In every field there are people who inspired someone when they were growing up and tried to be just like them when they became successful. Donnie Yen was also inspired by some of the biggest names of his generation in Hollywood while growing up and wanted to be like them, and continued to live up to the expectations he had for himself in his youth.
Donnie Yen once revealed in an interview that as a child he was inspired by action stars such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, which motivated him to continue training.
Donnie Yen is known for being one of the best martial artists in the industry and for featuring mixed martial artists in his Asian films since the early 2000s.
Donnie Yen also has a great physique and once told Men’s Journal how he was inspired by Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky and Arnold Schwarzenegger films to take up bodybuilding. He said,
“I got into bodybuilding as well because of the Rocky movies and Arnold Schwarzenegger. That was my first exposure to seeing a physique like that as a main character—and it was superhuman. I wanted to put on muscle because I was a little thin. I found out there was a Nautilus machine at the Chinatown Boys Club, so I would go there after all of my marital arts and boxing. I would just spend hours training in there and lifting weights.”
Donnie Yen further talked about how he also took ideas from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s workout routines.
Back in 2020, some videos of Donnie Yen’s workout routine from the days of his youth had gone viral so the interviewer asked the actor about how did he get inspiration for those routines. The Ip Man actor talked about how he was training to be an action star at that point and had taken inspiration for that routine from Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone’s workout routines. He said,
“That was when I was trying to get into action-star shape. I was trying to be a “complete package,” who not only looked the part but also had this martial arts knowledge. I took those routines from books—from whatever Arnold and Sly Stallone were doing. I also incorporated some old-school Shaolin training and also a little inspiration from what Bruce Lee did.”
Donnie Yen is ready to reprise his role as Wing Chun in the fifth installment of the film series, Ip Man 5. Ip Man 5 was announced at the Cannes Film Festival by Mandarin Motion Pictures earlier this year in May. It would be quite interesting to see how the franchise continues the story of Wing Chun, considering the character died at the end of the 4th film, Ip Man 4: Endgame.
All films in the Ip Man series are currently streaming on Netflix.