Photos by Greg Lynch Jr.

Read Ray Park on Action Movies, Family and Martial Arts: Part 1 here.

GC: How do you keep it fresh?

RP: When I practice Wushu at home or if I start implementing my bo staff into my conditioning, it's a different mindset. You're climbing ropes, but then you pick up your bo staff and your mind – for me, it just changes. Gymnastics are a different mindset. Competition is a different mindset. Wushu and Kung Fu are different. Boxing is a different mindset. You're in a different place. I don't want to say you put on different hats. I think you turn your discipline to what needs to be done at that time. I try and play with everything. I try and do different moves from different forms I've learned. I'm ashamed to say it, but I forget whether it's A, B, C and then you get to D and then E and how did I get there? You miss a few moves there. I'm not with my teachers anymore and I'm not practicing everything so I just play. I know my basics and I play with everything. I'm confident. I know that I'm going to get to show this in film. From my experience, you have to adapt to the movies because what you want to show might have to be a little bit different. Sometimes it doesn't look right on camera. But when you show something traditional and legit, you got to mix it with something.

GC: You seem to be having a lot of fun going to Cons.

RP: If I get an invite, and if I can do it and it’s somewhere interesting, then I like to do it. And I think about how I can bring my wife and kids. Especially when I come back to Europe – my daughter is eleven, my son is eight. They’re all based in L.A. We went over to England for the first time in many years because it gets expensive traveling as a family. It gets expensive by yourself. But I wanted to take my kids over to meet their grandparents and their uncle and auntie and cousins. So I was able to work something and it was the best for all of us because the kids are at a good age and I got to show them Daddy’s London. The only thing I didn’t get to do which I wanted to do was to turn up at my old teacher’s school and walk through the door and have my son and daughter bow, and see my master and teacher. I wanted to do those things – just turn up without announcing myself, just train and pay my respects. Let him beat me up. Well, not "let him." He will beat me up. But just to show my kids – this is what Daddy used to do when he was eight. This is where he trained – this church hall. This is it.

GC: Does your celebrity status affect your training?

RP: I think it affects how I see it. I would like to just go to a school and not have anyone recognize me, which is great. But I like training at home by myself. I’m very picky about that. I try going to gyms, but I’m the kind of person that, when I’m in my zone, I want to work everything. I’m not worried about people. It’s just I’m not there to talk. If I’m conditioning, I’ll make an effort to go to the gym, but if it’s martial arts, then it’s a different mentality. It would be nice to go there and just be a martial artist. I think sometimes I put that hang-up on myself. If they recognize me, what if this and what if that? And my wife says, "Just go." I put off going to Wushu. I used to go to Eric Chen’s place in L.A. That closed. I went there for a few years and he let me go down and train. It was great for me to be back in there. I’ve known Eric since I used to compete. It was nice to be back with that flavor and taste of Wushu and Kung Fu, just to practice my basics. I love basics. Me and my Wushu buddies, we used to do that – free combinations, and then we’d add on a move and add on a move, and then it becomes a routine. And that’s how our standardized forms got better because we were doing free form. I miss that bonding with other athletes. I do miss going to schools. I really want to go. I look at a Wing Chun school down the street and I want to just turn up. I want to do different styles, something completely different that I haven’t done. I’d like to do real traditional Kung Fu, the old stuff.

I’d love to go to Wudang Mountain and train Wudang sword. These stories that they tell in films, I want to do that. I want to go away for three or four months and absorb myself and come back an even better person. It’s hard to be away. My wife, she takes everything on. And I think she pretty much takes everything on even when I’m there because I put training first – once the kids go to school, I do. I would have to bring them with me. And I would want to bring them with me. I would want it to be a family thing because that’s always been my dream. When I went to Malaysia, I was 15, 16, 17, 18, and when I was 20, I went to China. I always felt there was something missing. Yeah, it was great being there with my Kung Fu friends. But one day, I’m going to bring my wife and kids here. I feel it’s so much more to share with someone you love. When I was in Malaysia, back in 2006, before my son was born, I went back to reconnect with my teacher and reconnect with myself, and refresh myself with tantui and the basic forms, I still felt there was something missing. I felt I should be here with my wife and my daughter. Before my son was born, my wife says, ‘You know what? You better get out there. Go. He’s not due ‘til June." So I knew that December-January-February was a great time to be in Malaysia, to visit my teacher’s teachers. It was very good for me, and when I got back I landed G.I. Joe. I got Snake Eyes. So it brought me into Zen, into peace. But I feel like I should be there with them now. They have fun with me. It would be a different experience. I don’t know if I would jump in to train as quickly because they’re there. I’d like them just to see it, or have them join in. We may never come back home.

