Greetings my esteemed readers, get ready, another exclusive interview on Dan's Movie Report. This just part one of the interview with international superstar Mayling Ng. Her rise to legendary status in eminent in 2016, so read on, find out all about Mayling's brand of action, part 2 will take place following the release of Lady Bloodfight, 3-2-1 GO!
I know you were based in Singapore and now you're currently in Los
Angeles, what are your plans while waiting for the premier and
international release of Lady Bloodfight (Starring Amy Johnston in her
debut leading lady role) where you played Svietta the Russian Psycho ex
convict and enemy in the Kumite.
Thank
you Dan I’m super excited to be here! I fell in love with the LA when I
competed at the The Arnold Classic in Ohio a few years ago. I’ve had
quite a positive response regarding my profile as an actress, martial
artist and competitor that I’ve been offered a few projects. I'm
discussing possibilities and now starting to proceed with the legal
steps to get things rolling -it's all very exciting.
Would you ever like to branch out to take on non action roles, dramatic roles, comedy etc..
Well
My last Role before LBF was playing a Mamasan (Madam of a bar with
Asian girl’s) with Aidan Gillen (from Game of Thrones) it was all small
skirts high heels and not a kung fu kick in the whole film so yes lol.
But first and foremost the roles must be challenging; to me that's
exciting.
I asked Will Dylan the Videographer to explain this one, and I think he said it best: ”Singapore
has many unique structures and architecture. However, it is often
difficult for filmmakers to find large open spaces around landmark.
Filming with a drone enabled us to create a brand new perspective of the
Henderson wave. The high tech gothic look of the bridge blends in to
the story, character, "mercenary costume" and weapon.” willdylan.com
If given the opportunity to work on a small US project or a larger project in Asia, same amount of screen time is it USA?
To
be honest it depends on the project and the diversity of character, but
the creativity here is driving me towards the energy right now in the
U.S.; so if the opportunity arises I will take it!
I know you are on the road a lot for work and have lived in many places share your story from life on the road.
Moving
started when I was young. I was born in the UK to a British mother
and Singaporean Chinese father, I left the UK at thirteen and moved to
Tenerife Canary Islands. Then, later in my twenties, I moved to
Singapore for a year. In my late twenties I moved to Hong Kong for a
year, where I followed my dream to work in martial arts movies.
Returning to the UK to qualify as a Personal Trainer and Nutritional
Advisor, I trained city boys in London’s Canary Wharf, but I couldn’t
handle the UK weather so I returned again to Tenerife in 2006 and
started my Lyte Protein based diet restaurants; which was one of the
first businesses offering diet designed pre packaged Nutritional
delivery meals (I won Barclays Women's Business Pitch idea for the
concept.)When
the financial crisis hit Spain in 2010 I went straight to Singapore and
started my own fitness company training exclusive clients celebrities,
bankers and traders. I then traveled by train across Asia to a few
exclusive clients covering all sides of a fitness overhaul, this
involved everything from educating domestic staff in areas such as
healthier grocery shopping, cooking from my a tailored meal plan (which
includes a cookbook from my Lyte Protein healthy restaurants) then
taking the client to the gym and designing a progressive program towards
their goals before returning a month or two later to adjusting with
their new improvements. It got to a point where I was taking up to two
flights a week and living out of suitcases and airports.
Besides the obvious, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Tony Jaa. Who are some of your male on screen action MA heroes?
It’s
not so much the actor but also the style, fight and choreography! I
love work like the original Transporter where Jason Statham’s combat
was so direct, Bourne is another but the one that blew me away recently
was John Wick!! I watched it on a favorite and faithful Singapore
Airlines flight and was practically bobbing and weaving in my seat much
to the annoyance of the guy sitting next to me but I couldn’t stop - I
loved it!
What is a typical fitness regimen day for you?
After
more than 20 years of training, I’m at a point of lifting weights most
days and always on a progression, DUP or hitting a personal best as I
also compete, having won Silver Bikini in Singapore 2011 (IFBB) SFBF and
then having the privilege of being invited to represent Singapore at
the Arnold Classic US 2013 and do fitness modeling. So keeping my mass
lean is a priority. The only cardio I do is martial arts training and
that style depends on what role I'm playing which will dictate the
weapon forms. Unless I’m on a cut for a competition or film I will
incorporate 3-5 a week of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) of
16mins each circuit.
Chat about how you got started in fitness.How did it all begin for Mayling?
I
was a big baby lol! My mum enjoyed telling me that if I wasn't eating, I
was crying! So I was always a baby gnawing on a drumstick haha and even
though I was training daily in martial arts, at the age of twenty-one I
was still heavy and had always been solidly built even as a young girl,
which really affected my confidence. It wasn't until I really got
serious and started lifting heavy weights and swopped out the typical
Asian diet of rice or noodle based meals for my macros that was higher
in protein that my body composition totally changed from a UK 14 to a
size UK 8-10 (even thou my weight hasn’t changed much!) and everyone
wanted to know how and also wanting me to take them the gym that’s why I
became certified and started my Fitness company as the demand was high
and concentrated on collecting qualifications in all fitness
areas-Personal Training, Nutrition, Strike, Raw Combat International
(close quarter combat, Knife and gun defense), TRX, even Pole fitness
instructor for the Asian female clients (who are scared to go to the
gym).
The Secret is not how to lose weight! But how to keep it off!!! I’m stronger leaner now than I was when I was eighteen! Now I’ve gone from the big built girl with low confidence and through training to a sponsored athlete and fitness model.
How long have you been practicing martial arts?
My
mother took myself and my brothers (two older and two younger) into
Kung Fu to keep us active, (and probably to try and give us some
discipline), I would then go on to train in Lau Gar in my teens and into
my early twenties. I moved to Singapore for a year and began training
in Taekwondo and ended up competing in Kuala Lumpur against Malaysia.
