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Rick Yune: Banking on acting

By Lori Blackman
CNN Showbiz Today Reports


Rick Yune's film debut was in "Snow Falling On Cedars"

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Rick Yune began his professional life as a Wall Street banker. Then he switched gears and began modeling for designers like Ralph Lauren and Versace.

Now, Yune has combined his affinity for risk-taking and his ease in front of the camera by tackling acting on the big screen. His debut performance was in 1999's "Snow Falling On Cedars." Now his second film, the hit action movie "The Fast and the Furious," is out. Yune stars as bad guy Johnny Tran.

We talked to the real-life good guy about depicting a bad boy, and about his celebrity talk show girlfriend.

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CNN's Lori Blackman talks with young actor Rick Yune about his recent film 'The Fast and the Furious' (June 26)

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CNN: How does it feel to play the bad guy?

Yune: I like to think that he's a little misunderstood. This movie basically is about vice. It's about what we love to do but in the back of our minds we know we're not really supposed to be doing. It's one of these situations where this character, which I love, has embraced both sides of himself, because there's no such thing as an antagonist or a protagonist in real life. We all have those elements of ourselves that we're proud of and not.

CNN: Did you do your own stunts in this film?

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Yune: Some of them, and then others they wouldn't allow me to.

... To tell you the truth, women are better drivers than men are, especially at racing and controlling these vehicles, because it's all about sensitivity and touch. These movies have been done so many times before, but this is the first time that audiences are really going to get a sense of what speed is like, because the camera can move faster than most of these vehicles or even a space shuttle. You can move it faster and it's also two-dimensional instead of three-dimensional, and the special effects, and the way that it captures everything gives the audience a sense of what it's really like.

CNN: What did you think when you saw the finished product?

Yune: It's a ride. I mean this is really only the second film I've ever done and I'm a desensitized consumer -- I've seen over a thousand films. But this movie, even after I know what the story is about and how it ends, and I've done the scenes a million times, the way that this film is put together makes the cars seem like living organisms. It gets you really entrapped in what the characters are doing, they did an incredible job.


Yune in "Fast and the Furious"

CNN: You went to one of the top business schools in the country, the (University of Pennsylvania's) Wharton school, and worked as a trader on Wall Street. How did you find yourself suddenly modeling?

Yune: Well, modeling was kind of an accident. I had to take a year off from school to pay for some bills, and while I was away I met an agent. It was by circumstance -- at that point, I was looking to do work in construction.

Looking back, I don't know whether or not I would've done it if I didn't have to. Needless to say, my parents weren't too happy. They were expecting a doctor and they find pictures of me in my underwear floating around. But it helped me get a perspective on what this business is about.

CNN: You were actually the first Asian model for both Ralph Lauren and Versace.

Yune: Yeah, well, it was during a time when people were saying "OK, there's a whole section of the world and there's a whole demographic domestically that we have to address." I couldn't tell you how or why it happened, it just sort of took that direction. I guess I'm one of the few from that market. There weren't that many Asian models, like there aren't that many Asian actors out there.

CNN: So at this point you are a Wall Street trader and a working model. How did it come to pass that acting was added to that list?

Yune: After about three and a half years on the street modeling, I wasn't really fulfilled by what I was doing. So I stopped working, and was looking to do other things, and during this whole time still had an agent and a manager. One day he called and he said, "You want to go into this audition?" And I went in and it was for a film called "Snow Falling on Cedars." Five callbacks later, I got the gig, and it was a very surprising situation.

CNN: That was a big studio film, and you were cast in a leading role. Were you nervous at all?

Yune: Pretty much. But to tell you the truth, being a trader was pretty good experience for me to come into this business. In a lot of ways, a trader does the exact same thing as an actor does. You're both looking at scenarios. You're looking at different possibilities. In a film you're just looking at a scene, and when you're trading you're just looking at the market. So they're both really fluid in that way.

And then, at the same time, you have to really learn how to control your emotions. Because there's only two emotions in life -- I mean, the greatest emotions are love and fear. The love is really your greed, your love for money, and you have to be able to control that in order to stay alive.

It's certainly not a stable field in either case. It was just that risk that was very appealing to me.

CNN: You had an unusual situation this past week. You were interviewed by your girlfriend, Lisa Ling, on "The View." What was that like?

Yune: My life flashed before my eyes. Especially the women on the show -- I expected the worse and they were very generous, especially when you consider what they're capable of doing. But, you know, I feel like a lucky man. A very lucky man.