea has actually been used to seeing films with subtitles because they've been seeing a lot of Hollywood films and other films elsewhere. But I think U.S. is still not yet familiar with that. But as these movies and other cultures have been growing, I think that the U.S. can slowly get used to watching movies and get entertained through different kinds of movies all from over the world."
Watch the full interview in the video above, and check out a list of the topics discussed below:
- His unusual and unexpected journey to becoming an actor in his 30s.
- How Train to Busan led to Eternals and what he thinks about the English-language remake.
- How MCU action scenes are different to shoot, how he trains to stay in shape as an action star, and how he helped his co-stars get the best action scenes on set.
- How Gilgamesh and Thena's supportive relationship carried over offscreen into his friendship with Angelina Jolie.
- Which MCU character could beat Gilgamesh in an arm-wrestling match.
- What it means to see a Korean series like Squid Game become the most popular Netflix show of all time and what he thinks about the subs vs. dubs debate.