Then
when I was twenty-six I found myself with a serious boyfriend of five
years, a mortgage, my own Chinese restaurant business and a Rottweiler,
but deep in my heart I had always had this crazy dream to appear in
martial arts movies and so we broke up, I rented out my villa for
peanuts just so my dog could sleep in his own bed every night, sold the
business, paid off my mortgage and headed to Hong Kong, but I actually
arrived at probably one of the lowest points for the business when very
few action or martial arts movies were being made (timing!), but instead
of giving up and moving on, I stayed for a year and trained with the
Jeet Kune Do Stunt Team 1st and then also found an underground
traditional weapon team Tai Sing Pek Kwak Moon, and fell in love with
both the Double handed Broadsword and Bo staff training. But after a
year I put my martial arts movie dream to one side, returned to the UK
and got certified in Personal Training and Nutrition and within the
first month landed a weekly column in a London newspaper on training
city bankers, so Personal Training, my business and eventually competing
became my main focus.
What are your particular strengths?
MN:
I competed in open hand forms in Spain and Malaysia, but I really love
weapons, JiuHuan Dao, Bo Staff, Single and Double Broadsword, Nunchucks
and much more. I really like learning new skills.
I
could also say my particular strength is my strength! I can deadlift
twice my bodyweight. In the Lady Bloodfight film, I have to pick up one
of the other fighters twice with my left hand (I’m right handed) above
my head without any wires, and I did this for over 10 takes.
How did you get involved with Raw Combat International?
I
saw a Raw Combat International video on YouTube, and the sheer
directness and technique blew my mind so I posted a comment on their
page and Luke Holloway responded directly to me, and we talked about
training as he needed more female Instructors to represent, and in the
end we trained all over Asia Thailand at Tiger Muay Thai studying Moy
Boran-the older more violent style of Muay Thai and becoming NRA Pistol,
Shotgun and Rifle certified , Close Quarter Combat in Bali then Knives
in Malaysia and finally Urban Survival in Japan.
I noticed you travel the globe training, and such, any favorite places or gyms you like to work with or work out at?
-My
fave Gym hands down is the MECCA for any bodybuilder or fitness
professional, Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach Los Angeles, just the
atmosphere that greets you when you walk in gives me so much energy.
-For the Martial arts the talent in Los Angeles is empowering!
I’ve started stunt training with Lohan Buson and Tim Storm for film
fighting. Also with Xavier Declie learning to master the 10ft long
bamboo bo staff and double nunchucks to my collection.
- Tenerife When I’m visiting my brothers (who own various F&B establishments across the south of the island venturerestaurantstenerife.com
) its hard to keep lean so I train Hard! at Fitness Center 2000 in Del
Duque (owned by Honore Cironte a multi winning Mr Olympia Master
Champion) and double up with kickboxing with a great trainer Luca
Giacomtti who has a fab home dojo where all the Russian security guys go
down and train... insane!
-
UK I trained in Lau Gar Style (but now they specialize in 5 Thunder Dim
Mak) as a teenager at the TMAS - The Martial Arts Studio, run by two
brothers and their sister, the Giam family in Liverpool I also go in to
brush up on weapon forms.
-
Singapore I train at Nia Kwang Pugilistic Association Singapore for
traditional Kung fu style and weapons but mainly the Jiuhuan Dao
-
Hong Kong, Alain Ngailani and the team at Impakt Gym, It's a real
fighters gym and great for working on rhythm, speed and combos.
I saw you with Mike Leeder and some new castings on the way, what types
of roles would you like to play? Are you more in tune with the bad girl
parts?
Mike
is a very trusted friend and colleague, he's done so much work as a
casting director and producer, he is straight to the point - be it about
himself, your skills and your attitude. He will do whatever he can to
help people to improve. He's given me some good advice, and introduced
me to some really good people in both the stunts/fighting world and
straight acting etc, people like my acting coach Jeanne Hartman who I
have been studying with in Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
I
know Mike has a number of projects he's putting together and I hope we
get a chance to work together on some of them, but he also introduced me
to several projects and people that I hope to get to work with too.
Who are some of your favorite directors and actors?
It's
hard for me to say as there are so many great actors and directors
whose movies I love, and of course I'd love to work with.
Luc
Besson from The Big Blue, Subway through Nikita, Leon and so much more!
I'm a big fan of Tarantino if only he'd write for women more often,
Jackie Brown and Kill Bill showed how well he can do it, people like
Sammo Hung, Yuen Woo-ping, there's too many to mention, actresses like
Angelina Jolie etc who have shown that women can carry an action movie,
big fan of them too.
Do you want to transition to acting further or is your main focus still on fitness and training?
Film
definitely! That’s my passion and what drives me and I hope to do more
of, even before LBF I was still constantly working on projects and
studying drama.
I
still have my coaching business just because my original clients make
me do it lol but I moved from being a Personal Trainer and more into
online coach as with the traveling I designed programs for my clients to
follow and check in online and I still work with these clients now.
In ten years Mayling is where? And, doing What?
Happy,
healthy with a home in Los Angeles and a home on a private getaway
beach maybe Amanpulo in Philippines, with a Big dog don’t know about
kids but defiantly married lol! I want that life partner my soul
mate/hubby (single for 5 yrs while living in Singapore so I’m ready to
meet him!)
Final thoughts, advice to young people going for their dream.
Don’t
give up and go for it, it's so easy to try once, not get what you want
and walk away, but don't give up, my dream came true later in life, and
I’m not finished! I’m on to my next adventure, country and next chapter!
Connect with Mayling: https://www.facebook.com/ngmayling
http://maylingng.com/