I remember when I wasn’t working much in film, my dad said to me, "Why don’t you consider acting as a hobby?" and that just made me angry again. But he had a point in a way, like my approach towards it. When I’m relaxed from trying to go out and get a job, and focus on other areas in my life like editing and making stuff, focus on my family and focus on Kung Fu, work came. It sort of flowed that way. Maybe when I start practicing more Kung Fu again, work will come back my way. I’m in a different phase in my life. You get older. I’m trying the NinjaWarrior training to test myself, because of my son. I admire the fact that he’s eight years old and doing four hours a night. When I’m sitting here watching him for a few hours, I’m envious. I want to be out there doing it. I get the bug. I even asked his coach, "Can I be assistant coach?" I want to be out there because I want to teach those boys some Wushu, teach them some basics. I feel like it would help their gymnastics, plus that’s my excuse to get out there and be part of it. I do miss coaching.

GC: What do you think of MMA?

RP: I wear UFC gear to train and work out because it's just comfortable – shorts and running tights. I train two or three hours a day. But I don't feel like I'm a fighter or a UFC guy. But if you see me running down the street, people say “Yeah, he's a fighter.” But I'm not. I'm a Kung Fu guy. I'm a Wushu guy. Back then I was, but still, I ask myself, "Am I still that kind of person?" My wife brings me back. She checks me. She says, "You've achieved so much." Because I still question. I want to go out and do more. I could see myself doing more. That's why I brought my kids in here. I look at my son doing round-off back handspring, back handspring, and I want to jump out and show him how we learned on concrete, not on a sprung floor. I want to bust out some moves. But now I'm like, you know, there's a few times when age reminds you where you are at, if you don't practice it everyday, especially with gymnastics. You'll get reminders of where you have to keep it up. Because I was always performing. My teachers always made us perform. We'd be sitting down, eating dinner right now, and you know you're going to have to start performing. Some master would come in and, to pay respects, we had to perform. So I was used to that, and I kind of miss that – the good ol' days of training with everyone and exchanging ideas.

GC: What's next for you? Your IMDB page wasn't very helpful.

RP: My IMDB page is so out of date. A couple of years ago I just went off the map. After G.I. Joe, I got so burnt out training. My kids were still really young. I trained all day for that. And living by myself again in New Orleans. They would come to visit me and I got stressed out. And that’s not right for a dad to be like that because I was so in my job. And I didn’t want to be by myself. I burnt out before I got on the set. I trained so hard. When I got the green light for Retaliation, I trained my backside off. I was already training in hopes of it happening. And I trained, trained, trained, trained, trained. By the time I got on set, I was done with training. I was in a new place so I wasn’t in the comfort of my garage or my little training toys, so I had to find a place where I could – sometimes you got to take yourself into a mental place – so I was training at gyms again. I felt maybe I should go to the park, so I bought a bike and would ride to the park and start training out there. I enjoyed being on it. It was great. The suit was different – a lot harder than the first one. The pieces were different but it looked great. I’m so grateful for my basic training. With that basic stance work and repetition over the years, I pulled through. I really enjoyed being Snake Eyes. It was a lot of fun to do. The first one was an experience because I’ve never done anything like that before. The second one I knew exactly what I was doing. I didn’t feel like Snake Eyes unless I had the gear on. Training up for that was fun. My buddy and I were reminiscing on that the other day. He was involved with me, helping me, holding my pads and stuff. We came up with all wacky combinations. The training I’m doing now is different and I like where it’s at right now. I’m motivating myself and I’m happy. But after I was finished, I was burnt out and felt bad for not being with my family. So I took some months off and hung out with my kids. And when you stop training, you get injuries because your body is so tired. I stopped and then I threw a kick and boom, that was it. A year later, it’s still hurting. It’s one of those kind of wounds. So I’ve been lazy for a while.

My wife says to me that if I put as much effort into my training into my acting, I’d be happy. But I always think of martial arts first. Training seems to be my comfort. It’s where I go to. It’s where I like to be. I’m missing a lot of things I like to do in martial arts – to go in and be part of a class, and just learning. But I do enjoy doing my training at home – my no retreat, no surrender training, you know? I need to get back on that horse and get out there and act. I think when I do it, I feel like when the time is right, it will happen. Sometimes you have to make that time happen.

My Wushu teacher, he used to do five animals. He did Wushu as well. He was a great Wushu coach. When he used to teach us all the culture, I said, "I ain’t doing this. I want to do butterfly twists." But I’m angry at myself for not paying attention because that’s what I feel I’m needing in this stage in my life. It’s there, but I wish I had taken more in.

GC: So what comes first: martial arts or acting?

RP: If you ask me if you’re a martial artist or an actor first, I’ll go, "I’m a martial artist." And then I was saying earlier about how sometimes I don’t feel like a martial artist. It’s just where I’m at.