Actor Growth

While practicing some martial arts today with a sparring partner we were talking about trying to learn skills solely from a book without practical training.  The person I was training with mentioned how he doesn’t believe that would work and I mentioned about this guy that did so purely for film.

He then commented how you can make yourself look fancy and all, but in a real world situation that person probably would stand a chance.  That has always been a question on my mind as since I’m Chinese I was prepared to be stereotyped initially for parts such as a martial artist.

Now for myself, the martial arts I learn are not very film friendly as it is meant for self defense.  I even asked my film acting instructor whether or not she felt that it would be useful to learn a more flashy style solely for film in order to increase my chances of getting seen in my early career.  Her advise was that I should just be learning what I want as if I come across a situation where I need it more than likely they will take the time to teach you it.

At this point though, the only reason I would want to learn something such as Wushu which involves more high flying techniques like some kind of gymnastic routine would be for personal growth.  The idea of learning a martial art solely for film combat just feels unproductive in terms of growing as a person personally.