Dragonball is the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Akira Toriyama. The new film, Dragonball: Evolution follows the popular series centering on a boy named Goku (Justin Chatwin) who is training to be a martial arts master by his grandfather. He goes on a quest with Bulma (Emmy Rossum) to find seven dragon balls that when put all together grant one wish. James Marsters plays the demon Lord Piccolo, who wants the dragon balls for his own selfish reasons. And Jamie Chung stars as Chi Chi, Goku’s love interest.

Marsters, Chung, Chatwin and Rossum gave us the scoop on their vigorous training and how, despite the current events in Mexico, they felt completely safe while shooting.

Q: You play a scary guy with a lot of makeup, but you are used to having super powers in your roles. Can you tell me about your role in this film?

Marsters: This was a whole other level. I have done a lot of stunts and special effects, but mainly for television. In television, if there is an explosion, and someone fires something behind you, it will be small. But in this film it would be 130 feet tall. So there are more chances to get hurt. You just have to pay more attention to what the stunt crew is telling you so you go home safe. We were pushing the envelope pretty well. I remember this one time where Goku (Chatwin) is firing a blast past me, and I duck. I’m only afraid of the energy blast, and am not afraid of all the rocks that are going to come pouring down. I asked the director (James Wong), ‘it occurs to me the faster I stand up after you call action, the cooler it’s going to be. If I stand up when the thing blows, it’s going to be a great shot.’  Wong says, ‘You want to do that. That would be great if you want to do that.’ I warned the camera crew so they wouldn’t get hurt. And I stood up when they called action and then the whole thing came past me. That was one of my favorite parts. It was so cool. 

Q: Do you have a lot of martial arts experience?

Chung: Yup. I had a show called Samurai Girl that I shot weeks before I got this job. And it was the perfect foundation for the things 8711 trained me with, but in no way does it compare. They trained us so hard. It needed to be convincing that we were martial arts masters.

Q: How many weeks did you train?

Chung: It was a month prior to filming in Mexico. And the days we were not filming in Mexico, we were training. The secret was squats; lots and lots of squats.

Marsters: James (Wong) didn’t really tell me that he didn’t really want to use the stunt people unless absolutely necessary. He would only want to use them if we just couldn’t get the shot. He never told me. One day at a time he would say, ’James welcome to the set, please put the wire on, we are going to put you 130 feet in the air and freefall you down, but don’t worry we will catch you. Let’s go.’ It seemed like one step at a time. I remember the last day, I was getting kicked in the face for the shot and it occurred to me that this was the last shot and the stunt men didn’t get in.

Q: In real life, who is the better martial arts master?  Who could kick whose butt?

Chung: I'd warn you, but I can’t hurt you.

Marsters: I think you could hurt me pretty good.

Q: How about between you and Justin Chatwin aka Goku?

Chung: I think I could take Justin. He is kind of out of shape right now, but he a much bigger guy.

Marsters: Justin is fast. He is quick. He can also fight hurt. At the very end of the film, we were doing the desert fight, which was the big blowout at the end and he breaks a toe because he is going for it. He didn’t miss a day or even half a day. I don’t think they even took the camera down; he was right back out there fighting like normal. I don’t know how he did it.

Q: So, I hear you broke a toe?

Chatwin: I broke a toe. Whaa. We had a lot of bruises. I had a clicking jaw from getting wacked in the face, but I don’t want to paint a bad image. It’s funny when actors fight, it can get a little out of control. When we’re working with stunt men, they have this thing called the box and they stay inside the box. That’s it; no one gets hurt. But when actors come in, it gets wild because we start thinking we are "real" ninjas. So there was a few of us who got some bruises and got knocked up a bit.

Rossum: There was so much training involved in this. We would start our day with two hours of Kung-Fu martial arts and Capoeira. And that was all in conjunction with what we did. Individually, I would do weapons training.

Chatwin: I would do everything. I did an hour of stretching. Stretching was a workout. I learned five different martial arts, flipping and just hardcore working out. And then eating six meals a day, no sugar or carbs for four-five months.

Rossum: I totally cheated. I was always in the gelato store after work. I couldn’t live without sugar.

Q: Did you feel safe in Mexico while filming?

Rossum: Absolutely. We felt really safe. Our local crew was amazing and very heartwarming. And I understand there are some difficulties down there right now, but we didn’t encounter that when we were down there last year.

Chatwin: I was there two days ago. It’s fine. Tourists can go back down there, it’s fine.  No I am just kidding. I think it’s the border towns where that stuff is happening. Mexico was just so great to us. They opened the town to us and the locations were beautiful. We were shooting in locations that Sam Peckinpah and John Ford shot their films. It was really neat.

Q: How much research did you do for the film since Dragonball is so popular?

Chatwin: We were already fans of it. When I got it, I was skeptical. I thought, ‘How are you going to adapt this, there are so many stories and so many characters. There are so many ways to make it.’ But when I read the script, I liked it a lot; it’s a hero’s journey. I think that’s when we both started watching all the mangas.

Rossum: When I got the chance to audition I started reading the mangas and watching the animes. I was aware of the kid’s T.V. show. And when I got the part I started delving into it. But it’s such an expansive world and there are so many different episodes and adventures that they go on that we couldn’t read all of them, but we did get a good understanding of the characters and their journeys and their essence. We tried to bring that to this specific story.

Chatwin: This first movie is an introduction of the characters to the whole world.  The fans will know a lot of the stuff, but this is more of a way to bring the new generation into Dragonball and introduce them to these stories. These stories are like Greek myths. They are about honor and virtue and fighting against evil. I think that’s why they are so popular.