George Takei Interview - Paws Of Fury: The Legend of Hank
Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles remains a comedy classic to this day, while Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank gives its template a very surprising makeover. Paws of Fury takes its Mel Brooks influence into the era of the samurai, but that's only one half of it. The other half is that the samurai protagonist in the movie happens to be a dog.
When warlord Ika Chu (Ricky Gervais) tries to bring the village of Kakamucho under his reign, the village gets a new samurai protector named Hank. Unfortunately, there's a lot of friction in Hank being a dog protecting the village's cat population. However, Hank's determination to prove himself as a samurai is as strong as any challenge he faces, including that of Ika Chu's burly right-hand cat Ohga, voiced by George Takei.
We speak to George Takei on the making of Paws of Fury, his role as the massive cat henchman Ohga, and some of the important elements he hoped to convey through the film.
Screen Rant: How did you come to be part of Paws of Fury?
George Takei: Well, they showed me this picture of the character that they wanted me to play, and what I saw was a huge, obese character - a great, big, fat character - and I said, 'I work out regularly, every morning, I do 100 push-ups in the bedroom, and I pride myself on my fitness. How dare you cast me as an obese fatso!' And they said, 'Oh no, he's got muscles, they're underneath!' So I said, 'Alright, I'll use this as a teaching opportunity to tell people 'learn about proper healthy eating and exercise!'
I took on the part, and he's the top samurai to this lord, who is a tiny, miniature cat, and this cat has an ego the size of a mountain. He's very arrogant, very aggressive, and very self-centered. I can teach something through this character, and we have these opposites coming together - like in life, we have a lot of opposites.
The title of the movie is Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank, and Hank is the only, solitary dog in this land of cats. So, Hank is determined to be a samurai, and by gum, he's going to be a great samurai, and he apprentices himself to a retired, old, grizzled samurai who sounds Samuel L. Jackson, and he learns from him and becomes the hero and the legend of this movie.
What was your favorite or most stand-out moment in the movie as far as Ohga's role in Paws of Fury?
George Takei: Well, it's a delightful comedy; a laugh-out-loud comedy. There was one point while recording for it that I literally couldn't stop laughing. Ika Chu, who Ogha works for, is building a huge, monster palace, the biggest and the best palace that can exist in that land. Everything is big, the doorways, the hallways, the ballrooms, and even the toilets, and that sequence of the giant toilet being unable to work, I kept breaking up.
There's a lot of funny things in the movie, so it's a great family film that people can see in the theaters. We've been in quarantine for over two years, so at last, you get to be a family as part of a community of moviegoers and enjoy this movie of cats and one heroic dog.
Check out our other interviews with Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank stars Michael Cera, Aasif Mandvi, as well as Kylie Kuioka & Cathy Shim.
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank is now in theaters.
Source: Screenrant
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