Li Jun Li On ‘Babylon’: ‘It Was The Wildest Thing I've Ever Read In My Life’

Li Jun Li spoke with The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet of the 'Babylon' movie premiere.

Transcript

00:00So congratulations on this. What did you think when you first read the script?

00:04I thought it was the wildest thing I've ever read in my life, and it took me a long time to get through it

00:10because I kept stopping and going back, stopping and going back, because there was so much detail to everything.

00:17And a lot of crazy things happened in this movie. What is the craziest day on set for you?

00:21Probably the snake fight. It was the craziest thing that I have ever done and possibly the craziest thing that I'll ever do

00:31because I don't think anyone can ever think of something as creative as Damien did with the scene.

00:39And what did that snake fight really entail? There were real snakes, right?

00:44There were real snakes involved. Maybe some rubber stand-ins were involved, but who knows?

00:51You know, people would have to find out.

00:54And what did you think when you saw the film for the first time?

00:57I am really excited to see it again today because the first time I saw it,

01:03it was kind of reliving everything that we went through, making it.

01:08And I loved it, and I remember holding onto my face so hard that I had handprints on my cheek after I got out.

01:16And I also remember that Jean Smart and I were at the same screening,

01:20and we came out, and both of us were saying to each other,

01:23whew, we forgot to breathe because it was such a wild ride.

01:29And what is it like to explore this era of Hollywood

01:32when we really don't see this side of the 1920s shown very much?

01:35It's the first film ever to depict the story of the transition between silent films moving into talkies.

01:45So I think it's extremely special, and with Damien's genius filmmaking

01:50and us making this film as closely as one would make a film back then,

01:56I think it's really special, and people should really experience it in the cinemas.

02:01And with this cast, I mean, what was it like working with this group of actors?

02:07With group of actors? It was really incredible.

02:10Everyone was so just...

02:13Everyone was at the top of their game.

02:15Everyone is here in this project doing their passion project,

02:20and everyone was giving it their all every single take, every second on set.

02:25Thank you so much.

02:26Thank you. Thank you so much.