Today we’re excited to be connecting with Lanny Joon again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.
Lanny , we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
Hello, my name is Lanny Joon. I’m an Actor/Boxing Coach. You might have seen me in projects like Baby Driver, Takers, and Big Bang Theory to name a few. My boxing business is called Joon Boxing where I specialize in personal training to teach proper mechanics and fundamentals to help the everyday person find their way in the sport.
The wonderful part about being able to do both these jobs is that whenever I travel for my acting gigs, I always find local people to train (maybe some cast mates and crew) and be consistent with my training/coaching. There can be a lot of downtime on a project and being able to be productive with boxing while making some extra change is a godsend.
Awesome, so we reached out because we wanted to hear all about what you have been up to since we last connected.
Ive decided to take on my first Muay Thai fight at the Los Angeles Convention Center under International Kickboxing Federation. Point Muay Thai guidelines. It’s not a pro bout by any means, but it’s something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. I’ve been training with some youthful people let’s just say and wanted to test myself at an age where this should be way too difficult. How old am I? Go google it haha. I’ve been training for about 5 yrs now and it’s been a gift to be able to sink my teeth into a practice that has kept my sanity alive and in tact.
Hollywood can be a fickle little elf. To combat the temper of showbiz, I think it’s vital to have a focus for yourself, to keep your sails high in order for the ship to keep moving forward.
We have now arrived at one of our favorite parts of the interview – the lightning round. We’ll ask you a few quick questions to give us all some fun insights about you.
- Favorite Movie: Depends on the mood, but if I have to choose right now…Classic: “Dead Poets Society” Modern: “Hell or High Water”
- Favorite Book: The Catcher and the Rye
- Favorite TV Show: Friends
- Favorite Band or Artist: Robbin Williams
- Sweet or Savory: Savory
- Mountains or Beach: Both!
- Favorite Sport (to watch): MMA
- Favorite Sport (to play): Muay Thai
- Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Swimming: 15 yrs Tae Kwon Do: 6yrs Water Polo: 3yrs
- As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: Fighter Pilot
- French Fries or Onion Rings: Dammit you’re talking to a fat kid. BOTH
- Favorite Cartoon growing up: X-Men
- Favorite Childhood movie: Speed
- Favorite Breakfast Food: Steak and eggs
Was there a moment in your career that you can tell us about that illustrates or demonstrates the kind of person you are, your approach, ethos, etc.
The year was 2014. I had just booked a movie starring across Steve Carell, being directed by Gore Verbinski called “Gregory the Nuisance”. I won’t get much into the storyline but I will say it dealt with North Korea. With that said, we all had a table read on Sept 11 2014. I remember that date for obvious reasons, but also because it would be one of the most memorable days of my career. We were having a table read in the ballroom at the London Hotel in West Hollywood and sitting directly next to me was Carell and across was Verbinski. There were also other actors of course and most of them I’d watched growing up. What?! I couldn’t believe I was about to embark on a 4 month shooting schedule in Siberia with this dream team.
Fast Forward to the first Monday of 2015. My manager at the time called me early that morning and I remember his words slicing through the phone, “I’m just gonna say it, they pulled it”. My mind started to race with questions naturally, but I refrained from asking being in shock. I hung up the phone and went back to bed wishing it was all a bad dream.
If you remember at that time, Sony had just been hacked and the government claimed it was North Korea. Turns out it was a just a disgruntled ex-employee seeking some retribution, but the damage had been done. Our production company, New Regency, was still on board, but Fox, our distributor, got cold feet and pulled the plug.
For all that paper work to be signed and confirmed along with our locations in Siberia, I couldn’t wrap my head around how fast things could go south in such a short time. I was devastated.
Turns out, this fiasco would turn out to be a blessing in disguise. It allowed me to see the industry through the lens of my glass being half full. I began to realize how lucky I was to even experience something like that in my career at the time. Just sitting across Carell was a massive win in itself and the experience started my journey of growing a thicker skin needed to be able to tread the deep waters of Hollywood.
That experience was the beginning of many let downs, but without these major fails, you realize you’ don’t make any progress without them. It taught me that failure was a vital tool for perseverance, but damn…What would it have been like to work with Robbin Williams 2.0 and the man who brought you Capt. Jack Sparrow.
Image Credits
Ian Stoker-Long (Compel Pictures)
