The multifaceted world of Phil Tan

Phil Tan's first movie was with none other than the Pink Panther star Peter Sellers and dame Helen Mirren in The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu. The young boy and his brothers had just answered a newspaper ad asking for people skilled in martial arts. «I was working at my father’s restaurant at the time, and I just thought: “Ok, I’m gonna try this”.

During our hour-long Zoom chat, Mr. Tan has many great stories to share. With a career spanning 40 years, he has worked both as a stuntman and stunt coordinator on movies such as The Godfather, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and Transformers.

He still laughs at himself while recalling his first-ever casting experience. «I was supposed to meet with Peter Sellers but after waiting for hours and hours, someone just told me it wasn’t gonna happen that day. I was in Paris for the first time in my life, and that evening this old guy approaches me. He says he is a chauffeur and he is asking me a lot of questions about what was I doing there, who was I supposed to meet and what I thought of Peter Sellers. Little did I know I was being tricked by Sellers himself. And when I was asked what I thought of him, I didn’t hold back. I went as far as telling the “chauffeur” that the actor seemed like a very weird guy from what I had heard. When he finally revealed himself, I didn’t realize it right away, so when he told me “I’m Peter Sellers”, I answered back “Yes, and I’m Bruce Lee”. Sellers laughed and that’s how I ended up on my first movie set».

These kinds of sincerity and naivety would accompany Phil Tan thought out his career. «I once was approached to train an actor for Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom. I met with this guy named Steven and after talking a bit about the job I asked him his role in the production. “I’m the director,” he said. And I just laughed. He looked just a few years older than me. He couldn’t be the director. He turned out to be Steven Spielberg».

«It was before the Internet, so it wasn’t that easy to find pictures of these people online. You knew their names but not their faces,» Phil concedes.

He would go on to play the stunt double for Jack Nicholson’s Joker in Batman. «At the time my job was way more dangerous that it is now,» he adds while showing some of the signature moves. «One of the hardest stunts I ever pulled was on the set of Tango and Cash. I had to jump out of a window. It was a 27 feet jump. Another one was during The Hangover 3. I was on top of a limo, landed on it on a parachute and then it a fire hydrant. I was then pulled on a wire, flew off and slid on the concrete. That took 18 takes, but I would never give up».

When asked what it’s next for his career, he mentions production. «My first production is The Commando, a movie with Mickey Rourke that came out on streaming last year. We shot in ten days. A new movie has just been released, a sort of Indian James Bond, which is called Mr.9: Do or Die. But that’s not all, I also worked on Boneyard with Mel Gibson and 50 Cent».

But that’s not all. He is planning to produce new movies with his son Louis Tan (lead of Mortal Kombat), but he is also interested in involving his other two children. «I always manage to have a lot of fun with my family,» he says with a smile.

«I feel like even after 300 movies, my career has just started».