Andrew Koji has his mom to thank for his two biggest breaks to date. She’s the one who filmed his auditions, in the garage in England, for both the television show “Warrior” and “Bullet Train,” which opens July 29.
“Bullet Train” is one of the most anticipated releases of the summer: An action-packed thriller from director David Leitch (“Deadpool 2”) starring Brad Pitt, Joey King, Bad Bunny, Bryan Tyree Henry, Sandra Bullock and Koji.
He was already excited about the project and working with Leitch, then he heard Pitt had signed on as well.
“It felt surreal because I never really put him and me in the same world,” Koji wrote in an email. “I never thought that my career path would ever cross with his.”
Koji’s plays Kimura, one of the original characters from Kōtarō Isaka’s popular book.
“He is going through a lot when we first meet him, and it gets worse for him throughout the film. He’s a troubled beaten-down soul, who boards the train looking for redemption,” Koji said. “He is intended to be more at the dramatic core of the film to play off and balance out the more comedic lighter tones and characters.”
Though Koji has training in martial arts, he didn’t actually have to draw on those skills much for “Bullet Train.” But he did have to keep his stamina up.
“I ended up having this full-on day shooting two different scenes, side by side. I was running back and forth from the 2nd unit, working on an intense fight … to a different scene on main unit working on an emotional scene with Hiroyuki,” Koji said. “That was a real rush, I loved that day. It was one of my favorite days of filming.”
