Cary Tagawa on Balls of Fury and Ping Pong

August 29, 2007 admin 0 Comments

Source: KNHL – News 8

(KHNL) – The movie “Balls of Fury” is one of the most anticipated comedies of the year. And one of the stars of the film is a friend of News 8 Today, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. And we’re so honored to have him back on the show.

KRISTEN: Cary, thanks for coming again. Now, this movie looks like it’s going to be huge!

CARY: Yeah, the reviews are calling it “potential cult film” as it should be not only because of ping pong but the cast, an unbelievable cast for a small comedy.

KRISTEN: And how’s it feel doing a comedy?

CARY: Yeah, my first comedy. I typically, when they say comedy, I say I’m not really interested but by the time I got to the third question, I asked who’s in it, they said Christopher Walken, I said okay, I’ll at least read it. Because most comedies that include Asians aren’t really funny to me so this one had nothing in it that was offensive or bad so I did it.

KRISTEN: Good. And Monday’s advance screening at the Dole Cannery Theater was packed. In fact, you had to turn hundreds away.

CARY: Yeah, couple hundred people. So there’s definitely, I guess between Reno 911 and certainly Christopher Walken and this crazy promotional group, to the point where, I’ve never seen this before this has to be Hollywood, right?

KRISTEN: Yeah, we have to get a shot of this.

CARY: Balls of Fury underwear.

KRISTEN: And I think we hear that it’s Lance’s birthday in the control room so maybe he’ll get dips on that one, wear that today. And you also have that red carpet premiere in Hollywood. How was that?

CARY: That was a typical premiere. The only crazy part was these guys torn out these underwear. They were wearing them over their pants, these 911 guys. I didn’t quite get into it myself.

KRISTEN: And along with the underwear, you brought a prop, some props.

CARY: Yeah, this is how much they didn’t spend on the actors and they spend on the promo materials. We got a bad guy paddle and a good guy paddle.

KRISTEN: Your face on a ping pong paddle, did you think that would ever happen?

CARY: No, it is quite surprising.

KRISTEN: And did you get any tips from this movie on how to become a really good ping pong player?

CARY: I didn’t play in the movie but for this promo, we had the 808 Ping Pong Team and so we had some practice this week, and brought me back to high school days and I remember immediately how to play.

KRISTEN: You want to stand up and show us some of your moves?

CARY: Sure.

KRISTEN: I’ll join you and try not to embarrass myself.

CARY: So you want to hold it with a finger back here so the forehand, you turn it over and for backhand, you want to turn it like that.

KRISTEN: And again, pointing downward.

CARY: Yes, pointing downward and people think you just stand but actually you have to use your whole body.

KRISTEN: It’s kind of like spinning it a little bit.

CARY: That’s it, that’s it.

KRISTEN: Alright, you want to go for it. Mark is right there, so is Daniel, go ahead and take your best shot at them. Go ahead and wake them up a little bit.

CARY: Where is he?

KRISTEN: You see them right there behind the teleprompter, go for it.

CARY: Ha ha ha (hitting the balls)

KRISTEN: Oh! (laughing)

CARY: Oh close.

KRISTEN: That’s pretty good. Alright thank you.