Captain America Howling Commando Kenneth Choi On His Role As Jim Morita!

Captain America Howling Commando Kenneth Choi On His Role As Jim Morita!

Check out what the actor had to say about his role as a Howling Commando in the upcoming movie including what it was like to work with Chris Evans and Joe Johnston, researching the character and the training required...

By JoshWilding - May 07, 2011 03:05 AM EST
Filed Under: Captain America
Source: Comicus

Thanks to our friends over at Comicus, we have the following interview with Captain America: The First Avenger star, Kennth Choi. In the movie, the actor plays Jim Morita, a Commando adept in hand-to-hand combat who also happens to be pretty good with a machine gun. Below are just a few of the main excerpts, but to read the interview in its entirety, simply click on the link at the bottom of the page.

How did you enter the cast of Captain America? Did you attend an audition?

Yes, I attended an audition for the role of Morita. I was the last actor to read for that role. Three weeks later, I had a second appointment and thereafter was offered the role. As the script was being kept a secret, they had actors read sides from the film, "Saving Private Ryan". I later found out that all of my fellow actors read the same material for their auditions as well.

Can you describe the atmosphere on the set? What was it like to work with Chris Evans, the director Joe Johnston and the rest of the cast?

The atmosphere on set was relaxed at all times. That is a testament to the energy and attitude of our director, Joe Johnston. One might think the director of a $140million film is going to be stressed on set. If Joe was, he never showed it...always kept his cool. I think that atmosphere allowed Chris to be as relaxed as he needed to be and not worry about the burden of carrying a huge film like this on his shoulders. He could just be there and do his job, and he was terrific. As an actor, your number one asset is relaxation, and the set always had that calm energy that allowed all of us to do our best.

Jim Morita, your character, has a long comic-book background. Did you prepare yourself reading comics?

I was a comic book fan as a kid so I already had a lot of information regarding Captain America. I had never heard of the Jim Morita character. I went online and found any existing information on him which was minimal. What I did find was helpful. I also did a lot of WWII research especially in regards to the "Nisei" soldiers, or Japanese-American soldiers. I wanted to get as much true, real-life information for a guy "like" Jim Morita fighting in WWII. I felt that if I had built a "factual" basis for him, I could then let go and permit the character to exist in the Marvel Universe which allows for a lot of imaginative circumstances.

Howling Commandos, which your character in part of, are professional soldiers. Did you have to face any sort of special training with the other cast members before the shooting began?

Absolutely. We arrived about a week before our first day of shooting. During that week, we had stunt training which was basically stunt rehearsals for specific sequences in the film. We had some tactical training; how we would move as a unit, why we would move that way, etc. We also had armory training. Each of us was given a breakdown of our weapon. We were trained to load the ammo, unload, move with the weapon, fire the weapon, etc. This part of the training seemed to be the most exciting for all persons involved. There was always a palpable feeling in the air of both danger and pure joy when we were firing our weapons.


With an all star cast which includes Chris Evans as Captain America, Sebastian Stan as Bucky, Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter, Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips, Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine and Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, Captain America: The First Avenger will be released in 3D on July 22, later this year!




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FrankGarret
FrankGarret - 5/7/2011, 3:28 AM
Damn, I was just about to post this.

Oh well..

Nice to see even what I expect to be minor character was taken seriously by the actor.

MikeHawk
MikeHawk - 5/7/2011, 4:09 AM
More Asian american superheroes who dont know stereotypical kung fu and talk with a cracky accent please!
MikeHawk
MikeHawk - 5/7/2011, 4:09 AM
marvel72
marvel72 - 5/7/2011, 5:36 AM
@ theintruder

i was thinking that,must be soon.
Stealthduck
Stealthduck - 5/7/2011, 5:39 AM
@MikeHawk - superb video!
@TheIntruder - I concur, although the OTT promotion campaign for Thor did spoil the film for me....only by a very small amount, though.
I think the Green Lantern route has been great, as I still have the anticipation without feeling that I have seen most of the film already (i.e. Thor).
AUSSYACE
AUSSYACE - 5/7/2011, 6:07 AM
HULK SKRULLS BUCKY ROGERS TONY STARK THOR & EVERY OTHER D GRADE MARVEL CHARACTER = EPIC DEBACLE FAIL.
I cannot believe that Matt Fraction SLEDGED DC cOMICS WHILE PROMOTING THIS SERIES BY SAYING THESE EXACT WORDS "It's not a DC crossover, you don't have to read 780,000 books to get the whole thing" WHAT A F***ING W**KER...
MARVEL IS THE ONLY COMPANY IN THE WORLD THAT HAS HAD CROSSOVERS THAT YOU HAVE NEEDED TO READ 1 MILLION ISSUES WITH PUNISHER AND WOLVERINE AND VENOM APPEARING IN EVERY F***ING BOOK FOR EVERY MONTH OF EVERY YEAR...
F**K MARVEL AFTER THIS FOR LIFE !!!
GEOFF JOHNS IS CROSSOVER GOD AND DC ARE IMMORTAL...
ALL YOU MARVLE FANS ARE JUST STUPID READING D GRADE CHARCTERS ALL THE TIME AND 1 MILLION CROSSOVER BOOKS...
DC = EPIC
AlexLaChiusa
AlexLaChiusa - 5/7/2011, 6:42 AM
@Aussyace

Calm down there bud.
SmokinIndo
SmokinIndo - 5/7/2011, 7:33 AM
Has anyone noticed that in the screenshot posted with the article, they seem to be carrying some sort of futuristic weapons? But in the scene from the trailer where they bust into the HYDRA warehouse, they are carrying normal WWII weapons.
dmm5
dmm5 - 5/7/2011, 7:35 AM
@Aussyace- You can't beat it, so join it :)
dmm5
dmm5 - 5/7/2011, 7:39 AM
@indoraptor12- Where are you getting at with this? Lol
Sephiroth
Sephiroth - 5/7/2011, 7:40 AM
good read
Benjamitesandwich
Benjamitesandwich - 5/7/2011, 8:36 AM
@AUSSYACE

A wise man once said, "Blah blah blah you're gay."
AlSimmons
AlSimmons - 5/7/2011, 8:47 AM
Shouldn't he be in an internment camp??
level1paladin
level1paladin - 5/7/2011, 10:00 AM
I wish Pat Morita was still alive.
level1paladin
level1paladin - 5/7/2011, 10:04 AM
AUSSYACE - DC sucks dude.
FrankGarret
FrankGarret - 5/7/2011, 10:15 AM
@AlSimmons
Serious question?

There were actually Japanese American soldiers in WWII, an entire regiment of them, the 442nd RCT.
SFCamerica
SFCamerica - 5/7/2011, 12:15 PM
@indraptor - those aren't futuristic weapons bro, there were a lot of different automatic weapons in that time. Believe me, i have fired some bad ass weapons from that era.
Fogs
Fogs - 5/7/2011, 12:48 PM
@aussieace, sir, i'll need to ask you to put down the crack pipe.
Anthrax
Anthrax - 5/7/2011, 8:01 PM
@PUSSYACE GTFO befor I find you and kick your [frick]ing teeth in and that [frick]ing quer Ace Frehely or whatever the [frick] his name is
UltimaRex
UltimaRex - 5/8/2011, 3:08 AM
AUSSYACE has something approaching a point but still needs to calm down some.

Still, I liked Civil War so maybe I shouldn't talk.
AlSimmons
AlSimmons - 5/8/2011, 4:27 PM
@FrankGarret I know lol. Japanese Americans were the most medalled in the European front. They weren't allowed to fight in the Pacific though. I was just being an troll.
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