Credit: LionsgateDonnie Yen is used to facing challenges as an actor, and the John Wick 4 actor shares his feelings about what is being said about him.
Yen stars as Caine in Keanu Reeves’s John Wick: Chapter 4, the current sequel in the John Wick franchise where the High Table goes out to full-on war with John Wick. In a world of assassins, rules must be followed, but someone had to kill John’s dog, and that wasn’t going to stop Wick from getting his revenge. Since then, Reeves has portrayed the “Baba-Yaga” as a man of focus and sheer will who will do anything to get the job done.
Sadly, his talents are so rare that John Wick 2 forced the retired assassin to break a rule that drew in the High Table. Now, John Wick 4 continues the story by exploring the world of John Wick even more, and this time, Donnie Yen is there to get Wick, or at least try to kill the legendary hero.
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Now, Yen isn’t just an actor anymore. He works with his wife in China to help new talent emerge and direct and produce other movies. As an actor/director, Yen stays very busy, and when he had the honor to be a presenter at the Oscars, he was frustrated that fans created a petition (with over 100,000 signatures) for him to be banned due to his comments back in 2019.
Back then, Yen called the protests in Hong Kong “riots” and angered many fans who saw the actor siding with the Communist Party of China due to his comments. Yen claims that while being there and seeing the violence firsthand, he couldn’t say they were protests which didn’t go well for the actor as others felt strongly about what he said.
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While talking to Variety, Yen shared his thoughts and how he wished he could be patriotic but didn’t think it would be possible to stop people from hating him for what he said:
“I’m allowed to love my own culture. Love my own country. Why cannot I be patriotic? This whole online cyber-bullying/cancel culture has got to stop. You can’t own somebody’s thoughts. And you want to silence them? It’s totally hypocrites.”
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While some won’t support Yen for his stance on what should happen in his country, it’s clear the actor isn’t here for controversy. He knows what he likes to do, and he knows how to do his job, but when it comes to cancel culture, he wants nothing to do with it.
If things get worse for Hong Kong, it will be interesting to see how Yen will respond as the actor might love his country, but being canceled in America could hurt his career in Hollywood if things don’t go well.
Do you think Donnie Yen will get canceled in the future? Let Inside the Magic know what you are thinking!