Donnie Yen Says He Asked to Change His John Wick 4 Character's 'Generic' Name and Appearance

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Donnie Yen had a few notes regarding his character in John Wick 4 when he signed on to join Keanu Reeves' action franchise.

While speaking with GQ for an interview published Tuesday, longtime Hong Kong action star Yen, 59, said that his character in the upcoming movie was originally "so generic" before he approached director Chad Stahelski about making alterations.

"The name was Shang or Chang," Yen told the outlet of his character, another assassin in the world of John Wick named Caine. "Why does he always have to be called Shang or Chang? Why can't he have a normal name? Why do you have to be so generic?"

"Then the wardrobe again—oh, mandarin collars," he added. "Why is everything so generic? This is a John Wick movie. Everybody's supposed to be cool and fashionable. Why can't he look cool and fashionable?"

Ultimately, Yen told GQ he "enjoyed making" John Wick 4 and that his character's re-designed look serves as "partly" an homage to his own action movie hero, Bruce Lee.

RELATED: Keanu Reeves Calls John Wick: Chapter 4 His 'Hardest Physical Role' Ever: They 'Trained Me Up'

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Elsewhere in the interview, Yen noted that this kind of typecasting is not unique to this role. He recalled that when he joined the cast of 2016's Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, he had to tell Disney and Lucasfilm that his character Chirrut Îmwe "was a stereotype."

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"One thing I pointed out is he was a stereotype. Typical master. Doesn't smile," the actor recalled, noting that it was his idea to make Chirrut blind and that he improvised the character's jokes on set.

While discussing John Wick 4 with Total Film in a January interview, 58-year-old Reeves himself said that the upcoming sequel is "the hardest physical role I've ever had in my career so far."

RELATED: Keanu Reeves Prepares to Fight Bill Skarsgard in Action-Packed John Wick: Chapter 4 Trailer

"They really trained me up to be able to have what we call the toolbox," he said, while revealing that he also upped his stunt-driving skills for some action-packed scenes set in Paris.

"We took the car-driving to the next level, which I really enjoy," the Matrix star explained. "There's 180s, forward-into-reverse 180s, reverse-into-forward 270s, drifting. … So it was really fun to get a chance to learn those skills, and to play."

Beyond Yen and Reeves, the movie also stars Bill Skarsgard, Ian McShane, Laurence Fishburne, Hiroyuki Sanada (Bullet Train), Shamier Anderson, Lance Reddick, pop musician Rina Sawayama, Scott Adkins, Marko Zaror, Natalie Tena and Aimée Kwan.

John Wick: Chapter 4 blasts into theaters March 24.