Because you know how you say I've got to really get down and really do some training and then of course, you never do or you do it for a couple of weeks and slough it back off again but I'm being forced to do something that I really want to do and I loved it.
'Born to play? Hmmm. Probably Romeo... or Hamlet, I guess. Also, I'd be a great Alexander the Great.
But the character in Kill Bill comes pretty close. No doubt about it. Probably the best performance I've given. I mean, ever.
But, Tarantino has seen all of my movies. He's seen my good stuff, he's seen my bad stuff, he's seen the ones I directed, he's read my autobiography. There's an awful lot of things he knows about me, all of which I think had something to do with his casting.
I actually went to art school. I studied music formally. I was probably less formal about my study of acting than anything.
I didn't leave, I mean I did the TV series for three years, and when that was done I walked, and then there was a period of time where I was making my own movies and financing them myself, and I needed money, I had to work, you know, and I started doing little movies cause they were there.
I don't need to convince anybody that I know kung fu, but maybe somebody needs to know that I really can act, without doing a Chinese accent or a funny walk.
I like Bill a lot. As Bill is presented, I mean you don't ever see Bill blow her head off? You know? And I think what Quentin has done is he created a monster.
I remember when I did the pilot, and I though no network is going to want to do this. How could that happen? A half Chinese guy walking the old west that doesn't fire one gun and never gets on a horse?
I think there's also something that Quentin wants to tell us - they are comic book characters, the people in Kill Bill, but that they are sort of superheroes, or super villains, or super something. They are beyond the problems of humanity, beyond the day-to-day stuff.
I was involved in a web cartoon of Kung Fu with WB a few years back.
I wasn't prepared for the quality of the second movie. I don't mean the quality like how good it was, but the kind of movie; that it's so emotional. When you're dealing with that stuff with the kid, I've seen girls cry. You don't cry in a Tarantino movie. It turns out it's a chick flick.
I'm not regretful about dropping acid, but I could have stopped it a little sooner.
I've worked with a lot of real heavy hitters, and Quentin is maybe heads and shoulders, at least a forehead, above just about anybody I've ever worked with.
If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.
In the second installment, I pretty much dominate the show. Somehow or another, though, I manage to apparently dominate the first show pretty well with just my voice and my hands and a shot of my boots kicking cartridges out of the way.
It turned out that this stuff that the Chinese guys do is not really kung fu. It's very different and I did need to learn how to do that.
It was pretty extensive - we worked out 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, which I think is more than anybody in the Olympics. I thought well I don't need this, the girls need it, but it was a gift.
Most actors spend a lot of time training themselves to be an actor. And I kind of didn't do that. I just started doin' it in front of an audience and had to deliver.
My big fight is not in the movie and I don't understand that decision but I know he's right about it, whatever it is. Quentin did not hire me because I'm a kung fu expert; he hired me because he liked to listen to me talk.
Quentin and I were constantly finding something new that we had in common and comic books were one of them. I think we were talking about comic books much earlier in our relationship, before I had the part.
Quentin is very organic; there was no way that he was going to put someone else's hand in there and anyway, my hands are kind of famous. It seemed right.
Quentin wanted to create this special world in which everybody walks around with a samurai sword, extras in the airport, a special little place in the airplane to stick your samurai sword.
Tarantino is the coolest damn guy; he's just so much fun to work with. He might be the best director I've ever worked with. He just seems to know how to do it and he knows how to make you feel good about it. He's having so much fun you start having fun. You can't help it.
The success of the '86 movie with Brandon Lee demanded some kind of continuation. Plus, I had always contemplated a modern version.
There's an alternative. There's always a third way, and it's not a combination of the other two ways. It's a different way.
Well I would never say to anybody that Warren Beatty got fired, but uh, I think he and Quentin fell out of love, and I think Warren told Quentin to hire me for the film.
Well, I'm not afraid of anything.
Why would you be afraid of death? It would be an inconvenience. I have a lot of undone things and it's bound to get in the way. But, no, it doesn't scare me at all.
Yes, I always enjoy working on cartoons.
You know, I've never actually really believed that death is inevitable. I just think it's a rumor.
You've got to be so hip to be into these things, and Quentin is that hip. Nobody I've ever worked with has been that hip to so much of that stuff.
David's character of Caine was named number 91 in Bravo's "100 Greatest TV Characters".
David is a trained ballet dancer.
David's hobbies when he was younger included race cars which he wound up wrecking, and expensive guitars, which he lost due to bankruptcy proceedings.
David wrote and released an autobiography, "Endless Highway," in 1995.
David has made a number of martial arts exercise programs for VHS and DVD, including: David Carradine's Kung Fu Workout, David Carradine's Tai Chi Workout, David Carradine's T'ai Chi Workouts for Beginners, David Carradine's Chi Kung Beginners Workout, David Carradine's Tai Chi For Body: Beginner's, David Carradine's Tai Chi For Mind: Beginner's, David Carradine's AM & PM Tai Chi Workout for Beginners, David Carradine's Tai Chi for Mind & Body, David Carradine's Tai Chi Deluxe 90 Minute Version, David Carradine Presents: Shaolin Strength Workout, David Carradine's Shaolin Cardio Kick Box for Beginners, and David Carradine: Chi Energy Workouts for Beginners.
David left "Kung Fu" (1972) not because of falling ratings, but because he had sustained so many injuries filming the show. Throughout it's run the show was always highly rated and in no danger of cancellation.
David's ex-wife Marina tried unsucessfully suing him in 2003 for $300,000, alleging that she got him his role in Kill Bill, Volume 1 (2003) and that he gave no compensation in return.
David won the National Board Of Review award for Best Actor for his work for "Bound For Glory." (1976)
David won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Kill Bill, Volume 2 (2004) in 2005.
David was given a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. on April 1, 1997.
David starred in 1966 in a short-lived series based on the 1955 movie "Shane;" it was one of the first television series to be a direct sequel rather than spin-off of a motion picture.
David wrote a book about the philosophy of Kung Fu, "Spirit Of The Shaolin."
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