Anna Daniels
Altered Carbon is a complex, multi-layered story about a futuristic world where people can live forever by being transferred between bodies called sleeves. Lee plays the original incarnation of Takeshi Kovacs, a former soldier and prisoner who is tasked with solving a murder in order to gain his freedom.
For much of the series, Lee is seen in flashbacks while another actor plays his futuristic counterpart. Kovacs’ sleeve is played by Joel Kinnaman (Robocop, Suicide Squad) in season 1. For season 2, Anthony Mackie took over the role — and at one point, Lee and Mackie faced off in a Kovacs vs. Kovacs fight.
“I was excited to work with Anthony,” Lee says of the actor best known for his role as the Falcon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “But they didn’t ease us into it at all — our first day together on set was shooting that scene. It was the perfect way to start our journey together.”
Lee, a Taekwondo master with a 5th-degree black belt, was impressed with Mackie’s skills, especially since they didn’t have a lot of time to rehearse.
“A TV show comes together much differently than a movie,” Lee explains. “When I did a fight scene with Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine, we had rehearsed it for a month. With the Altered Carbon fight, Anthony and me learned the fight choreography separately — his stunt double taught him his moves and my stunt double taught me my moves. We had maybe 30 minutes of rehearsal together, and then we were fighting each other.”
Lee continues, “I’ve done martial arts my entire life, and it came in handy in that scene. A fight scene can either go really bad or it can go really great. A lot of actors I’ve fought who haven’t had a lot of on-camera fighting, you can get hurt — it’s all about timing. And Anthony’s timing was impeccable. He learned the fight so fast, so we got to do most of our fighting together because he could actually do it.”
Written by: Looper
