‘Mortal Kombat II’ actor Ludi Lin talks action and identity

But it would not be long before Lin moved again, heading out to Australia in middle school, before moving to Canada in his last few years of high school. On every new continent, he found a new role to play. “The Australian accent just sounded so strange to (Canadian) people, especially on an Asian face at the time,” he says. “I guess that’s my first dabble into acting, just learning a different tongue, a different accent.”

For Lin, an identity bridging Asia and North America would follow him into his formal acting career, as he appeared in the 2014 film Sorry, I Love You, a co-production between China and Canada. There, he met stunt performer Max Huang, who he would share the screen with years later in Mortal Kombat (2021).

Over the years, Lin took on TV roles both in Hollywood and Asia, such as the CW’s Kung Fu (2021) and Netflix’s The Ghost Bride (2020). On the big screen, he had roles in major franchise films, including 2017’s Power Rangers and James Wan’s Aquaman (2018). Wan, who later produced Mortal Kombat, would be Lin’s connection to Earthrealm. There, he starred as one of the video game series’ legacy characters, Liu Kang. “It’s the opportunities that come along, it’s the people that you meet, it’s the auditions, and it’s the things you can’t say no to,” Lin says. “If someone offered me to play in Power Rangers or one of my childhood heroes like Liu Kang in Mortal Kombat, how could I say no?”

Mortal Kombat II, now in theaters, builds on its predecessor, with a wider narrative scope, more vicious fatalities, and most notably, a larger cast with actors like Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, and Tati Gabrielle joining the fray. “I feel like it’s such magic that we have such a big cast,” Lin says. “There’s, I think 16 people who take part in some kind of fight in Mortal Kombat and everyone just gelled. No matter who you are, no matter how long you were in the film, we just embraced you. The returning cast, and for the new people that are joining, it’s like we’ve been friends forever.”

Lin takes on the role of Liu Kang alongside his stunt double Thaison Tran. While Tran performs the more complex and risky action sequences, Lin says that he tries to do his own fights. “Making an action movie is kind of like trying to launch a rocket into space, because before the actual launch, you have to test the rocket,” he says. “So for Mortal Kombat, we look at the pre-vis and we go, ‘Damn, that’s cool. That looks exactly like the fighting game,’ and our job as an actor is to go, ‘Okay, where is my character right now in terms of his emotions?’ Because it is not just fighting for the sake of fighting, but it’s fighting in order to tell a story.”

Those emotions in the sequel, according to Lin, are the anger and trauma of losing his friend Kung Lao (played by Huang) in the first film. To be able to walk in such visceral emotions is something Lin pursues in his greater filmography. It is why outside of big budget Hollywood movies, Lin has found a voice in independent film and work overseas.

Movies like Land of Wolves and The Reunion, according to Lin, is where he has a chance to craft characters beyond an existing brand while tackling issues personal to him. “The deliberate choices that I am making are to explore other areas of (my) characters. I think that’s not only good for myself, but it’s also good for the community I represent,” he says. “A lot of Asians on Hollywood screens, you’re allowed to fight, but you’re never allowed to love.”

When asked about his dream role, Lin says that it really depends on the moment. He jokes that some days, he wishes he could play a coma patient so he can be paid to sleep on set. Meanwhile, he would love to be a part of other iconic franchises like Dragon Ball. He cites The Matrix and Her as major cinematic influences and hopes he can do roles that speak to him in the same way.

But in some ways, his aspirational opportunity already presented itself in the form of a Shaolin monk who can summon a dragon made of fire. “My dream role is Liu Kang just by the pure fact that I get to work with the castmates that I work with,” Lin says. “Each one of them are like magical people, movie stars in their own right, so this is the dream scenario to do what you love with the people that you love to be with.”

For other aspiring actors in the Asian diaspora, Liu challenges them to be bold and encourages them to visit Asia and reconnect with their roots. “A tree can’t just grow in air. It can’t grow separated from the soil that it sprung from,” he says. “Be proud, be brave, be adventurous, don’t be afraid to make mistakes. I think the most important thing is to find your people, to find the people that support you, to find the people that you can really be open and honest with.”